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31 out of 36 people found the following review useful: A film that makes me confront my deepest fears., 22 July 2005 Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PA
"Santa Sangre" is one of Jodorowsky's most accessible films. Although not as strange as "El Topo" and "the Holy Mountain", it is still very bizarre ..... A colorful, horrifying and hallucinatory masterpiece. Many have compared it to "Psycho", "Freaks" and "Fellini". In my opinion, you can't compare it to anything because it's in its own category. Produced by Claudio Argento, brother of Dario Argento; the film does have a similar color style to "Suspiria". "Santa Sangre" is the story of Fenix, a man in a mental institution at the films beginning. A flashback shows Fenix as a child, growing up in the circus. His mother, Concha is a trapeze artist and religious fanatic who worships an armless god. His father Olgo is a knife thrower, who is constantly having flirtatious encounters with the ugly, cruel tattooed women. Fenix's closest friends are a mute mime, a dwarf and of course clowns. After a circus performance, Fenix's mother catches Olgo having an affair with the tattooed lady. In a fit of jealous rage, she dumps acid on their genital regions. Then Olgo cuts off Concha's arms like the goddess, and then cuts his own throat. Poor Fenix witnesses the death of his father, and the Tattooed women drives away with his mute friend Alma. Years later Fenix is reunited with his armless mother, she's out for revenge. In order for her to throw knives, he has to stand behind her and put his arms through her sleeves. It's as if she controls his arms with her mind. "Santa Sangre" is very bloody, disturbing and surreal, but at the same time beautiful and dreamlike. It contains bizarre images such as an elephant funeral, chickens falling from the sky, and mentally handicapped kids tricked into snorting cocaine. (the last being a metaphor for societies corruption of the innocent) Because the film is psychologically disturbing, it makes me confront my deepest subconscious fears; loss of arms, genitals or sanity. I have watched the film more than several times, and it is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it, I cringe as I'm challenged by both its beauty and disturbing intensity. So it's not really a horror film, but a surreal masterpiece with horrifying images. It will haunt you long after it's over.
20 out of 23 people found the following review useful: This One Stays With You, 22 July 2002 Author: daiskeyoshida from New York
I remember seeing this movie in 1990 in a tiny cinema in London, on a date. As we walked from the theater and got on the tube, neither of us said a word for 20 minutes. Finally, she said, "you have a strange taste in films."Back then, I was heavily into Luis Bunuel. This was one of the few post-Bunuel movies that embodied the essential creepiness and odd humor of the Surrealists (the other one that comes to mind is "Videodrome"). There's the obvious Freudian stuff, the obvious shock stuff, but leaving all that aside, there are indelible moments of cinematic poetry. The elephant; the son's arms; the final shot. It feels, more than 10 years later, like a repressed dream/nightmare.I don't consider this a "horror" movie, in the sense that there are no slasher, monster, alien, demon, zombie, cannibal, haunted house, supernatural, dread disease, or giallo elements. I don't remember this movie being particularly scary or gory; just creepy. Maybe it's in a similar genre to "Eyes Without a Face," but only in the sense that both movies deal with mutilation and revenge. (Then again, I remember seeing "Un Chien Andalou" and "In the Realm of the Senses" in the horror section of a video store -- a sign of either ignorance or insight, I could never figure out.) This one truly belongs in the Foreign Films section, but not just for being non-Hollywood.
19 out of 24 people found the following review useful: You will remember this movie!, 24 February 2000 Author: lunarmm from Philadelphia, PA
I saw the U.S. premiere of this movie at the DC FilmFest. I was intrigued by the thought of a man who makes movies once every 15 years.Well, I'll tell you. The people sitting next to me left 10 - 15 minutes into the movie. If you can get through the first 30 minutes, it is worthwhile.Of course, I am into very surrealistic movies and ones that address the question of what is real and what is not.After seeing it, the visuals have stayed with me over the years. A powerful movie for the adventurous.
15 out of 17 people found the following review useful: Unforgettable, but not for everyone, 1 October 2003 Author: AJ Milne from Ottawa, Canada
There's so much you can say about this work. Vivid characters, colours, and situations that practically leap off the screen into the theatre next to you. A wonderfully quirky, repeatedly startling story. Graceful low-key cinematography that turns slums and sideshows into an eerily beautiful netherworld, countless images that look like you could freeze them and hang them as inspirational totems for cults we have to hope don't exist. Jodorowsky paints with a heavy, vibrant brush, but it's the perfect tone for this primal-yet-humanizing tale.But I should post a warning. As far as I'm concerned, my first viewing of this film was one of the more worthwhile two hours or so I've ever spent in a theatre, and I think based on my experience that this sadly neglected wonder deserves every bit of word-of-mouth promotion it can get. But I'm betting it's not to everyone's taste.So this is my advice: if you found Storaro's green and red/jungle foliage and human remains canvasses in Apocalypse Now unsettlingly beautiful the first time you saw them, and wondered momentarily whether still prints were available for hanging before realizing what you were actually suggesting to yourself, here's a film for you. If you found Delicatessan's celebration of the paradoxical beauty hiding in human ugliness and stupidity a bit too sanitized for your taste, Santa Sangre's rather murkier depths await. You will love this work.If, on the other hand, you have no taste for painters who work best in human blood as opposed to oils, and/or don't appreciate a bloody carnality mixed in with your religious metaphor, you will quite probably hate it with a passion that exceeds my affection. And I don't really blame you or judge you for walking out early. It takes all kinds.Either way, fondly or with revulsion, you will remember it vividly, ten years later. I can say this confidently, as that's how long it was from the first time I saw this film to the day I wrote this review. Don't say I didn't warn you.
20 out of 31 people found the following review useful: Close to perfect, 11 July 2000 Author: cofemug from Seattle, WA
First let me say that this is my frist movie by the director. I have not seen El Topo, or any of his others. This is a great movie, in my opinion. Not quite perfect, but still great. It, more than any other movie I have seen, exudes the most raw emotion without saying a single word. One of the movies characters is a deaf mute. There is hardly any dialogue, but it is all the better without it. It oozes the emotion that it needs to pass by through camera work, style, and acting.The story is not your normal story, and in fact is a bit creepy. I will not tell you one single part of it, because I only knew very little going in to see it. But, let me tell you that it is not for the weak of mind or heart. But, the emotion of the movie is completely there, and I highly recommend this to the people who don't mind thinking to be slightly scared. And this is a movie that doesn't feel it has to explain everything away, and so is all the better for it.9/10
13 out of 18 people found the following review useful: A fantastic film, 1 April 2000 Author: xanathar (xterminalx@yahoo.com) from Cleveland, OH
Once again, Alejandro Jodorowsky has managed to come up with a film that defies genrification even as it defies description. Santa Sangre is, on its surface, something of a suspense/horror film, but under the surface, it's a psychological drama, a black comedy, and about a hundred other genres all meshing in such perfect harmony that it's impossible to easily categorize this masterpiece.All I can say is, if you have a chance to see this film, definitely do so. While the film is not recommended for those under 18 on the box, it is unrated. Much of the violence here is suggested rather than shown, and what nudity there is is more allegorical and less prurient. Probably not for the squeamish, but never crosses that line between the disturbing and the gross-out.
6 out of 8 people found the following review useful: A walk through Santa Sangre., 17 September 2004 Author: dmtls from Thessaloniki, Greece
This is truly a shocking film crammed with bizarre and grotesque violence both explicit and lurking beyond the 'five-senses perception'.A sick masterpiece by a sick genius.Santa Sangre evolves into the strange universe of its creator ,Alejandro Jodorowsky.This is not at least surprising because most of his works:films (El Topo etc.),comics (The cast of the Metabarons,Inkal etc.)etc etc,are pieces of the very same puzzle,Alejandro's universe.Santa Sangre (Holy Blood) is a pure surrealistic work.Symbols,insanity, Life and Death mix up the wild beauty of Ancient Greek Tragedy.In conclusion: this is not a film for everyone,but if you are open minded you will be able to make a step further,beyond the image itself and face the deep brutal truth of this movie.This is how it would look like a movie shot by Salvator Dali himself.
9 out of 14 people found the following review useful: a masterpiece, indeed, 13 December 1999 Author: dmuel from downtown, Michigan
This is a startling work, a truly artistic masterpiece, which did achieve some mainstream recognition for Jodorowoski but not what the film deserved. Filled with unsettling images, grotesque displays of violence and sexuality, and subtle but comic references, Santa Sangre is Jodorowoski's most coherent work. It is also a thoroughly artistic work, with a greater emphasis on representation than drama or morality. If you have not seen this movie, rent it. You will not soon forget it whatever your final evaluation might be. Too bad its not available on DVD (hint).
8 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Opus Magnum!!, 22 January 2001 Author: Leysser León Hilario (leysser@rocketmail.com) from Lima, Peru
(To Raffaella Scorza, a Perugia). It is not a horror film (please). It is a tribute to a Latin American artistic movement: the magic realism which continues feeding our Literature. I think we are in front of a inexhaustible fountain, an obligatory point of reference to many other films, like "Underground" and "Magnolia" (both of them, were done later). The director was great (many times the money is not well-invested; Jodorowsky has employ any cent to making real a mountainous dream). It is difficult to summarize the plot without a description of the episodes. I don't want to do it. What can I write?: well, a lot of blood, nightmares, flashbacks, violence; all combined artistically, the product is not disgusting. I give 9 points to this film. Believe me, you will enjoy it, like Raffaella and me.
8 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Surreal, scabrous, but seemingly moving, 29 October 1999 Author: Afracious from England
After a long absence Jodorowsky returned with this surreal but more accessible offering than his earlier work, focusing on a circus and starring Jodorowsky's son and grandson as Fenix, a young boy who witnesses his father cut off the arms of his mother before committing suicide. Then we see Fenix grown up and finding his mother again, and she uses him as her slave, using his hands for her various needs and also to commit murder. There are the trademark Jodorowsky images in parts with deformed people on a trip out from an asylum, and powerful scenes like the elephant being savaged for food. But it somehow has a more warmer and humble feel to it than his previous work.
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