A French romantic comedy by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
A man who is lacking in confidence and one who has too much confidence enter a shop together. The shop offers an exchange of heads. The unconfident man tries many heads to win the favor of a woman, but to no avail. After trying the last head, he goes back to find the shop has turned into a hat store instead.
This was Jodorowsky's first film and is a mime piece with no dialogue. At just 20 minutes in length, there was not much to go wrong. That is to say it is perfect. The head transplants were executed by use of good camera framing and some simple editing, but looked convincing enough. The characters were not very dynamic or well-developed, but very memorable. The plot seemed to be based around the editing trick of switching heads, but seemed fine to me. I will not belabor the point anymore. I rate this best. If you can't sit through 20 minutes of this, you shouldn't be watching movies at all.
A Mexican adventure written by Fernando Arrabal and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
A boy is told of a mythical city called "Tar" that is supposedly a paradise that will still exist when all other cities have been destroyed. A girl is abused by theater performers and becomes paralyzed from the waist down. Later in life, these characters are in a relationship and all the cities have been destroyed. The young man pushes his girlfriend on a cart through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, in search of the city of Tar. They encounter various groups of people engaged in strange activities as they travel.
This was Jodorowsky's first full-length film and the least coherent of his work. The characters are clear and very well developed, but the plot is extremely murky. The pacing ranges from way too slow to extremely fast and the style is VERY Jodorowsky. The music is a definite indication of what was to come in his later works, complete with horrible creaking and hight-pitched woodwind/reed instrumentation. There was nudity which included female anatomy points for Lis and no genital mutilation (except of a doll). Overall, I would say it's worth watching if you're into the whole Jodorowsky deal. I rate it awesome because his shit is infallible and he can do no wrong in my eyes.
A Mexican Italian adventure by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Claudio Argento.
A boy is a circus performer whose parents are having issues. The father is an alcoholic and the mother leads a false religion. The boy falls in love with a girl circus performer of his own age, but they are separated when his father cuts off the mother's arms before committing suicide. Later in life, the main character works for his mother as her arms. Fortunately for him, all is not as it seems.
I call this an adventure because it's one of those Jodorowskian mind fuckers that almost fits my label of "psychedelic spiritual journey". Claudio Argento's presence had me worried because of his involvement in his brother, Dario's films. I HATED Suspiria. Fortunately, he was unable to wreck Alejandro's greatness. The plot was all twist, all the time and characters were extremely dynamic. The video style was a little crisper and darker than most A.J. films, but the audio was very much in line with his other work. There were some compositing/layering/editing effects like people disappearing or fading out and lots of blood. Pacing was moderate/appropriate, but generally quick. Overall, not Jodorowsky's best work, but not bad. I would call this one of his moderately cool films in comparison to the rest of his filmography. Of course, it's him so I rate it awesome. Watch this if you've seen Holy Mountain, El Topo, The Dance of Reality, Fando y Lis and Tusk and still want more, but before The Rainbow Thief and La Cravate.
A Chilean French adventure by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
A communist tries to raise his weak son to be a strong man. The father then leaves to assassinate a government official or military leader, but fails. On the way back, he learns the true nature of kindness, compassion and his own identity.
As with all Jodorowsky films, I love this because it's weird and what I call a "Psychedelic Spiritual Journey". The advantage that this one has over Alejandro's other films is the use of modern camera equipment and compositing effects. Don't get me wrong, the old editing and physical effects used in his '70s films were great, but this looks more real when he wants to do something weird visually. There were some scenes in which the current A.J. appeared behind the character playing young him. I don't know if there was compositing used here, but the effect was irreplaceable. The plot was epic, but the pacing seemed to slow down at times. The main characters were the family (father, mother and son) and very well acted and developed. There were also many, MANY smaller roles that worked well. The style was classic Jodorowsky and was obviously his work. There was plenty of nudity (male and female) with the female earning anatomy points for the mother's breasts and the male including genital torture. With good camera-work and an awesome musical score that included a beautiful opera singer, there is not much else to say. I rate this best. Watch it if you like this director's other work.
An English historical drama directed by William K. Howard, starring Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
English nobles argue about war with Spain while a young Spanish man is falling in love with the English princess.
The plot and characters were some of the driest and most boring I've ever seen and on the whole, it was not a good film. However, the camera-work was PERFECT! I realized this at about 1:10 during a fight scene in which I could see both combatants struggling. Thinking retrospectively, I realized that the whole movie was shot wonderfully. There was a scene in which the young lead characters are together singing and the backdrop looks fantastic. I wish that modern filmmakers would shoot like this. Alejandro Jodorowsky would be proud. I'm rating it o.k. because it was a boring movie despite the great camera-work.
I'm not writing about a movie here, but hear me out. I've mentioned the terms "Hollywood bullshit" and "bad/too much camera-work" on this page enough times without much definition of what I'm talking about. I also remember mentioning a certain interview with a certain director who could explain these things. I'll put a link to this interview and hopefully you will understand.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCRCimMvF1w&feature=related
A drama directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.A girl in India shares a prized elephant with the elephant trainer. When the girl comes back from school in England, the elephant is provoked into violence at the party. The elephant then gets loose in a failed attempt by the local low lifes to steal it and multiple parties make an effort to catch it.The audio and video were horrible, but there was a cool fade in/fade out effect that was used between some scenes. The audio was in French and it had Spanish and English subtitles.I knew that I had the right movie when one man forced another to give him a piggy back ride over a mud puddle. This is not like Jodorowsky's famous masterpieces, but it was still good. The characters were portrayed well and it had a good plot. There were some distinct "Jodorowsky moments" and there was a hint of magic and spirituality to it. I watched it because of who made it, but it's probably worth a view. I like it, so I'm saying good.
A drama directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.A rich and soon-to-be dead man has an heir who lives in the sewers with a thief. The thief has run-ins with various characters in town.Apparently, the producers were so afraid of Alejandro that they forbid him from changing anything in the script, so what is seen is only a shadow of what it should have been. The whole film was focused on the thief, Dima and his character was developed well while others were merely extras in Dima's story. The giant and the midget were an odd pair and the supposedly blind beggars amused me slightly. The rich uncle was pretty wild and the plot was cool. I know you're expecting a green or purple because "Jodorowsky can do no wrong", but tough shit. I'm human, not a character in a film. Hence, this gets a blue "pretty good" rating because Alejandro was denied influence in it and it barely resembled the masterpieces of the great Jodorowsky.
A western by Alejandro Jodorowsky.This film follows 2 sections of a man's life. This man is impervious to bullets. In the first section, he travels through the desert to kill 4 master gun fighters. In the second section, he is adopted by cripples in a cave and has to dig a tunnel to get them out.The audio was in Spanish and subtitles were provided. The video was a little grainy, but what do you expect for 1970?check out: the gun fighter who plays with delicate shapes and "my body feels pain, not I".This is good. It's by Jodorowsky, so it couldn't be bad. However, it's not as good as "The Holy Mountain". This film is probably only for real film fanatics and Jodorowsky lovers.
An art film by Alejandro Jodorowsky.A group of 9 people goes on a quest for immortality.The audio and video were as good as it gets in content, but lacking slightly in quality.check out: The sets, costumes and props. There's some wild stuff.If you thought that "A Clockwork Orange" was too tame and that "Altered States" wasn't crazy enough, this movie is for you. Some viewers might not understand this film. Some may be repulsed and disgusted by it. Some may turn away from the screen in fear. From the psychedelic weapons to turning Jesus' poop into gold, Jodorowsky delivers the absolute wildest, craziest, most fucked up, best film I've ever seen. This is a MUST SEE for anyone who's into extreme film. WATCH THIS FILM!!!
