Alejandro Jodorowsky

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Big Ben
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2016 12:54 pm
Location: Great Falls, Montana

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#101 Post by Big Ben » Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:25 pm

Jodorowsky already explained that he was indeed being an edgelord back in 2017 on Facebook.
Where did [the people claiming that I raped Mara Lorenzio on the set of El Topo in front of the camera] find reports of this alleged incident that would have happened in 1969?

It's very possible that they read some of the interviews I did in the United States or England back then. I produced El Topo independently. When I told the Mexican film industry that I was going to travel to New York to sell El Topo, they made fun of me. "You're crazy, only Emilio Fernandez ('El Indio') has ever managed to release a movie there and that's why there is a statue of him. No Mexican film has ever crossed the cactus wall." In the North American cinematographic environment of the time, Mexican cinema was despised. Hollywood dominated everything.

I had to break through using the only tool I had: shock through scandalous statements. This is how I did it: I dressed up as the mystical bandit character [the titular El Topo], I introduced myself in the interviews with a beard, a mane and a black leather suit, and I said things that purposefully shocked the interviewers. "I am an anti-feminist, I hate women. I hate cats. I've eaten human meat tacos with Diego Rivera. El Topo is a film where things really happened: that scene of rape is a real rape! I killed the animals (that in reality I had purchased dead from a local zoo) with a fork I sharpened myself!" These aggressive, meant to be humorous declarations conquered the era's young public who were against the establishment and affected by the Vietnam war. This is how I managed to get El Topo to be noticed and seen, and, thanks to the openly proclaimed admiration of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, my film became a cult classic. Half a century has passed and it continues to be screened and discussed.
Filming a scene like this is not achieved with just a cameraman, two actors and an expanse of sand. Cinema is the most costly art because a large number of technicians and artists are required to execute it. First of all, you needed a group of workers to clean a hundred square meters of desert with rakes because of dangerous snakes and spiders that were hidden in the sand. They remained for the duration of the filming, at the ready, to intervene if necessary. There was also a group of makeup artists, hairdressers and dressmakers in charge of costumes.

[In the movie,] El Topo rips apart the woman's dress in a take that lasts 10 seconds.

It is followed by another take of El Topo [doing the same], but from a different angle. Filming stopped for half an hour or so for the technicians to change the reflectors. That is to say that in order to shoot an action sequence that does not even last more than three minutes, several hours were needed. And it wasn't just a single cameraman, but two cameras, each with one operator and four assistants. A total of 10 camera people. Added to this were crewmen placing rails where the camera slid, handling the counterweights of a crane, holding silver reflector cards so that each face is well-lit. There was also the assistant director, the group of set decorators, other actors, etc. A big crowd that the audience does not see. In addition, there were people holding the individual umbrellas protecting the actors from the sun, others that delivered water and food, etc.

How could I have possibly assaulted the actress in front of such a large assembly of people?

At the slightest hint of any actual violence, a group of men and women would have thrown themselves at me and immobilized me. The actress would have also been defending herself, howling, scratching. And I, vile satyr, would have ended up persecuted, tried and imprisoned.
It's an unbelievably trashy thing for him to say but knowing what I know about him from that period it's absolutely something he would have said.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#102 Post by Calvin » Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:57 pm

As well as Arrow currently preparing a set of new 4K restorations of Fando and Lis, El Topo, and The Holy Mountain, Severin Films have just announced a 4K restoration of Santa Sangre. Now all we need is somebody to announce Tusk and The Rainbow Thief for the sake of completeness while Jodorowsky is still with us...

Last edited by Calvin on Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#103 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:31 pm

I think the Severin link is not correct.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#104 Post by Calvin » Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:11 pm

D'oh! Apologies, hopefully that's it fixed now.

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FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#105 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:07 pm

Hopefully these will tour around.

nolanoe
Joined: Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:25 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#106 Post by nolanoe » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:02 am

I thought we had a Blu of rainbow thief here in Germany. Tusk, however, remains lost for all I know.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#107 Post by Calvin » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:20 am

I think Gaumont own Tusk. Jodorowsky has said in interviews that he would like to work on it if given the chance. Whether or not any cut footage exists is another matter.

Robin Davies
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:00 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#108 Post by Robin Davies » Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:50 pm

Calvin wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:20 am
I think Gaumont own Tusk. Jodorowsky has said in interviews that he would like to work on it if given the chance.
That's a pleasant surprise. In Jonathon Ross's documentary in 1991 he disowned it as vehemently as Lynch has disowned Dune.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Alejandro Jodorowsky

#109 Post by Calvin » Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:02 pm

Robin Davies wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 1:50 pm
Calvin wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:20 am
I think Gaumont own Tusk. Jodorowsky has said in interviews that he would like to work on it if given the chance.
That's a pleasant surprise. In Jonathon Ross's documentary in 1991 he disowned it as vehemently as Lynch has disowned Dune.
He seems to have had a change of heart, though it seems like it might not be as easy as licensing it and giving him some money as I thought it would be:

From a 2016 interview with Sight and Sound:

"For me Tusk is a film as valuable as El Topo, only it is for children. What we have seen so far is an incomplete cut. But the producer, a crook like all filmmakers, declared bankruptcy, got the money in his pocket and fled, leaving the installation unfinished. I am still to this day fighting for the rights and the final cut, remastering and resubmission."

2012 with Film Comment:

"Do you have any interest in reviving Tusk [80] and The Rainbow Thief [90]? They never made it to VHS or DVD.

Yes. When I finished Tusk, the producer was a thief. He said he was broke, and the picture I made was only the first edit but it should have had half an hour more. And I could never cut the picture and take out what I didn’t like. If I take out what I don’t like, it will be a very nice film for children."

2014 with Indiewire:

"One of your older films that has been incredibly hard to track down is “Tusk.” Is that something that is going to come out at some point?

With “Tusk” I am searching for the negatives, because at the time we never finished the picture and now I want to redo the color and it could be a fantastic tale for children. It’s beautiful. We are searching, because the producer died and we are wondering where the negative is."

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