Endless Poetry (2016)

Surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky tells the story of himself as a young man becoming a poet in Chile, befriending other artists, and freeing himself from the limits of his youth.

Director:

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer:

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Stars:

Adan Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Leandro Taub

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adan Jodorowsky	...	Alejandro Jodorowsky
Brontis Jodorowsky	...	Jaime Jodorowsky
Leandro Taub	...	Enrique Lihn
Pamela Flores	...	Sara / Stella Díaz Varín
Alejandro Jodorowsky	...	Self
Jeremias Herskovits	...	Alejandro Jodorowsky as a child
Julia Avedaño	...	Pequeñita
Bastián Bodenhöfer	...	General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo
Carolyn Carlson	...	Maria Lefevre, tarot reader
Ali Ahmad Sa'Id Esber	...	Alejandro / Andrés Racz (as Adonis)
Kaori Ito	...	Cana - The Japanese Dancer
Montserrat Lopez	...	Veronica Cereceda
Patricia Pardo	...	Carmen Cereceda
Rony Ancavilu	...	Alberto Rubio
Felipe Peña Venegas	...	Gustavo Becerra

Storyline

Through Alejandro Jodorowsky's autobiographical lens, Endless Poetry narrates the years of the Chilean artist's youth during which he liberated himself from all of his former limitations, from his family, and was introduced into the foremost bohemian artistic circle of 1940s Chile where he met Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra... at the time promising young but unknown artists who would later become the titans of twentieth-century Hispanic literature. He grew inspired by the beauty of existence alongside these beings, exploring life together, authentically and freely. A tribute to Chile's artistic heritage, Endless Poetry is also an ode to the quest for beauty and inner truth, as a universal force capable of changing one's life forever, written by a man who has dedicated his life and career to creating spiritual and artistic awareness across the globe.

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Plot Keywords:

male full frontal nudity | male frontal nudity | pubic hair | male male kiss | gay | 

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Unrated

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the second of the five memoirs Alejandro Jodorowsky plans to shoot, the first one being The Dance of Reality (2013).

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Goofs

Alejandro leaves his parents and moves in with the two girls in the 1940's. You can see a Terracotta Army sculpture in the corner of his room, but the Terracotta Army was only discovered on 29 March 1974. However, both this and The Dance of Reality have anachronisms on purpose.

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Quotes

Alejandro: I have sold my devil to the soul!

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits, there's a message for everyone who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign. Then, a scene from the movie is re-shown.

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Connections

Edited from The Dance of Reality (2013)

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Soundtracks

String Quartet No.4 Part I, Allegro
Written by Gustavo Becerra
Performed by Philadelphia String Quartet

User Reviews

a stunning achievement of reminiscence and self-confession

Outré Chilean cult stylist Alejandro Jodorowsky has broken a protracted 23 year hiatus in 2013 with THE DANCE OF REALITY, an autobiographic treatment based on his own memoir, and ENDLESS POETRY is its sequel, in the beginning, departed from his hometown Tocopilla, a teen Alejandro (Herskovits) is transferred to Santiago with his parents Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky, Alejandro's eldest son in real life) and Sara (Flores), all three continue their roles from TDOR.

Exhorted by his martinetish father to become a doctor, the gawky Alejandro takes a rebellious act in plumping for poetry as an outlet, introduced by his gay cousin Ricardo (Carrasco), he leaves home and stays with a cohort of amateur artists and soon an adult Alejandro (played by musician Adan Jodorowsky, Alejandro's youngest son) meets the avant-garde poetess Stella Díaz Varín (Flores too), overwhelmed by her prowess over his manhood, a wide-eyed Alejandro subjects himself to her whims but eventually thinks better of it (after the taste of forbidden fruit). Later he founds camaraderie in fellow poet Enrique Lihn (Taub), but his over-closeness with the latter's dwarf girlfriend Pequeñita (Avendaño) strains their friendship. Eventually, disaffected by General Carlos Ibáñez's ascension to power, Alejandro bids farewell to his friends and motherland, embarks a trip to Paris before squaring up with Jaime whom he will never meet again, told by his old self (Alejandro in person), a second chance only can be conjured up in its filmic illusion.

First and foremost, the octogenarian maestro still has his outlandish style in check, his trademark magic realism, wedded confidently with an ultra theatrical tableau (that old haunt Cafe Iris, peppered with soporific patrons and senile waiters in its subdued timber), grants his audience a sumptuous feast of chromatic plethora: those varicolored decor, a boisterous shindig, a risqué tarot seance, a devil-cum-death parade, not to mention bold sex exploitation, nothing can curb Mr. Jodorowsky's imagination and recollections, in this sense, the film is a perfect ode to his youth and a left-field Chile of that time. But, yes, there is always a "but", what takes the film's appeal down a peg or two is its relinquishment of mystique, of poetic-ism, of art and of life itself in lieu of visual impact. Its dialog fails to capture the subtlety of words and the film is overtly plain in recounting the vicissitude of incidences, the usage of poetry is self-consciously verbal and evanescent, we are not given enough time to dwell on its connotations before the story rambles on in its episodic reveries.

Adan Jodorowsky's central performance is adequate at best, affable but far from an engrossing raconteur; Brontis Jodorowsky, on the other hand, sometimes falls into unnecessary cothurnus as if his monstrous father figure is not repugnant enough; but it is Pamela Flores, in her magnificent double roles, one as a domestic mother embodied solely by soprano, another is the red-hair, buxom dominatrix, sets the screen ablaze in addition to the Oedipal tie-in.

Admittedly, poetry is always a thorny subject to get its full treatment with cinematic parameters, Jodorowsky's attempt has its benign intention, but doesn't give justice to the soul of poetry, nevertheless, it is still a stunning achievement of reminiscence and self-confession, with this auteur's flourish.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

Chile UK France Japan

Language:

Spanish French English

Release Date:

14 July 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Endless Poetry

Filming Locations:

Santiago, Chile

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$28,591, 16 July 2017

Gross USA:

$153,440

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$559,029

Company Credits

Production Co:

Le Pacte, Le Soleil Films, Openvizor

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1