Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky Headshot

Director • Writer • Actor

Birth Date: February 17, 1929

Age: 95 years old

Birth Place: Tocopilla, Chile

This eccentric, outspoken Chilean-born director, writer and actor is best-known for two avant-garde cult films, "El Topo" (1970) and "The Holy Mountain" (1973). Jodorowsky, born to Russian immigrants, grew up in a tough Chilean port city. His family moved to Santiago, and Jodorowsky formed a circus troupe and moved to Paris in 1955 to study mime with Marcel Marceau. By 1960, he was writing and directing for the theater, traveling between Mexico and Paris. He co-founded the surrealist review "S.NOB" and, with playwright Fernando Arrabal and artist Roland Topor, formed the theater of the absurd company (heavily influenced by Antonin Artaud) Producciones Panicas.

Their first major play was the scandalous four-hour, multi-media "Sacramental Melodrama," staged at the Paris Festival of Free Expression in 1965. Eventually giving up on theater, Jodorowsky returned to Mexico, where he wrote books and comics and experimented with film. His first was "Fando and Lis" (1968), a Fellini-esque love story which was promptly banned after provoking riots.

Jodorowsky then wrote, directed, scored and acted in the film which brought him more fame and notoriety, "El Topo/The Mole" (1970). A meandering, violent and highly impressionistic film, "El Topo" follows the travels of the eponymous hero (Jodorowsky) and his son (Jodorowsky's own seven-year-old son Brontis) as they encounter bandits, massacres, hippies and lesbians, in search of knowledge and/or redemption. A weird combination of the styles of Bunuel, Fellini, Antonioni and Russ Meyer, "El Topo" found its audience through New York's Elgin Theater, which screened the film at midnight showings every night for more than a year. Discovered by trendy downtowners, artsy intellectuals and finally by critics, "El Topo" became possibly the first "cult" film.

"The Holy Mountain" (1973), Jodorowsky's next film, was equally bizarre and portentous (many said "pretentious"). Also filmed in Mexico, "The Holy Mountain" told the story of a thief and his Dante-like travels, chock full of eye-popping sex, violence and religious references. Another midnight movie hit, "The Holy Mountain" disappointed critically and a disillusioned Jodorowsky retired to Paris.

His career never really came back to full-throttle. In 1980, Jodorowsky wrote and directed "Tusk," the tale of an elephant hunt, then went underground again until 1989, when he wrote and directed the Italian-made "Santa Sangria/Holy Blood," the story of a young serial killer (played by Jodorowsky's son Axel) redeemed through love. "The Rainbow Thief" (1990) starred Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, bigger movie than the director normally had the chance to work with. It was his last film for 23 years. After two decades of false starts, Jodorowsky returned to the screen with "The Dance of Reality" (2013), which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival alongside "Jodorowsky's Dune" (2013), a documentary by Frank Pavich about the director's abandoned 1970s attempt to create a transformative film version of Frank Herbert's cult science fiction novel.

Credits

Psychomagie, un art pour guérir

Director
Movie
2019

Psychomagie, un art pour guérir

Producer
Movie
2019

Psychomagie, un art pour guérir

Screenwriter
Movie
2019

Psychomagie, un art pour guérir

Self
Movie
2019

Endless Poetry

Actor
Alejandro
Movie
2016

Endless Poetry

Director
Movie
2016

Endless Poetry

Executive Producer
Movie
2016

Endless Poetry

Screenwriter
Movie
2016

Jodorowsky's DuneStream

Self
Movie
2013
98%

The Dance of Reality

Actor
Alejandro adulte
Movie
2013

The Dance of Reality

Director
Movie
2013

The Dance of Reality

Producer
Movie
2013

The Dance of Reality

Screenwriter
Movie
2013

Ritual: Una storia psicomagica

Actor
Fernando
Movie
2013

The Island

Actor
Jodo
Movie
2011

Musikanten

Actor
Ludwig van Beethoven
Movie
2006

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream

Self
Movie
2005

La constellation Jodorowsky

Self
Movie
1994

The Rainbow Thief

Director
Movie
1990

Santa sangre

Director
Movie
1989

Santa sangre

Writer (Story)
Movie
1989

The Holy Mountain

Actor
The Alchemist
Movie
1973

The Holy Mountain

Director
Movie
1973

The Holy Mountain

Writer
Movie
1973

El TopoStream

Actor
El Topo
Movie
1971
80%

El TopoStream

Director
Movie
1971
80%

El TopoStream

Writer
Movie
1971
80%

Fando et Lis

Director
Movie
1968

Fando et Lis

Screenwriter
Movie
1968