10-30-2017, 10:28 AM
I saw this last century before I knew what a Jodorowsky was, and it seemed time for a revisit. Fortunately, the library has a two-disk set.
Wow. I'd forgotten so much of it and missed so many things. So many vivid characters and over-the-top scenes -- and the childhood traumas! Very emotional. Visceral. Just a staggering achievement. I'd been under the mistaken impression that this was the first of Jodorowsky's big three, but actually it was the last. The ordering is El Topo (1970), Holy Mountain (1973), and Santa Sangre (1989). The big sinkhole before Santa Sangre is the whole Dune debacle and fallout -- and oh how watching this made me feel the loss of that failed project all the more.
The second disc is interviews with Alejandro and cast members about the making of Santa Sangre, accompanied by relevant footage. I found it largely mesmerizing. Alejandro was too old to play a key role in this film (unlike in El Topo and Magic Mountain), so he sought other actors. There was pressure on him to cast big-name actors, but he felt that would detract from the film (I concur). So instead, after a lot of screen tests and searching, he ended up casting his son, and his other son, and another son, and still another son -- and it works. What an incredibly talented family. And the mind games he played with them on set, to draw them out, sometimes rather cruel. But they all laugh about it now, except one who died shortly after filming (Alejandro cannot watch the movie these days, because it's too painful seeing that son's performance).
Alejandro is a crazy genius. He reminds me a lot of Dali. He's such a bull-shitter, says things that are preposterous. But then you start to realize there's a kernel of truth to what he says -- and maybe more truth than you really want to accept.
I look at a lot of new trailers on youtube. It's only a slight exaggeration to say they all look the same. One minute of Santa Sangre has more to offer than any one of those films in its entirety.
I want Alejandro's Doom, dammit. I want to be catapulted into the alternate reality where it got made.
Wow. I'd forgotten so much of it and missed so many things. So many vivid characters and over-the-top scenes -- and the childhood traumas! Very emotional. Visceral. Just a staggering achievement. I'd been under the mistaken impression that this was the first of Jodorowsky's big three, but actually it was the last. The ordering is El Topo (1970), Holy Mountain (1973), and Santa Sangre (1989). The big sinkhole before Santa Sangre is the whole Dune debacle and fallout -- and oh how watching this made me feel the loss of that failed project all the more.
The second disc is interviews with Alejandro and cast members about the making of Santa Sangre, accompanied by relevant footage. I found it largely mesmerizing. Alejandro was too old to play a key role in this film (unlike in El Topo and Magic Mountain), so he sought other actors. There was pressure on him to cast big-name actors, but he felt that would detract from the film (I concur). So instead, after a lot of screen tests and searching, he ended up casting his son, and his other son, and another son, and still another son -- and it works. What an incredibly talented family. And the mind games he played with them on set, to draw them out, sometimes rather cruel. But they all laugh about it now, except one who died shortly after filming (Alejandro cannot watch the movie these days, because it's too painful seeing that son's performance).
Alejandro is a crazy genius. He reminds me a lot of Dali. He's such a bull-shitter, says things that are preposterous. But then you start to realize there's a kernel of truth to what he says -- and maybe more truth than you really want to accept.
I look at a lot of new trailers on youtube. It's only a slight exaggeration to say they all look the same. One minute of Santa Sangre has more to offer than any one of those films in its entirety.
I want Alejandro's Doom, dammit. I want to be catapulted into the alternate reality where it got made.
I'm nobody's pony.