Psychomagic

March 14, 2018 1:56 PM

Buy High, Sell Cheap: An Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky (Elianna Kan, The Paris Review).
posted by sapagan (13 comments total)

Remember going to see him in a small gathering at Universidad Católica in Santiago with about 50 other students, most of them sitting around him in a circle lapping up his psychomagic psychobabble.

I have tremendous respect for his comic book writing, some for his movies, and, as a fellow Chilean, call bullshit on his mystical healing shtick, except maybe as a kind of con-as-art, in which case I salute him for pulling one over on all the rubes.
posted by signal at 2:16 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

I always felt an absence of nationality and never had something of my own, a place that belonged to me.

This may help explain why he's created worlds.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:48 PM on March 14, 2018

The second-most impressive part of Jodorowsky’s Dune was the jaw-dropping Moebius concept art. The most impressive part was Amanda Lear’s patience with that collection of ridiculous fucking men.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 3:51 PM on March 14, 2018 [7 favorites]

I really love ridiculous, weird people. I used to follow him on Facebook, and this video is the best. I just like to picture someone walking by and being totally confused by what's going on. He's a total character, even if (or because) most of his "cosmic" stuff is absurd bullshit.

Anyway, The Holy Mountain rules.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:03 PM on March 14, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm really glad he's happy. The ending, about his dreams and love of life, good for him. I want to dream like that!
posted by Meatbomb at 5:03 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

He's an asshole. That being said, his movies have only gotten better and his two most recent (Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry) are fantastic.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:51 PM on March 14, 2018

What a fun interview. What spirit and play.
posted by doctornemo at 6:03 PM on March 14, 2018

When is #metoo going to get to Jodorowsky? It is literally even on his Wikipedia page that he raped the lead actress of El Topo onscreen for the movie. He's a brilliant filmmaker, certainly, and an interesting person, but in this day and age surely that isn't enough anymore?
posted by Rush-That-Speaks at 6:32 PM on March 14, 2018 [8 favorites]

Oh, goddamn it. I never knew about that.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 6:35 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

He doesn't seem interested in covering up the dirt he's done. I don't see a lick of cognitive dissonance in the guy. (Anyone remember that "you have to rape the bride" moment near the end of _Jodorowsky's_ Dune_? )

I am both fascinated and repulsed by the guy, though 'repulsed' is beating out 'fascinated' by about a factor of 9.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 7:15 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, it always surprises me that so few people know Jodorowsky is an awful person. I would put him in the same league as Woody Allen and Roman Polanski.
posted by Pendragon at 4:35 AM on March 15, 2018

> Rush-That-Speaks:
"It is literally even on his Wikipedia page that he raped the lead actress of El Topo onscreen for the movie."

Squick. Did not know that.

/me crosses new Incal comic book off of to-buy list.
posted by signal at 10:00 AM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

When is #metoo going to get to Jodorowsky? It is literally even on his Wikipedia page that he raped the lead actress of El Topo onscreen for the movie

Did not know this, sorry about that. Wouldn't have posted the interview on the blue otherwise.
posted by sapagan at 12:52 PM on March 15, 2018