Alejandro (or Alexandro) Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky or Alexandro Jodorowsky (IPA: [ɑː.lɛ.ˈxɑːn.drɒ jɒ.dɒ.ˈrɒv.skiː]) (born February
7, 1929, in Iquique, Chile)
is a philosopher, scholar in comparative religion, playwright, director, producer, composer,
actor, mime, comic book
writer, tarot card reader and historian, and psychotherapist.
Early Years
Jodorowsky began his artistic activities at a very young age inspired greatly by film and literature. He began publishing his
poetry in Chile when he was 16. At this time he worked alongside the Chilean poets, Nicanor
Parra and Enrique Lihn. He developed an interest in puppetry and mime. At 17, he
debuted as an actor and a year later he created the pantomime troupe, Teatro Mimico. In 1953 Jodorowsky wrote his first play, El
Minotauro. That same year he traveled to Paris to study pantomime with Etienne Decroux,
the teacher of Marcel Marceau. The next year he joined Marcel Marceau theatre troupe; the
performances realized during this collaboration toured worldwide. After performing in Mexico in 1960, Jodorowsky decide to
continue his stay in order to pursue other theatrical endeavors.
Los Panicos
In February 1962, in Paris, Jodorowsky with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor, initiated El Panico, an artistic movement centered around three basic elements: terror,
humor, and simultaneity. These acts combine layers of physical postures inspired by the imagination and integrate artistic
elements. Included in movement el Panico are; Cuentos Panicos, Teatro Panico, Fabulas Panicas and Efimeros Panicos.
Throughout the 60’s and 70’s, working in Paris and Mexico, Jodorowsky created over one hundred theatrical productions. He
directed works of his own in addition to those written by Leonora Carrington, Samuel
Beckett, Ionesco, Strindberg and others. El Acto Efimero, or ephemeral performances were acted out in public spaces drawing
attention to the quotidian while promoting critical awareness in both participants and audience. During these ephemeral acts the
public is often unaware that an act of drama is being performed. Jodorowsky once stated "the Panic man is not, he is ever
becoming " to reference Alfred Korzybski's influence on his thought.
Beginning in 1966, Jodorowsky created comics relating to El Panico. These comics were made independently and in collaboration
with illustrators including Jean "Mœbius" Giraud. In the course of his comic career
Jodorowsky has created approximately 21 series including Fabulas Panicos, Los Ojos del Gato and El Incal. All translated in over
ten languages.
Jodorowsky first experience with film was in 1953 in Paris where he adapted Thomas Mann’s’, Las Cabezas Trocadas. He next
created Fando y Lis in Mexico in 1967. Two years later Jodorowsky created his most renowned film, El Topo. In the following years
additional films were realized including La Montana Sagrada in 1972 .
Recognized as one of the world's leading researchers of the Tarot, Jodorowsky spent over fifteen years reconstructing the
original form of Tarot de Marseille. From this work he moved in to more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psycho genealogy and iniciatic 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.
Jodorowsky’s has several books on his therapeutic methods such as Psicomagia, La Trampa Sagrada and his autobiography La Danza
de la Realidad. 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 and are still waiting to be known among the anglo-American readers.
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.
It is important to note that 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 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,
Alejandro 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 comprised of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on our own
psyche, well into our adult lives, and causing our compulsions. It is also 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 Cafés, and may never be known to the rest of the World, 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.
Film-making career
He started his film career in Mexico with Fando y Lis (1968). The feature-length
film debuted in Acapulco at the Film Festival and is famous for
having incited a full scale riot there, requiring that Jodorowsky be smuggled out in a limousine.
Alejandro Jodorowsky speaking in
Sitges festival of cinema 2006
El Topo (1970), a mystical Western, was his second film and is now considered a
cult classic. John Lennon and Yoko Ono helped to arrange the film's release and distribution in the United States through Beatles manager Allen Klein.
Jodorowsky's third film, La Montaña Sagrada (The Holy Mountain)
(1973), was entirely financed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. At a projected budget of $1,500,000 (in USA dollars), it was the most
expensive Mexican film production to date. It has been suggested that the Holy Mountain may be inspired by Rene Daumal novel Mount Analogue.
Jodorowsky began working in 1975 on an adaptation of Frank Herbert's
Dune. The project was intended to involve his son Brontis (Paul), Orson Welles as the Baron, Salvador Dalí as the Emperor,
Mick Jagger as Feyd Rautha, Alain Delon as Duncan
Idaho, Geraldine Chaplin as Lady Jessica, Dan
O'Bannon for the script, Chris Foss, Pink Floyd,
H.R. Giger and Jean Giraud (Mœbius). Ultimately, its
funding evaporated, but Jodorowsky claimed it was sabotaged by the major studios in Hollywood because it was too French, a strange claim
considering that Jodorowsky, while a naturalized citizen of France, has never identified with any particular country or culture (although the funding and his producer,
Jerome Seydoux, were French). Many close to the project claim that the set designs later turned up in Star Wars. Several of the people working on Jodorowsky's version of Dune later worked on
Alien with elements (specifically those designed by Giger) similar to that of the failed Dune project. Whatever the opinions, Jodorowsky was the person
who persuaded artist Mœbius to begin drawing science fiction at the start of the Seventies, instead of "limiting himself to the
Western genre." That decision triggered a "domino effect," which led to a massive revolution in science fiction design on both
sides of the Atlantic. Director Ridley Scott credits the influence of a few French artists
of that time for his decision to bring science fiction to the screen. In the early 1980s, David
Lynch would later make the first film adaptation of Dune.
In 1989 Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre. The film
received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. The
film delved into psychodrama territory, with its protagonist becoming the amputated arms and hands of his mother and committing a
string of murders in the process. 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, the producer effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to
fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed.
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 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival. 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 the two films, or whether the
police would show up and shut the festival down.
Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only of Jodorowsky's work 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. Since 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 digitalbits.com announced that on
May 01, 2007 Anchor Bay will release a box set that will include "El
Topo", "The Holy Mountain" and "Fando y Lis". A limited edition of the set will include 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 the
aforementioned feature films, will include 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 compliment 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 illegally on the Internet on DVD.
In an interview with Premier Magazine, Jodorowsky said his next project will be a gangster film called King Shot.
Marilyn Manson will play a 300-year-old pope, he said, and Nick Nolte has also expressed interest in working with the director. In the interview, Jodorowsky also said
he wanted to make a sequel to El Topo, but couldn't raise the funds.
'Anarchy and Alchemy' Cover (Creation Books)
'Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky' is the first major English language study on the cinema of
Jodorowsky. Appearing on stage in London on 13/04/07, Jodorowsky said: "People always ask me what my films are about. I say 'I
don't know'. I read this book, now I know. If you have questions, it has the answers. I learn a lot about Jodorowsky." 'Anarchy
and Alchemy' is available in July 07 from Creation Books.
Comic books
He 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 Panicas, that appeared in the Mexican
newspaper El Heraldo de Mexico. 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. i.e. 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 The Caste of the Metabarons, The Technopriests, Incal, Moonface, and Megalex 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.[1] 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. Artistic consensus among many inside and outside the film, as well as in the
comic book industry, was that the picture indeed massively "lifted" from Mœbius and Jodorowsky's creation, but in order to
appreciate the predicament of the victims, one must understand that France is a country where litigations are not common place,
and where the powerful often receive the legal benefit of the doubt. For over a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher "Les
Humanos" to sue Luc Besson for the flagrant act of plagiarism, but the said publisher refused, rightfully 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 which is not surprising
as Jodorowsky believes that authors do not create the stories they tell as much as they make personal interpretations of myths
universal to the collective human subconsciousness.
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 U.S. market.
Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen Thrower) which features an interview with the
director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collabortation with
Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.
He collaborated with Milo Manara in the title Borgia (2006), graphic novel about
the history of the House of Borgia.
Recent Appeareances
On December 3, 2005, dressed in a robe like the one he wore
in his film The Holy Mountain, he officiated at the non-denominational marriage ceremony of friend Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese at Castle Gurteen in
Kilsheelan, home of artist Gottfried Helnwein, in Tipperary, Ireland. After the
marriage dissolved, Jodorowsky stated in an interview : "I told Marilyn Manson: 'You are a performance. I do not know you
without make-up, no one knows you without make-up.' He married this girl, she is also a performer and when he married it was
performance. When reality comes after it is not possible for them. Now he is with a girl with humanity." [2] Manson has also stated that Jodorowsky influenced his entire visual style.
[3]
Comics bibliography
- L'Incal, artwork by Moebius, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 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 Janjetov, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 1 Adieu le père
- 2 Détective privé de classe "R"
- 3 Croot
- 4 Anarcopsychotiques
- 5 Ouisky, SPV et homéoputes
- 6 Suicide Allée
- Les Technopères, artwork by Zoran Janjetov,
Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 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 Associés
- 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 Lama blanc, artwork by Georges Bess, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 1 Le Premier pas
- 2 La Seconde Vue
- 3 Les Trois Oreilles
- 4 La Quatrième Voix
- 5 Main Ouvert, Main Fermée
- 6 Triangle d'Eau, Triangle de Feu
- Aliot, 1996, artwork by Victor de la Fuente, Dargaud
- Bouncer, artwork by François Boucq, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 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 Boucq, Casterman
- 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
- La Caste des Méta-Barons, artwork by Juan
Giménez, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 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
- Mégalex, artwork by Fred Beltran, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 1 L'anomalie, 1999
- 2 L'ange Bossu, 2002
- Le Cœur couronné, artwork by Moebius, Les Humanoïdes Associés
- 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 Associés
- 1 Le Dieu jaloux, 1984
- 2 L'Ange carnivore, 1986
- int La Saga d'Alandor, 1991
Plays (incomplete)
- Zaratustra (1976)
- El ensueño
- La ópera del orden
- El Gorila
- Las sillas
- Penélope
- El diario de un loco
- El juego que todos jugamos
- Opera panique
Other work
He weekly comments "good news" for the nightly "author newsreport" of his friend Fernando
Sánchez-Dragó[4] in
Telemadrid.
Filmography
Bibliography
- Cuentos Panicos (1963) illustrations by Roland Topor
- Teatro Pánico (1965)
- Juegos Pánicos (1965)
- El Topo, fábula pánica con imágenes (1970) scrreenplay from the film El Topo
- Fábulas Pánicas (1977) reprints from some strips of el Heraldo de Mexico
- Las ansias carnívoras de la nada (1991)
- Donde mejor canta un pájaro (1994)
- Psychomagie/Approches d´une thérapie panique (1995) ISBN 968-6941-04-5
- Griffes D´Ange (1996) illustrations by Jean Giraud
- Antología Pánica (1996) with Daniel González-Dueñas
- Los Evangelios para sanar (1997) ISBN 968-27-0701-3
- La Sagesse des blagues;Le doigt et la lune;Les histoires de Mulla Nasrudin (1997) illustrations by George Bess
- El niño del jueves negro (1999)
- Albina y los hombres-perro (2000)
- La Trampa Sagrada (2000)
- No basta decir (2000)
- La danza de la realidad (2001) Jodorowksy's autobiography ISBN 987-566-067-1
- El loro de las siete lenguas (2001)
- El Paso del ganso (2001)
- Ópera Panique,ou l`éloge de la quotidenneté (2001) play
- El tesoro de la sombra (2003)
- Fábulas Pánicas (2003) reprints of all strips of el Herlado de México
- El dedo y la luna (2004)
- Piedras del camino (2004)
- La voie du Tarot (2004)
- Yo, el tarot (2004)
- El Maestro y las Magas (2006)
References
External links
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