In anticipation of Mr. Jodorowsky’s newest film ENDLESS POETRY, the 2nd of his ‘5 Cycle Cinematic Memoir’, Spoke Art, The Roxie Theater and MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS have conjured up 4 films from the foremost psycho-magical, movie-making master surrealist: EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, SANTA SANGRE & FANDO Y LIS.
Friday, July 14 @ 7:00pm – EL TOPO (1970) – In a newly struck 35mm print
Jodorowsky’s legendary, notorious cult hit essentially created the genre of the midnight movie. Incorporating influences from tarot to the Bible to surrealism into a mind-blowing western, Jodorowsky cast himself as the leather-clad gunman, El Topo, who wanders through a desert strewn with mystical symbols on an unnamed quest, leaving blood and carnage in his wake. Unspooling on a 35mm restoration overseen by the director. 124 mins. Dubbed in English.
Friday, July 14 @ 9:30pm – FANDO Y LIS (1968) – From a newly restored DCP
Using only one page script and the memory of his stage production, director Alejandro Jodorowsky blended surreal beauty and savage imagery to fashion this bizarre tale of corrupted innocence, sadomasochistic love, and unattainable paradise. Considered lost for over 30 years, Jodorowsky’s visionary first feature premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, inciting a riot that “forced the director to flee for his life. In the ensuing scandal, the film was banned, branding the director a heretic and forced to stand trial, nearly being deported”. 96 mins. In Spanish w/ English subtitles.
Saturday, Jul 15 @ 6:45pm – THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) – In a newly struck 35mm print
Causing a scandal at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, once again, Jodorowsky plays the allegorically named lead, “The Alchemist,” who assembles a group of people from all walks of life and renames them for the planets in the solar system. Putting his recruits through strange mystical rites, he leads them on a trip to Lotus Island to ascend the Holy Mountain. 113 mins. Dubbed in English.
Saturady, July 15 @ 9:15pm – SANTA SANGRE (1989) – From a newly restored DCP
A lurid Oedipal masterpiece, this marked Jodorowsky’s shockingly audacious return to cinema after 25 years. Squatting smack dab on the intersection between art film and (ghastly) horror movie, this visually ravishing, viscerally unhinged spectacle mingles drama, romance, surrealism & violence in a way that, at the time of its release, had writers referencing Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, by way of Buñuel. Scripted by Jodorowsky and Claudio Argento (brother of Dario), SANTA SANGRE is a truly disturbing psychedelic provocation. “I am reminded by Alejandro Jodorowsky that true psychic horror is possible on the screen–horror, poetry, surrealism, psychological pain and wicked humor, all at once. … Jodorowsky has fearlessly married magical realism to Freud”. – Roger Ebert. NC-17. 123 mins. In Spanish w/ English subtitles.