The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

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The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky

Fando y Lis (1968) El Topo (1970) The Holy Mountain (1973)

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Iquique, Chile on February 7, 1929. In 1942 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1955 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He also befriended the surrealists Roland Topor and Fernando Arrabal, and in 1962 these three created the "Panic Movement" in homage to the mythical god Pan. As part of this group Jodorowsky wrote several books and theatrical pieces. In the later 1960s he directed avant-garde theater in Paris and Mexico City, created the comic strip "Fabulas Panicas", and made his first "real" film, the surrealist love story _Fando y Lis (1967)_ , based on a play by Arrabal. In 1971, Topo, El (1970) was released and became a cult classic, as did The Holy Mountain (1973).

Excerpt from Bio by Marty Cassady at IMdb.com located HERE

Titles

Fando y Lis (1968)
Stars Sergio Kleiner, Diana Mariscal, María Teresa Rivas, Tamara Garina
Directors: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Release Date: 1968 (Acapulco Film Festival)
Synopsis - Loosely based on a play by Fernando Arrabal, one of Jodorowsky's performance-art collaborators.

El Topo (1970)
Stars Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, José Legarreta
Directors: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Release Date: December 18th, 1970
Synopsis - The gunfighter El Topo ("The Mole") and his young son ride through a desert to a village, whose inhabitants have been massacred. Bandits are nearby, torturing and killing the survivors. El Topo rescues a woman (Mara), who leads him on a mission to find and defeat the four master gunmen of the desert. Leaving his son with a group of monks, El Topo and Mara complete the mission, accompanied by a mysterious woman in black. The women leave El Topo wounded in the desert, where he is found by a clan of deformed people who take him to the remote cavern where they live. Awakening years later, he goes with a dwarf woman to a nearby town, promising to dig a tunnel through which the cave-dwellers can escape. They find the town run by a vicious sheriff and home to a bizarre religious cult. El Topo's son, now a man, is a monk in the town. The completion of the tunnel leads El Topo, the townspeople, and the cave-dwellers to a bloody and tragic end.

The Holy Mountain (1973)
Stars Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horácio Salinas, Zamira Saunders, Juan Ferrara,
Directors: Alejandro Jodorowsky

Release Date: May 1973 (Cannes Film Festival)
Synopsis - A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.

Posters

Theatrical Releases: 1968 - 1973

DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Anchor Bay (6-disc) - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Anchor Bay - Region 1 - NTSC
Time:	Respectively - 1:36:39 + 2:04:24 + 1:55:20
Bitrate: Fando y Lis (1968)
Bitrate: El Topo (1970)
Bitrate: The Holy Mountain (1973)
Audio	Spanish (mono), English (see below)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Anchor Bay Aspect Ratio: El Topo - 1.33:1 The Holy Mountain - 2.35:1 Anamorphic Fando y Lis - 1.66:1 Letterboxed Edition Details: • El Topo Original Trailer Commentary track Jodorowsky interview short Photo gallery • The Holy Mountain Original theatrical trailer Commentary track Deleted scenes short with Jodorowsky commentary The Restoration short The Tarot short with Jodorowsky commentary Photo gallery • Fando y Lis La Constellation documentary Commentary track Photo gallery • La Cravate • Soundtracks for El Topo and The Holy Mountain DVD Release Date: May 1st, 2007 6 slim transparent keep cases inside cardboard box Chapters: various

Comments:

This boxset from Anchor Bay is a fabulous surprise. It contains 6 discs with the 3 main features, Fando y Lis (1968) El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), being on their own progressive, dual-layered DVDs and the latter two looking better on digital than ever before. There is another feature - a 35 minute 1957 short called La Cravate - Jodorowsky's directorial debut - on its own disc (albeit only about 1 Gig worth). This short, a mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's play "The Transposed Heads", was considered lost for 50 years until its discovery in a German attic. There are English (Spanish, Portuguese and French) subtitles on everything. Also included are 2 CD's - the soundtracks from El Topo and The Holy Mountain. Each disc is housed in its own slim transparent keep case.

Audio is available as follows:
Fando Y Lis: Spanish language (Dolby Digital Mono)
El Topo: Spanish language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and optional 5.1 Surround Sound, or English language DUB in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.
The Holy Mountain: English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and optional 5.1 Surround Sound

La Cravate: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (music only, no dialogue)

We have compared El Topo and The Holy Mountain with the only other English-friendly DVDs of those films available, by Raro - reviewed HERE, with astoundingly positive results. It's like opening a window. A big plus is that the three main features, Fando y Lis (1968) El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) offer Jodorowsky commentaries, deleted scenes, a restoration split-screen short, an interview and photo gallery.

This is a revelation for Jodorowsky fans and it makes this DVD a must-own. The credit for the process and restoration belongs to ABKCO, who have spent over two years working on it. Fans should be overjoyed!