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An error has ocurred. Please try againDunno if it will be useful for anybody... it's just a mix of favourite movies I've rated between 8 and 10 stars. Austere art movies, middle-brow dramas and cute fantasy films... all mixed up.
Reviews
La danza de la realidad (2013)
One of Jodorowsky's best works, perhaps even THE best!
Jodorowsky's works have been a part of my life since I first started venturing into the grown up section of my local public library (here in Denmark) in the early 1980s and discovered the "Incal" comics he was doing with Moebius at that time.
I gotta admit I'm not always convinced. "The Incal" is a wonderful comics classic, but some of his later (serialised) books seem to fizzle out to nothing after they've taken years to complete. They've given me quite a bit of frustration - and the reviewers in the comics press often seem equally frustrated.
I bought his return to movie making "Santa Sangre" when it was first released on VHS back around 1990. And I love this movie! It's in my opinion completely coherent and satisfying, and I've seen it many times.
The long awaited DVD box-set of his older 1970s work was a bit of a disappointment. Some good scenes in the movies, but also a lot of semi- amateurish wannabe-spiritual 1970s-style hippie-rambling. The best part of the box was the very enjoyable documentary "La constellation Jodorowsky", which you might be able to find on you-tube with a bit of luck.
But as for his new movie: It's good. VERY good. Possibly even better than "Santa Sangre". In some ways it seems like a remake of "El Topo", except without the western-trappings and based more closely on his own childhood. The main character (Jodorowsky's father) undergoes much the same transformation as El Topo, but the narrative is much more coherent and gripping. I was lucky enough to attend a screening with Jodo's son (who played El Topo's son, and plays Jodo's father in this movie), and while I was mesmerized by the movie even before listening to Brontis Jodorowsky - who is a funny, cool and sensible down-to-earth guy - the information he gave me made me appreciate it even more.
Basically the first part of the movie is a magical realist version of Jodo's childhood. But then the 'psycho magic' therapy that Jodo practices (in his second career as a kind of Tarot-card - or whatever - therapist) starts to play a part, and the movie becomes a kind of exorcism of the hard asshole'ish macho-part of his dictatorial father - the movie gives the father-character the journey of learning he never had in real life, making him a better wiser man that real-life Jodorowsky is able to make (symbolic) peace with. Anyway, this may sound like a lot of nonsense, but it made a lot of sense when Brontis Jodorowsky talked about it, and it makes for a compelling movie, even without the background information. It's as good as any Fellini-meets-Latin- American-Magical-Realism-movie could ever hope to be.
Basically I'm just happy that Jodo has now made two movies and one graphic novel ("The Incal") that I'm able to embrace and enjoy 100%.
Finisterrae (2010)
Tedious and amateurish
This movie isn't any good at all. The only reason I'm reviewing it at all is that the IMDb rating is suspiciously high for such an amateurish piece of work - I bet there are quite a few friends and family of the crew who've been in here giving it a favorable rating. Anyway, this movie comes off as being directed by a bunch of first year students who've grown up on annoying The Lord of The Rings-style fantasy and have recently been introduced to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. They try to ape some Tarkovsky-style cinematography, and they've picked some quite atmospheric locations. But sorry - it results in no cinematographic magic. There are some attempts at no-budget special effects. "Look! We can do backwards shots! And now we're turning the camera upside down!" I'm not giving this a good kicking because it's an 'experimental' movie and I don't know anything about slow pretentious art movies. I'm fairly well versed in Tarkovsky, Angeloupolus, Ozu etc. They're good. This movie is not. The music is nice enough - Nico, Suicide, Anton Webern etc, artists who do 'dark and pretentious' much better than the people who made this movie.