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Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection on DVD (2007)

Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection cover art
Average rating: (61%)
4641311201419713
3.0
 
Starring: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Studio: TARTAN VIDEO
Run time: 334 mins
Certificate: 18
User collections: The Sublime on Celluloid | The cult world of the midnight movie | Ohh, my head hurts. | Beautiful as the trembling hands of an alcoholic... | Cult classics | What In God's Name Was That All About? | acid for the eyes | Jonny's DVD Collection - Part 8 (H)
Genres: Drama | World Cinema
Languages: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Released: 14/05/2007

Brief synopsis of Alejandro Jodorowsky Collection

Three of the visionary director Alejandro Jodorowsky's most celebrated yet rarely seen films - El Topo, Holy Mountain and Fando & Lis. All have been digitally restored and remastered, under the close supervision of the director himself, and presented along with an array of superb extra features, including a rare 1957 short, original trailers and deleted scenes.

El Topo (1970): The gunfighter El Topo ('The Mole') and his young son ride through a desert to a village, whose inhabitants have been massacred. Bandits are nearby, torturing and killing the survivors. El Topo rescues a woman (Mara), who leads him on a mission to find and defeat the four master gunmen of the desert.

Holy Mountain (1973): An epic hallucination filled with weirdness and wonder. The story centres on a thief who joins a group of people who plan to storm The Holy Mountain and steal the secret of eternal life...

Fando & Lis (1968): Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.

All DVDs in this series

Fando & Lis
Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memorie...
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El Topo
With its combination of surreal imagery and assault on the ideals of the Western, EL TOPO may appear to be equ...
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The Holy Mountain
An epic hallucination filled with weirdness and wonder. The story centres on a thief who joins a group of peop...
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La Constellation Jodorowsky
90 minute documentary by Louis Mouchet featuring Jodorowsky....
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Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 0 starsfor Jodorowsky fans only

MUNCH from Gorebridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 04/02/2008

This collection of short films from the extreme arthouse director was in my view boring and very arty i couldent get to grips with the content and didiny see the disc to the end

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starspretty amazing south american psychedelic western

pure evil from hellzone , 04/03/2006

This film is bizarre and amazing and is a partner film with Jodrowksys THE HOLY MOUNTAIN which is the weirdest film I have ever watched... search high and low until you see that film... and in the meantime enjoy this one.. truly bizarre and brilliant and very baffling..

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsA brilliant story about enlightenment and self exploration

TristanWhite [Highly rated reviewer] , 05/01/2008

'The Holy Mountain' is a masterpiece, simple as. If you watch it with a closed mind, or you are not a spiritual person, you'll probably think it is artw*nk. I urge you to watch it again, but this time with the subtitles of Jodorowsky's commentary. It will explain everything, from the jewellery to the symbolism to the dwarf etc etc etc. And then you will realise you've watched something special.

I watched the film immediately afterwards with the subtitles as I knew it was special but some of the symbolism I had missed. I love it so much I'm now going to buy it so I can watch it again and again... It is a life affirming movie, and quite beautiful.

Yes, there are some scenes that animal-lovers will find hard to watch, but they are all essential (again, read the subs). Jodorowsky himself was someone very spiritual and in touch with nature and the concept of reincarnation. It is important to consider this at all times.

He plays the alchemist who brings the Christ character (a thief) on a spiritual journey. In real life, over six months, he brought unknown actors - hardly any of whom had experimented with psychodelic drugs - on the same spiritual journey, and for this reason the film was actually shot chronologically, so that the journey would be intense for his 'actors' and they too would find enlightenment. I did not want this film to end, and felt very close to the story.

'Fando & Lis' is nowhere near as good, but it's interesting none the less. I didn't listen to the commentary - not sure there was one, I wish I had checked before I sent it back - but it's much more 'accessible' so you don't really need one. In a way, the story reminded me of Fellini, and the girl certainly has something of Gelsomina about her. Again, quite a surreal tale, about a man carrying a paraplegic woman around Tar. It's not as good, in fact it's rather poor by comparison.

'El Topo' is a film I didn't 'get' so much when I first saw it, and I was a little disappointed. However, I will certainly give it another viewing with a more open mind.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsSurreal spaghetti western

A customer from Colchester, England , 19/06/2005

I saw this film in 1973 and so I'm commenting from memory. It's full of disturbing, gross images,which linger in the mind. For example, one scene involves a man with no arms giving a piggy back to a man with no legs. In another, a man, armed with five pistols, rapes a line of naked male prisoners. The hero's weapon is an ancient flintlock pistol. I'm not sure what the message is meant to be, but it makes most other westerns look like rather bland clichees. Not easy watching, but well worth a look if you're after something different.

  4 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsFando Y Lis

Thrillhammer from London , 19/08/2008

Any Jodorowsky film is always a treat and this is no exception. Leaning heavily on Bunuel's influence he creates a wonderful fantasy world where the occult dictates the action and skillful editing and dubbing seal the illusion. Well worth a viewing.

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