Alejandro Jodorowsky
Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker behind El Topo, The Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre.
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Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean and French avant-garde filmmaker, born on 17 February 1929, whose cult following rests on El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989). His films mix surreal, often violent imagery with mysticism and religious provocation. Beyond cinema he is a comic book writer, best known for the science fiction series The Incal from the 1980s, along with The Technopriests and Metabarons. He has also written and lectured widely on a spiritual system of his own, which he calls psychomagic, drawing on alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism.
Lore & Background
Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile, to Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents, and moved to Santiago as a boy. He published his first poem at sixteen, mixed with poets such as Nicanor Parra and Enrique Lihn, and left the University of Chile after two years. Drawn to mime, he worked as a circus clown and in 1947 founded the Teatro Mímico.
In Paris he studied mime with Étienne Decroux and toured with Marcel Marceau's troupe. He settled in Mexico City in 1960 and in 1962 launched the Panic Movement with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. His first feature, Fando y Lis, sparked a riot at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival and was banned in Mexico.
Did You Know?
- His 1957 short Les têtes interverties was thought lost until a print turned up in 2006.
- Jean Cocteau admired that early mime film and wrote an introduction for it.
- He created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, in 1966.
- By 1952 his Teatro Mímico troupe had fifty members.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where was he born?
In Tocopilla, Chile, on February 17, 1929.
What is the Panic Movement?
A surrealist performance art collective he founded in 1962 with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor, known for shocking theatrical events.
More in Renowned Film Directors & Producers
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Alejandro Jodorowsky (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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