Alejandro Jodorowsky
Encyclopedia
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, (aleˈxandɾo xoðoˈɾofski) (born 7 February 1929) is a Chilean
filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru. Best known for his avant-garde
films, he has been "venerated by cult cinema
enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal
images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation."
Born to Jewish Ukrainian parents in Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied mime under Etienne Decroux
before turning to cinema, directing the short film Les têtes interverties
in 1957. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement
of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, whilst in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis
, which caused a huge scandal in its native Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western
El Topo
(1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, leading rock star John Lennon
to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with the film's distributor Allen Klein
however led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a botched attempt at filming Frank Herbert
's novel Dune
, Jodorowsky produced three more films, the family film Tusk
(1980), the surrealist horror Santa Sangre
(1989) and the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief
(1990). Since then, his attempts at producing further films have not come to fruition. Meanwhile, he has simultaneously written a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal
(1981-1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, but also Technopriests
and Metabarons
. Accompanying this, he has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy
, the tarot
, Zen Buddhism and shamanism
.
, Chile
to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (act. Dnipropetrovsk
), Elisavetgrad (act. Kirovohrad
) and other Ukrainian
cities of the Russian Empire
. His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann, was a merchant who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, but disliked her for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism
and neo-colonialism in Latin America
in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it aged nine years old, something he blamed his father for. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile
.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry
, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra
and Enrique Lihn
. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism
, he began attending college, studying psychology
and philosophy
, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre
and particularly mime
, he took up employment as a clown
in a circus
and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, who by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris
, France
.
and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau
. It was with Marceau’s troupe that he went on a world tour, and he wrote several routines for the group, including 'The Cage' and 'The Mask Maker'. After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier
in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to film making, creating Les têtes interverties
(The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann
’s novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky himself played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau
admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost, until a print was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico
, where he settled down in Mexico City
. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the surrealist
artist André Breton
, but he was disillusioned in that felt that he had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement
along with Fernando Arrabal
and Roland Topor
. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism, and its members refused to take themselves seriously, whilst laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis
, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal
, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art
at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco
Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content and it was subsequently banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan
before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata, and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo
. Subsequently Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation
and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington
who had recently moved to Mexico.
, which is sometimes known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western
, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger
, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky himself), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed himself and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico’s northern neighbour, the United States
. It was in New York City
where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz
’s The Elgin cinema. It attracted the attention of rock musician and counter-cultural figure John Lennon
, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles
' company Apple Corps
, Allen Klein
, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein also agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go towards creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by Rene Daumal
's surrealist novel Mount Analogue
. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist
played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality
. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo
of the Arica School
, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic
experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank
experiment conducted by John Lilly
.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O
. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism
during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for over 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo
, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he had initially been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
to Frank Herbert
’s epic 1965 science fiction
novel Dune
and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Agreeing, he planned to cast the surrealist artist Salvador Dali
as the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV
, who requested a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles
as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
, who only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides
, was to be played by Jodorowsky's own son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd
, Magma
, Henry Cow
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss
, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius)
, a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant
magazine, and H. R. Giger
. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed, and the rights for filming were sold once more, this time to Dino de Laurentiis
, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch
to direct, creating the film Dune
in 1984.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk
, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell
's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release. Jodorowsky has since disowned the film.
In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa sangre
(Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealist film with a plot similar to Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho
. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief
. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with actual "movie stars" Peter O'Toole
and Omar Sharif
, executive producer Alexander Salkind
effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France.
In 1995, Alejandro’s son Teo died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo
Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
(CUFF). He attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa sangre were the only Jodorowsky's works available on DVD
. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States
or the United Kingdom
, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein
. After the dispute's settlement in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On January 19, 2007, the website announced that on May 1, 2007, Anchor Bay
released a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its May 14, 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain and the 6-disc box set which, alongside with the aforementioned feature films, includes the 2 soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate aka Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were extensively digitally restored and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing the perfect complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by Abkco, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored bootleg
copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abelcain, but could not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot
. However, in an interview with The Guardian
newspaper in November 2009, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot
, and would instead be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo
, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers". (Raymond J. Markovich, Olga Mirimskaya and Arcadiy Golybovich) - Parallel Media Films on a film entitled Abel Cain
which is the sequel to his 1970 film El Topo.
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book. As of October 2011, it is currently in production. The Museum of Modern Art
honored Jodorowsky in November 2011 by showing a retrospective of El Topo and The Holy Mountain. He attended, and spoke about his work and life.
, Teo and Cristóbal. Brontis is his older son, which he had with Bernadette Landru. He also has a daughter, Eugenie.
, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient’s personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations
pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he's filming as a feature length film in March 2011. To date he has published over 23 novels and philosophical treaties, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish
and French
, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
Throughout his career, Jodorowsky has gained a reputation as a philosopher and scholar who presents the teachings of religion
, psychology
and spiritual masters, by molding them into pragmatic and imaginative endeavors. All of his enterprises integrate an artistic approach. Currently Jodorowsky dedicates much of his time to lecturing about his work.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris
. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious
as the "over-self" which is composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on our own psyche
, well into our adult lives, and causing our compulsion
s. It is important to note that of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian café
s, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Presently, these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the "Librairie Les Cent Ciels" in Paris.
. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk
, he started The Incal
, with Jean Giraud
(Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel
and sequel
) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction
comic book series, all set in the same space opera
Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons
(trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron) and The Technopriests
and also a RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune
(which he would have only loosely based upon Frank Herbert
's original novel
) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson
, director of The Fifth Element
, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal
, but lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius himself had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For over a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés
to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism
, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish
comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky actually claimed that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other action comics by Jodorowsky outside the genre of science fiction
include the historically-based Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq
, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun) and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), both illustrated by Georges Bess
.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire
on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud
, the 2001 Haxtur Award
for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the US market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo
volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette
), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
He collaborated with Milo Manara
in Borgia
(2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
.
Jodorowsky also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970)
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini
as his primary cinematic influence, and has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson
.
The Jodorowsky Constellation documentary (1994) directed by Louis Mouchet
.
and Dita Von Teese
.
Fans included musicians Luke Steele, Peter Gabriel
, Cedric Bixler-Zavala
, Omar Rodríguez-López
and Nick Littlemore
(of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun
).
Furthermore he was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck
for the German/French art television Arte in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations like in a park and in a hotel.
Jodorowsky once stated: "the panic man is not, he is ever becoming" to reference Alfred Korzybski
's influence on his thought.
Footnotes
Chilean people
Chilean people, or simply Chileans, are the native citizens and long-term immigrants of Chile. Chileans are mainly of Spanish and Amerindian descent, with small but significant traces of 19th and 20th century European immigrant origin...
filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru. Best known for his avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
films, he has been "venerated by cult cinema
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation."
Born to Jewish Ukrainian parents in Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied mime under Etienne Decroux
Étienne Decroux
Étienne Decroux studied at Jacques Copeau's Ecole du Vieux-Colombier, where he saw the beginnings of what was to become his life's obsession–Corporeal Mime...
before turning to cinema, directing the short film Les têtes interverties
Les têtes interverties
Les têtes interverties is a 1957 French short film written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Shot between 1953 and 1957, the film is a mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's 1940 play The Transposed Heads...
in 1957. From 1960 he divided his time between Paris and Mexico City, in the former becoming a founding member of the anarchistic avant-garde Panic Movement
Panic Movement
Panic Movement was a collective formed by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor in Paris, France in 1962...
of performance artists. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, whilst in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis
Fando y Lis
Fando y Lis is a film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal play by the same name, and it is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first feature length film. Arrabal was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time...
, which caused a huge scandal in its native Mexico, eventually being banned.
His next film, the acid western
Acid Western
Acid Western is a sub-genre of the Western film that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that combined the metaphorical ambitions of top-shelf Westerns, like Shane and The Searchers, with the excesses of the Spaghetti Westerns and the outlook of the counter-culture...
El Topo
El Topo
El Topo is a 1970 Spanish language allegorical, cult western movie and underground film, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky...
(1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered as the first-ever midnight cult film, leading rock star John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with the film's distributor Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
however led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.
After a botched attempt at filming Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
's novel Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
, Jodorowsky produced three more films, the family film Tusk
Tusk (film)
Tusk is a 1980 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Nicholas Niciphor about a young English girl and an Indian elephant who share a common destiny...
(1980), the surrealist horror Santa Sangre
Santa Sangre
Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni...
(1989) and the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief
The Rainbow Thief
The Rainbow Thief is a 1990 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Berta Domínguez D.. It reunites Lawrence of Arabia co-stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in a fable of friendship. Christopher Lee also plays a cameo....
(1990). Since then, his attempts at producing further films have not come to fruition. Meanwhile, he has simultaneously written a series of science fiction comic books, most notably The Incal
The Incal
The Incal is a set of science fiction comic book series written in French by Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius and others. The Incal takes place in, and introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse", a fictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place.-List of main characters:*...
(1981-1989), which has been described as having a claim to be "the best comic book" ever written, but also Technopriests
Technopriests
The Technopriests is an eight-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alejandro Jodorowsky, artist Zoran Janjetov, and colorist Fred Beltran.- Story :...
and Metabarons
Metabarons
The Metabarons or The Saga of The Meta-Barons is a science fantasy comic series relating the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors known as the Metabarons. The Metabarons series was written by creator Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Argentinian artist Juan Gimenez...
. Accompanying this, he has also written books and regularly lectures on his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism" and which borrows from his interests in alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, the tarot
Tarot
The tarot |trionfi]] and later as tarocchi, tarock, and others) is a pack of cards , used from the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play a group of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot...
, Zen Buddhism and shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
.
Early years (1929-1952)
Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in the coastal town of TocopillaTocopilla
Tocopilla is a city and commune in the Antofagasta Region, in the north of Chile. It is the capital of the province that bears the same name.Tocopilla celebrates its anniversary on September 29 every year with a big show the day before, which includes a parade down the main street of the city, food...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
to parents who were Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav (act. Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...
), Elisavetgrad (act. Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
) and other Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
cities of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. His father, Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann, was a merchant who was largely abusive to his wife Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi, at one time accused her of flirting with a customer. Angered, he subsequently beat and raped her, getting her pregnant, which led to the birth of Alejandro. Because of this brutal conception, Sara both hated her husband and disliked her son, telling him that "I cannot love you" and rarely showing him tenderness. Alejandro also had an elder sister, but disliked her for he believed that she was selfish, doing "everything to expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention." Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants, and also for the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly. It was this treatment at the hands of Americans that led to his later condemnation of American imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and neo-colonialism in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
in several of his films. Nonetheless he liked his local area, and was greatly unhappy when he was forced to leave it aged nine years old, something he blamed his father for. His family subsequently moved to the city of Santiago, Chile
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
.
He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra
Nicanor Parra
Nicanor Parra Sandoval is a mathematician and poet born in San Fabián de Alico, Chile, who has been considered to be a popular poet in Chile with enormous influence and popularity in Latin America, and also considered one of the most important poets of the Spanish language literature...
and Enrique Lihn
Enrique Lihn
Enrique Lihn Carrasco was a Chilean poet, playwright, and novelist. The son of Enrique Lihn Doll and María Carrasco Délano, he married Ivette Mingram and they had one daughter: Andrea María Lihn Mingram, an actress.Born in 1929 at Santiago, Chile, Lihn aspired to be a painter but after a failed...
. Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, he began attending college, studying psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, but stayed for only two years. After dropping out, and having an interest in theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and particularly mime
Mime
The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...
, he took up employment as a clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
in a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
and began a career as a theatre director. Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico, who by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur). Nonetheless, Jodorowsky felt that there was little for him left in Chile, and so that year he moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
France, Mexico and Fando y Lis (1953-1969)
It was whilst in Paris that Jodorowsky began studying mime with Etienne DecrouxÉtienne Decroux
Étienne Decroux studied at Jacques Copeau's Ecole du Vieux-Colombier, where he saw the beginnings of what was to become his life's obsession–Corporeal Mime...
and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau
Marcel Marceau was an internationally acclaimed French actor and mime most famous for his persona as Bip the Clown.-Early years:...
. It was with Marceau’s troupe that he went on a world tour, and he wrote several routines for the group, including 'The Cage' and 'The Mask Maker'. After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
in Paris. In 1957, Jodorowsky turned his hand to film making, creating Les têtes interverties
Les têtes interverties
Les têtes interverties is a 1957 French short film written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Shot between 1953 and 1957, the film is a mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's 1940 play The Transposed Heads...
(The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
’s novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime, and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky himself played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
admired the film, and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost, until a print was discovered in 2006.
In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where he settled down in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Nonetheless, he continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
artist André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
, but he was disillusioned in that felt that he had become somewhat conservative in his old age. Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement
Panic Movement
Panic Movement was a collective formed by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor in Paris, France in 1962...
along with Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal Terán is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. He settled in France in 1955, he describes himself as “desterrado,” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled.”...
and Roland Topor
Roland Topor
Roland Topor , was a French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker, known for the surreal nature of his work...
. The movement aimed to go beyond the conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism, and its members refused to take themselves seriously, whilst laughing at those critics who did. In 1966 he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis
Fando y Lis
Fando y Lis is a film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal play by the same name, and it is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first feature length film. Arrabal was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time...
, loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal Terán is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. He settled in France in 1955, he describes himself as “desterrado,” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled.”...
, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco
Acapulco
Acapulco is a city, municipality and major sea port in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico, southwest from Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semi-circular bay and has been a port since the early colonial period of Mexico’s history...
Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content and it was subsequently banned in Mexico.
It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyuji and Shofukuji monasteries in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
before traveling to Mexico via the United States in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata, and offered his own house to be turned into a zendo
Zendo
or is a Japanese term translating roughly as "meditation hall". In Zen Buddhism, the zen-dō is a spiritual dōjō where zazen is practiced...
. Subsequently Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
and the study of koans. Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington
Leonora Carrington
Leonora Carrington OBE was a British-born Mexican artist, a surrealist painter and a novelist. She lived most of her life in Mexico City.-Early life:...
who had recently moved to Mexico.
El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970-1974)
In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El TopoEl Topo
El Topo is a 1970 Spanish language allegorical, cult western movie and underground film, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky...
, which is sometimes known in English as The Mole, which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western
Acid Western
Acid Western is a sub-genre of the Western film that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that combined the metaphorical ambitions of top-shelf Westerns, like Shane and The Searchers, with the excesses of the Spaghetti Westerns and the outlook of the counter-culture...
, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger
Gunslinger
Gunfighter, also gunslinger , is a 20th century word, used in cinema or literature, referring to men in the American Old West who had gained a reputation as being dangerous with a gun...
, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky himself), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him. Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed himself and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill." Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there, instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico’s northern neighbour, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz
Ben Barenholtz
Ben Barenholtz is an independent film exhibitor, distributor and producer.In the late 1960s, he opened the Elgin Cinema in New York City, which became a prominent arthouse theatre. He relaunched the films of Buster Keaton and D. W. Griffith, as well as a variety of independent films by new American...
’s The Elgin cinema. It attracted the attention of rock musician and counter-cultural figure John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' company Apple Corps
Apple Corps
Apple Corps Ltd. is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in January 1968 by the members of The Beatles to replace their earlier company and to form a conglomerate. Its name is a pun. Its chief division is Apple Records, which was launched in the same year...
, Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
, to distribute it in the United States.
Klein also agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go towards creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by Rene Daumal
René Daumal
René Daumal was a French spiritual para-surrealist writer and poet. He was born in Boulzicourt, Ardennes, France....
's surrealist novel Mount Analogue
Mount Analogue
Mount Analogue can refer to:* Mount Analogue , a mountain* Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing, a novel by René Daumal...
. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist
Alchemist
An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist may also refer to:-People and groups:*The Alchemist , a hip hop music producer and rapper*Alchemist , an Australian progressive metal band...
played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo
Oscar Ichazo
Oscar Ichazo is the Bolivian-born founder of the Arica School, which he established in 1968.Ichazo's Enneagram of Personality theories are part of a larger body of teaching that he terms Protoanalysis...
of the Arica School
Arica School
The Arica School, also known as the Arica Institute or simply as Arica, is a human potential movement group founded in 1968 by Bolivian-born philosopher Oscar Ichazo ....
, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
experience. Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank
Isolation tank
An isolation tank is a lightless, soundproof tank inside which subjects float in salt water at skin temperature. They were first used by John C. Lilly in 1954 to test the effects of sensory deprivation. Such tanks are now also used for meditation and relaxation and in alternative medicine. The...
experiment conducted by John Lilly
John C. Lilly
John Cunningham Lilly was an American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut, philosopher and writer....
.
Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O
Story of O
Story of O is an erotic novel published in 1954 about love, dominance and submission by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage.Desclos did not reveal herself as the author for forty years after the initial publication...
. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for over 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.
Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo
Julio Castillo
Julio Castillo is an amateur boxer from Ecuador best known to win bronze in the men's light-heavyweight division at the 2007 Pan American Games and Silver in 2011.-Career:...
, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he had initially been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.
Dune and Tusk (1975-1980)
In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rightsFilm rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
to Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
’s epic 1965 science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Agreeing, he planned to cast the surrealist artist Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
as the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV
Shaddam Corrino IV
Shaddam Corrino IV is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is Padishah Emperor of the known universe in Herbert's 1965 novel Dune. Shaddam's accession to the throne is chronicled in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.Born...
, who requested a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
Vladimir Harkonnen
The Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is a fictional character from the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. He is primarily featured in the 1965 novel Dune, in which he is the secondary antagonist, and is also a major character in the Prelude to Dune prequel trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson...
, who only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides
Paul Atreides is a fictional character in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Paul is a prominent character in the first two novels in the series, Dune and Dune Messiah , and returns in Children of Dune . The character is brought back as two different gholas in the Brian Herbert/Kevin J...
, was to be played by Jodorowsky's own son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, Magma
Magma (band)
Magma is a French progressive rock band founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a...
, Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss
Chris Foss
Christopher "Chris" F. Foss is a British artist and science fiction illustrator. He is best known for his science fiction book covers and the black and white illustrations for the original editions of The Joy of Sex....
, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Moebius)
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Metal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant
Métal Hurlant is a French comics anthology of science fiction and horror comics stories, created in December 1974 by comics artists Jean Giraud and Philippe Druillet together with journalist-writer Jean-Pierre Dionnet and financial director Bernard Farkas.The four were collectively known as "Les...
magazine, and H. R. Giger
H. R. Giger
Hans Rudolf "Ruedi" Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor, and set designer. He won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for his design work on the film Alien.-Early life:...
. Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed, and the rights for filming were sold once more, this time to Dino de Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
to direct, creating the film Dune
Dune (film)
Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles. It was filmed at the Churubusco...
in 1984.
After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk
Tusk (film)
Tusk is a 1980 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Nicholas Niciphor about a young English girl and an Indian elephant who share a common destiny...
, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell
Reginald Campbell
Reginald Campbell was a British writer. His novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants was filmed by Alejandro Jodorowsky in 1980 under the name Tusk. Another novel, Tiger Valley, was filmed in 1936 by Howard Bretherton as The Girl from Mandalay...
's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release. Jodorowsky has since disowned the film.
Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981-1990)
In 1982 Jodorowsky divorced his wife.In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa sangre
Santa Sangre
Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni...
(Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealist film with a plot similar to Alfred Hitchcock's
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.
He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief
The Rainbow Thief
The Rainbow Thief is a 1990 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Berta Domínguez D.. It reunites Lawrence of Arabia co-stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in a fable of friendship. Christopher Lee also plays a cameo....
. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with actual "movie stars" Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif
Omar Sharif is an Egyptian actor who has starred in Hollywood films including Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Funny Girl. He has been nominated for an Academy Award and has won two Golden Globe Awards.-Early life:...
, executive producer Alexander Salkind
Alexander Salkind
Alexander Salkind was the second of three generations of successful international film producers.-Life and career:...
effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).
That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to live in France.
In 1995, Alejandro’s son Teo died in an accident while his father was busy preparing for a trip to Mexico City to promote his new book. Upon arriving in Mexico City, he gave a lecture at the Julio Castillo
Julio Castillo
Julio Castillo is an amateur boxer from Ecuador best known to win bronze in the men's light-heavyweight division at the 2007 Pan American Games and Silver in 2011.-Career:...
Theatre where he once again met Ejo Takata, who at this time had moved into a poor suburb of the city where he had continued to teach meditation and Zen. Takata would die two years later, and Jodorowsky would never get to see his old friend again.
Attempts to return to filmmaking and The Dance of Reality (2000-present)
In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film FestivalChicago Underground Film Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival, founded in 1994, occurs each spring at various venues in Chicago, Illinois in the USA.Over the last 18 years it has become one of the most respected festivals in the USA and is today well attended by critics and programers. The festival's stated goal is "to focus...
(CUFF). He attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain, which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa sangre were the only Jodorowsky's works available on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein
Allen Klein
Allen Klein was an American businessman, talent agent and record label executive. His clients included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.- The accountant :...
. After the dispute's settlement in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On January 19, 2007, the website announced that on May 1, 2007, Anchor Bay
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
released a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its May 14, 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain and the 6-disc box set which, alongside with the aforementioned feature films, includes the 2 soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate aka Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were extensively digitally restored and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing the perfect complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by Abkco, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abelcain, but could not find investors for the project.
In an interview with Premiere Magazine, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot
King Shot
King Shot is an unrealized film by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It was to have been co-produced by David Lynch and was scheduled for release in 2010. The cast included Nick Nolte, Asia Argento, Marilyn Manson, Udo Kier, and Santiago Segura...
. However, in an interview with The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper in November 2009, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot
King Shot
King Shot is an unrealized film by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It was to have been co-produced by David Lynch and was scheduled for release in 2010. The cast included Nick Nolte, Asia Argento, Marilyn Manson, Udo Kier, and Santiago Segura...
, and would instead be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo
Abel Cain
Abel Cain is a stalled film project written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is being produced and financed by Parallel Media. It is the sequel to Jodorowsky's cult acid western El Topo...
, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers". (Raymond J. Markovich, Olga Mirimskaya and Arcadiy Golybovich) - Parallel Media Films on a film entitled Abel Cain
Abel Cain
Abel Cain is a stalled film project written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is being produced and financed by Parallel Media. It is the sequel to Jodorowsky's cult acid western El Topo...
which is the sequel to his 1970 film El Topo.
In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book. As of October 2011, it is currently in production. The Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
honored Jodorowsky in November 2011 by showing a retrospective of El Topo and The Holy Mountain. He attended, and spoke about his work and life.
Personal life
Jodorowsky was married to his wife Valerie for many years, from whom he had a number of sons, including AdánAdan Jodorowsky
Adan Jodorowsky or Adanowsky is an actor and musician.Jodorowsky is the son of Chilean Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mexican Valerie Jodorowsky, and is the brother to Brontis Jodorowsky. He has appeared in five films to this day...
, Teo and Cristóbal. Brontis is his older son, which he had with Bernadette Landru. He also has a daughter, Eugenie.
Psychomagic
Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved in to more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagicPsychomagic
Psychomagic can refer to both a kind of entertainment magic and to a therapeutic technique. The two are not related.-Entertainment magic:In stage magic the term is accredited to Chan Canasta by many magicians and mentalists. Canasta was a pioneer in the 1950s and 1960s of mentalism...
, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient’s personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations
Family Constellations
Family Constellations is an experiential process that aims to release and resolve profound tensions within and between people...
pioneered by Bert Hellinger.
Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he's filming as a feature length film in March 2011. To date he has published over 23 novels and philosophical treaties, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.
Throughout his career, Jodorowsky has gained a reputation as a philosopher and scholar who presents the teachings of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and spiritual masters, by molding them into pragmatic and imaginative endeavors. All of his enterprises integrate an artistic approach. Currently Jodorowsky dedicates much of his time to lecturing about his work.
For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious
Unconscious mind
The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...
as the "over-self" which is composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on our own psyche
Psyche (psychology)
The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
, well into our adult lives, and causing our compulsion
Compulsive behavior
Compulsive behavior is behavior which a person does compulsively—in other words, not because they want to behave that way, but because they feel they have to do so....
s. It is important to note that of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian café
Parisian café
Parisian cafés serve as a center of social and culinary life in Paris. They have been around for centuries in one form or another, the oldest one still in operation is "Café Procope" at 13 Rue Ancienne Comédie, since 1686....
s, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.
Presently, these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the "Librairie Les Cent Ciels" in Paris.
Comic books
Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in the mid 1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro, and had his turn in drawing his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper El Heraldo de MéxicoEl Heraldo de México
El Heraldo de México Awards were given annually by the newspaper "El Heraldo de México" to honour the best professionals in advertising, television, radio, theatre, film, music and sports. The ceremony was televised by Televisa.- History :...
. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk
Tusk (film)
Tusk is a 1980 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Nicholas Niciphor about a young English girl and an Indian elephant who share a common destiny...
, he started The Incal
The Incal
The Incal is a set of science fiction comic book series written in French by Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius and others. The Incal takes place in, and introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse", a fictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place.-List of main characters:*...
, with Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
(Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
and sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic book series, all set in the same space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.
Comic books set in this milieu are Incal (trilogy: Before the Incal/ Incal/ Final Incal), Metabarons
Metabarons
The Metabarons or The Saga of The Meta-Barons is a science fantasy comic series relating the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors known as the Metabarons. The Metabarons series was written by creator Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Argentinian artist Juan Gimenez...
(trilogy: Castaka/ The Caste of the Metabarons/ Weapons of the Metabaron) and The Technopriests
Technopriests
The Technopriests is an eight-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alejandro Jodorowsky, artist Zoran Janjetov, and colorist Fred Beltran.- Story :...
and also a RPG adaptation, The Metabarons Roleplaying Game. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune
Dune (novel)
Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. It won the Hugo Award in 1966, and the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel...
(which he would have only loosely based upon Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful American science fiction author. Although a short story author, he is best known for his novels, most notably Dune and its five sequels...
's original novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
) are featured in this universe.
Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
, director of The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element is a 1997 French science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich...
, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal
The Incal
The Incal is a set of science fiction comic book series written in French by Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius and others. The Incal takes place in, and introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse", a fictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place.-List of main characters:*...
, but lost their case. The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius himself had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For over a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés
Les Humanoïdes Associés
Les Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the final outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky actually claimed that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.
Other action comics by Jodorowsky outside the genre of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
include the historically-based Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq
François Boucq
François Boucq , is a French comic book artist. He is most famous for his surreal comics revolving around the main character Jérôme Moucherot.-Biography:...
, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun) and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), both illustrated by Georges Bess
Georges Bess
Georges Bess is a comics artist and comic book creator, best known for his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.-Biography:...
.
Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud
Jean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, the 2001 Haxtur Award
Haxtur Award
The Haxtur Award is a Spanish award for comics published in Spain. It is awarded annually at the Salón Internacional del Cómic del Principado de Asturias ....
for Best Long Strip. He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the US market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo
Taboo (comic)
Taboo was a comics anthology edited by Steve Bissette that was designed to feature edgier and more adult comics than could be published through mainstream publishers. The series began as a horror anthology, but soon branched out into other genres as well...
volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette
Stephen R. Bissette is an American comics artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is best known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC comic Swamp Thing in the 1980s....
), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
He collaborated with Milo Manara
Milo Manara
Maurilio Manara – known professionally as Milo Manara – is an Italian comic book writer and artist, best known for his erotic approach to the medium.-Career:...
in Borgia
Borgia
The Borgias, also known as the Borjas, Borjia, were a European Papal family of Italian and Spanish origin with the name stemming from the familial fief seat of Borja belonging to their Aragonese Lords; they became prominent during the Renaissance. The Borgias were patrons of the arts, and their...
(2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.
Comics bibliography
- Anibal 5, artwork by Moro (Mexico, 1966)
- Fábulas pánicas (issues 1-5), artwork by Jodorowsky [Novaro, México, 1975].
- Fabulas pánicas, approx. 120 different comic strips were published by El Heraldo de MéxicoEl Heraldo de MéxicoEl Heraldo de México Awards were given annually by the newspaper "El Heraldo de México" to honour the best professionals in advertising, television, radio, theatre, film, music and sports. The ceremony was televised by Televisa.- History :...
(1968–1973) - L'Incal, artwork by MoebiusJean GiraudJean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 L' Incal Noir, 1981
- 2 L'Incal Lumière, 1982
- 3 Ce qui est en bas, 1983
- 4 Ce qui est en haut, 1985
- 5 La Cinquième Essence - 1 Galaxie qui songe, 1988
- 6 La Cinquième Essence - 2 La Planète Difool, 1989
- Avant l'Incal, artwork by Zoran JanjetovZoran JanjetovZoran Janjetov is a Serbian comics artist. He lives in Novi Sad. Janjetov is best known as the illustrator of The Technopriests, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In 1986 he was chosen by Moebius to continue his work The Incal.- Biography :At very early age he started to draw with a strong support...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Adieu le père
- 2 Détective privé de classe "R"
- 3 CrootCrootCroot is the name of:* Ernie Croot, American mathematician* Estelle Maria Croot, now known as Estelle Asmodelle, Australia's first legal transsexual...
- 4 Anarcopsychotiques
- 5 Ouisky, SPV et homéoputes
- 6 Suicide Allée
- Après l'Incal, artwork by MoebiusJean GiraudJean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Le Nouveau rêve, 2000
- Final Incal, artwork by José Omar Ladrönn, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Les Quatre John Difool, 2008
- 2 Louz de Gara, 2011
- Les Technopères, artwork by Zoran JanjetovZoran JanjetovZoran Janjetov is a Serbian comics artist. He lives in Novi Sad. Janjetov is best known as the illustrator of The Technopriests, written by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In 1986 he was chosen by Moebius to continue his work The Incal.- Biography :At very early age he started to draw with a strong support...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 La Pré-école Techno
- 2 L'École pénitentiaire de Nohope
- 3 Planeta Games
- 4 Halkattrazz, l'étoile des Bourreaux
- 5 La secte des Techno-évêques
- 6 Les secrets du Techno-Vatican
- 7 Le jeu parfait
- 8 La Galaxie promise
- Les Aventures d'Alef-Thau, artwork by Arno, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 L'enfant tronc
- 2 Le Prince Manchot
- 3 Le Roi Borgne
- 4 Le seigneur des illusions
- 5 L'Empereur Boiteux
- 6 L'homme sans réalité
- 7 La porte de la vérité
- 8 Le triomphe du rêveur (artwork by Covial)
- Le monde d'Alef-Thau: Résurrection (artwork by Marco Nizzoli)
- Le Lama blanc, artwork by Georges BessGeorges BessGeorges Bess is a comics artist and comic book creator, best known for his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.-Biography:...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Le premier pas
- 2 La seconde vue
- 3 Les trois oreilles
- 4 La quatrième voix
- 5 Main ouverte, main fermée
- 6 Triangle d'eau, triangle de feu
- Juan solo, artwork by Georges BessGeorges BessGeorges Bess is a comics artist and comic book creator, best known for his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.-Biography:...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Fils de flingue
- 2 Les chiens du pouvoir
- 3 La chair et la gale
- 4 Saint salaud
- Aliot, 1996, artwork by Víctor de la Fuente, DargaudDargaudLes Éditions Dargaud is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1943 by Georges Dargaud.Initially, Dargaud published novels for women...
- 1: Le fils des ténèbres
- Anibal cinq, artwork by Georges BessGeorges BessGeorges Bess is a comics artist and comic book creator, best known for his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.-Biography:...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Dix femmes avant de mourir, 1990
- 2 Chair d'orchidée pour le cyborg, 1992
- Astéroïde Hurlant (2006)
- Borgia, artwork by Milo ManaraMilo ManaraMaurilio Manara – known professionally as Milo Manara – is an Italian comic book writer and artist, best known for his erotic approach to the medium.-Career:...
, Albin MichelÉditions Albin MichelÉditions Albin Michel is a French publisher. It was founded in 1911 by Albin Michel.-External links:*...
- 1 Du sang pour le pape, 2004
- 2 Le pouvoir et l'inceste, 2006
- 3 Les flammes du bûcher, 2008
- 4 Tout est vanité, 2011
- Bouncer, artwork by François BoucqFrançois BoucqFrançois Boucq , is a French comic book artist. He is most famous for his surreal comics revolving around the main character Jérôme Moucherot.-Biography:...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Un diamant pour l'au-delà, 2001
- 2 La pitié des bourreaux, 2002
- 3 La justice des serpents, 2003
- 4 La vengeance du manchot, 2005
- 5 La proie des louves, 2006
- Face de lune, artwork by François BoucqFrançois BoucqFrançois Boucq , is a French comic book artist. He is most famous for his surreal comics revolving around the main character Jérôme Moucherot.-Biography:...
, CastermanCastermanCasterman is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics, specializing in comic books and children's literature. The company is based in Tournai, Belgium.Founded in 1780, Casterman was originally a printing company and publishing house...
- 1 La cathédrale invisible, 1992
- 1/2 Le dompteur de vagues, 2003
- 2/2 La cathédrale invisible, 2003
- 2 La pierre de faîte, 1997
- 1/2 La pierre de faîte, 2004
- 2/2 La femme qui vient du ciel, 2004
- 3 ou 5 L'Œuf de l'Âme, 2004
- 1 La cathédrale invisible, 1992
- La caste des méta-baronsMetabaronsThe Metabarons or The Saga of The Meta-Barons is a science fantasy comic series relating the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors known as the Metabarons. The Metabarons series was written by creator Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Argentinian artist Juan Gimenez...
, artwork by Juan GiménezJuan GimenezJuan Antonio Giménez López is an Argentine comic book artist.-Biography:Giménez López was born in Mendoza, Argentina...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Othon le Trisaïeul, 1992
- 2 Honorata la Trisaïeule, 1993
- 3 Aghnar le Bisaïeul, 1995
- 4 Oda la Bisaïeule, 1997
- 5 Tête d'Acier l'Aïeul, 1998
- 6 Doña Vicenta Gabriela de Rokha l'Aïeule, 1999
- 7 Aghora le Père-mère, 2002
- 8 Sans nom, le dernier méta-baron, 2004
- Hors série La maison des ancêtres, 2000
- Int La caste des méta-barons - L'intégrale, 2003
- Dayal de Castaka, artwork by Das Pastoras, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Le Premier Ancêtre, 2007
- Mégalex, artwork by Fred Beltran, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 1 L'anomalie, 1999
- 2 L'ange Bossu, 2002
- 3 Le cœur de Kavatah, 2008
- Le Cœur couronné, artwork by MoebiusJean GiraudJean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 La Folle du Sacré Cœur, 1992
- 2 Le Piège de l'irrationnel, 1993
- 3 Le Fou de la Sorbonne, 1998
- Le Dieu jaloux, artwork by Silvio Cadelo, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 1 Le Dieu jaloux, 1984
- 2 L'Ange carnivore, 1986
- int La Saga d'Alandor, 1991
- Moebius, artwork by MoebiusJean GiraudJean Henri Gaston Giraud is a French comics artist. Giraud has earned worldwide fame, not only under his own name but also under the pseudonym Moebius, and to a lesser extent Gir, the latter appearing mostly in the form of a boxed signature at the bottom of the artist's paintings, for instance the...
, Les Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes AssociésLes Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...
- 8 Les Yeux du Chat, 1978
- 10 Griffes d'Ange, 1994
- 11 Chaos
- Showman Killer, artwork by Nicolas Fructus, Editions Delcourt
- 1 "Un héros sans coeur", 2010
Plays (incomplete)
- Zaratustra (Mexico, 1970)
- El ensueño
- La ópera del orden
- El Gorila
- Las sillas
- Penélope
- El diario de un loco
- El juego que todos jugamos (Mexico, 1976)
- Lucrecia Borgia" (Mexico, 1977)
- Opera panique
- El Sueno sin fin (Mexico, 2008)**Opening night April 15
Other work
He weekly comments "good news" for the nightly "author newsreport" of his friend Fernando Sánchez-Dragó in TelemadridTelemadrid
Telemadrid is the first autonomous public television station of Madrid and the fifth national station, after those of Catalonia, Euskadi, Galicia and Andalusia. It is affiliated with FORTA since its inception, and it is a public channel that belongs exclusively to the autonomous government of...
.
Jodorowsky also released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970)
He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
as his primary cinematic influence, and has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Language | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Les têtes interverties Les têtes interverties Les têtes interverties is a 1957 French short film written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Shot between 1953 and 1957, the film is a mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's 1940 play The Transposed Heads... |
||
| 1967 | Fando y Lis Fando y Lis Fando y Lis is a film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal play by the same name, and it is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first feature length film. Arrabal was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time... |
Spanish | |
| 1970 | El Topo | Spanish | |
| 1973 | The Holy Mountain | English | |
| 1978 | Tusk Tusk (film) Tusk is a 1980 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Nicholas Niciphor about a young English girl and an Indian elephant who share a common destiny... |
English / French | |
| 1989 | Santa Sangre Santa Sangre Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni... |
Italian / Spanish | |
| 1990 | The Rainbow Thief The Rainbow Thief The Rainbow Thief is a 1990 film directed by cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Berta Domínguez D.. It reunites Lawrence of Arabia co-stars Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in a fable of friendship. Christopher Lee also plays a cameo.... |
English | |
| 2011 | Abel Cain Abel Cain Abel Cain is a stalled film project written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is being produced and financed by Parallel Media. It is the sequel to Jodorowsky's cult acid western El Topo... or The Sons of El Topo |
||
| 2012 | The Dance of Reality |
The Jodorowsky Constellation documentary (1994) directed by Louis Mouchet
Louis mouchet
- Biography :Louis Mouchet studied history and literature at the University of Geneva and graduated from London International Film School in 1983.He has directed mainly documentaries, along with shorts, music videos and corporate films for international companies and organizations.- Filmography :*...
.
Theater
- La fantasma cosquillosa (farsa iniciática) (1948)
- La princesa Araña (asquerosa opereta surrealista para niños mutantes, escrita con Leonora Carrington) (1958)
- Melodrama sacramental (1965)
- Zaratustra (aventura metafísica) (1970)
- El túnel que se come por la cola (auto sacramental pánico) (1970)
- El mirón convertido (tragedia pánica) (1971)
- Pedrolino (mimodrama ballet) (1998)
- Ópera pánica (cabaret trágico) (2001)
- Escuela de ventrílocuos (comedia absurda) (2002)
- Las tres viejas (melodrama grotesco) (2003)
- Hipermercado (paporreta infame) (2004)
- El sueño sin fin (drama sublime) (2006)
- Sangre real (drama antiguo) (2007).
- Teatro sin fin (tragedias, comedias y mimodramas) (Madrid, 2007). Antology.
- Le gorille / The gorilla (2010), inspired by Franz Kafka's short story A Report to an Academy (Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, 1917).
Other information
In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn MansonMarilyn Manson
Marilyn Manson may refer to:* Marilyn Manson , an American rock musician* Marilyn Manson , the American rock band led by the singer of the same name...
and Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese
Dita Von Teese is an American burlesque dancer, model, costume designer, author and actress.-Early life:...
.
Fans included musicians Luke Steele, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Cedric Bixler-Zavala is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American musician known for his work as frontman and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, and previously as frontman and occasional guitarist of the post-hardcore punk group At the Drive-In...
, Omar Rodríguez-López
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, writer, actor and film director who was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico...
and Nick Littlemore
Nick Littlemore
Nick Littlemore is an Australian musician and producer, known as frontman of electronic act Pnau and one part of electro pop-duo Empire of the Sun . He is also member of art-rock band Teenager Nick Littlemore is an Australian musician and producer, known as frontman of electronic act Pnau (with...
(of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun (band)
Empire of the Sun is an Australian electronic music duo that formed in 2008. The duo is composed of Luke Steele of The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of Pnau. The two met in 2000 after both being signed to the same record label. Luke and Nick knew that they instantly had a chemistry like no other...
).
Furthermore he was interviewed by Daniel Pinchbeck
Daniel Pinchbeck
Daniel Pinchbeck is an author living in New York’s East Village, where he is editorial director of Reality Sandwich, a blog website centered around New Age philosophy and activism. He is the author of Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism and 2012:...
for the German/French art television Arte in a very personal discussion, spending a night together in France, continuing the interview in different locations like in a park and in a hotel.
Jodorowsky once stated: "the panic man is not, he is ever becoming" to reference Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski was a Polish-American philosopher and scientist. He is remembered for developing the theory of general semantics...
's influence on his thought.
Sources
- Jodorowsky publications in Métal Hurlant BDoubliées
- Jodorowsky albums Bedetheque
- Jodorowsky publications in English www.europeancomics.net
Footnotes
External links
- BBC Collective video interview with film clips
- Jodorowsky official site
- No Attachment to Dust: Alejandro Jodorowsky on Zen and the art of filmmaking
- The Symbol Grows: Alejandro Jodorowsky
- Jodorowsky le scénariste (contains list of comic works)
- Jodo Universe: Inside the Esoteric Mind of Alejandro Jodorowsky (from Res Magazine)
- Premiere Magazine interview with Jodorowsky
- Publisher of Anarchy and Alchemy book
- A Book of the Film web adaptation of the screenplay + rare vintage interviews with Jodorowsky
- The Sounds of El Topo free mp3 downloads of the ultrarare Apple and "Shades of Joy" soundtrack releases + sound clips from the film
- Web.archive.org página dedicada a Jodorowsky y su café La Temeraire
- Alejandro Jodorowsky - Unseen Dune
- Jodorowsky video interview
- Jodorowsky interviews Marylin Manson
- Charlatens.blogspot.com
- Dune: Book to Screen Timeline
- Jodorowsky - After Screening Talk #1
- Jodorowsky - After Screening Talk #2
- Alejandro Jodorowsky interview at Totalscifionline.com