Who Is Alejandro Jodorowsky?
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This educational video essay compiles clips and interviews to detail the life and career of Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and how his unique cinematic style continues to influence our cultural lexicon.
*hey guys sorry about the mix being off in the intro, people have been letting me know the music is too loud. Future videos will be mixed better! Here is a transcript of what is said:*
"Alejandro Jodorowsky is a radically bold and outrageous filmmaker, whose work is incredibly spiritual, and on the surface it can seem esoteric. But in reality, his unique filmic style is informed by a lifelong study in Tarot, Eastern mysticism and Jungian philosophy. His visual approach combines vibrant, religious iconography with grotesque and often sexually violent imagery. His cinematography is both meticulous and surreal, and loaded with intense symbolic gravity - where objects and movements are turned into metaphors, emphasizing their concepts and ideas - OVER the literal plot points of the film. Watching any of his 9 films is a very dreamlike experience - a pageant for the eyes, but a meditation for the soul. And they all feel like they kind of exist in the same universe, this strange, circus-like reality, where everything is exaggerated, and hyper-coordinated. It’s a feeling I sometimes get when I watch Kubrick or Lynch, or even Wes Anderson - it’s the meticulous calculation and attention paid to the spatial arrangement of objects - it evokes the feeling of an omnipresent designer, a sort of all-seeing eye. But I think Jodorowsky’s universe, on an optical level, soars above these other painterly directors. Visually his films go toe-to-toe with Wes Anderson’s, matching his mastery of color and shot composition - but Jodorowsky’s visions actually have true symbolic meaning. They have a spiritual seriousness to them, as if they’re imploring the viewer to transcend to some higher plain of existence. The man himself is something of a mystic. A self-titled ‘Psycho-Magician.' His parents were circus performers, and elements of his highly unusual upbringing often appear in his films - as well as his love of the occult, Jungian philosophy, Tarot, and Eastern mysticism. In this video, I’ll be taking a quick look at each of his films in the order that he made them, inspecting how they were made, and what they might possibly mean - while also delving into some of Jodorowsky’s more hilarious eccentricities as a person. I’ll also be covering his cultural legacy, and the many artists who’ve ripped him off over the years. So let’s see if we can begin to unearth some of the mysteries behind one of cinema’s boldest and most out-there voices, and one of my all-time favorites."
This educational video essay compiles clips and interviews to detail the life and career of Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, and how his unique cinematic style continues to influence our cultural lexicon.
*hey guys sorry about the mix being off in the intro, people have been letting me know the music is too loud. Future videos will be mixed better! Here is a transcript of what is said:*
"Alejandro Jodorowsky is a radically bold and outrageous filmmaker, whose work is incredibly spiritual, and on the surface it can seem esoteric. But in reality, his unique filmic style is informed by a lifelong study in Tarot, Eastern mysticism and Jungian philosophy. His visual approach combines vibrant, religious iconography with grotesque and often sexually violent imagery. His cinematography is both meticulous and surreal, and loaded with intense symbolic gravity - where objects and movements are turned into metaphors, emphasizing their concepts and ideas - OVER the literal plot points of the film. Watching any of his 9 films is a very dreamlike experience - a pageant for the eyes, but a meditation for the soul. And they all feel like they kind of exist in the same universe, this strange, circus-like reality, where everything is exaggerated, and hyper-coordinated. It’s a feeling I sometimes get when I watch Kubrick or Lynch, or even Wes Anderson - it’s the meticulous calculation and attention paid to the spatial arrangement of objects - it evokes the feeling of an omnipresent designer, a sort of all-seeing eye. But I think Jodorowsky’s universe, on an optical level, soars above these other painterly directors. Visually his films go toe-to-toe with Wes Anderson’s, matching his mastery of color and shot composition - but Jodorowsky’s visions actually have true symbolic meaning. They have a spiritual seriousness to them, as if they’re imploring the viewer to transcend to some higher plain of existence. The man himself is something of a mystic. A self-titled ‘Psycho-Magician.' His parents were circus performers, and elements of his highly unusual upbringing often appear in his films - as well as his love of the occult, Jungian philosophy, Tarot, and Eastern mysticism. In this video, I’ll be taking a quick look at each of his films in the order that he made them, inspecting how they were made, and what they might possibly mean - while also delving into some of Jodorowsky’s more hilarious eccentricities as a person. I’ll also be covering his cultural legacy, and the many artists who’ve ripped him off over the years. So let’s see if we can begin to unearth some of the mysteries behind one of cinema’s boldest and most out-there voices, and one of my all-time favorites."