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Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
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Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (Spanish: [xoðoˈɾofski]; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films El Topo (1970), The Holy Mountain (1973) and Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".[1]

Key Information

Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the Teatro Mimico, in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film Les têtes interverties (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 onwards he divided his time between Mexico City and Paris, where he co-founded Panic Movement, a surrealist performance art collective that staged violent and shocking theatrical events. In 1966 he created his first comic strip, Anibal 5, and in 1967 he directed his first feature film, the surrealist Fando y Lis, which caused a major scandal in Mexico, eventually being banned.

His next film, the acid western El Topo (1970), became a hit on the midnight movie circuit in the United States, considered the first-ever midnight cult film, and garnered high praise from John Lennon, who convinced former Beatles manager Allen Klein to provide Jodorowsky with $1 million to finance his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain (1973), a surrealist exploration of western esotericism. Disagreements with Klein, however, led to both The Holy Mountain and El Topo failing to gain widespread distribution, although both became classics on the underground film circuit.[1] After a cancelled attempt at filming Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune, Jodorowsky produced five more films: the family film Tusk (1980); the surrealist horror Santa Sangre (1989); the failed blockbuster The Rainbow Thief (1990); and the first two films in a planned five-film autobiographical series The Dance of Reality (2013) and Endless Poetry (2016).

Jodorowsky is also a comic book writer, most notably penning the science fiction series The Incal throughout the 1980s. Other comic books he has written include The Technopriests and Metabarons. Jodorowsky has also extensively written and lectured about his own spiritual system, which he calls "psychomagic" and "psychoshamanism", which borrows from alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism.[2] His son Cristóbal has followed his teachings on psychoshamanism; this work is captured in the feature documentary Quantum Men, directed by Carlos Serrano Azcona.[3]

Early life and education

[edit]

Early life

[edit]

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born on February 17, 1929, in Tocopilla, Chile to immigrant Ukrainian Jewish parents Jaime Jodorowsky Groismann and Sara Felicidad Prullansky Arcavi from Yekaterinoslav and Elisavetgrad in the Russian Empire. According to Jodorowsky's account, he was conceived from sexual violence that his mother had faced, as his father was physically and sexually abusive towards her. Due to this, his mother disliked Jodorowsky, and detested his father.[4] Alejandro also had an elder sister, Raquel Jodorowsky, but disliked her, as he believed that she was selfish and trying to "expel me from the family so that she could be the centre of attention."[5] Alongside his dislike for his family, he also held contempt for many of the local people, who viewed him as an outsider because of his status as the son of immigrants. Jodorowsky did not have a Bar Mitzvah or celebrate any Jewish holidays as his parents concealed their Jewish identity for much of Jodorowsky's life.[6]

Jodorowsky moved to Santiago at the age of 9, a decision he did not favor, as he liked the local areas of Tocopilla.[7] Growing up, his dislike of the American mining industrialists who worked locally and treated the Chilean people badly later influenced his condemnation of American imperialism and neo-colonialism in Latin America in several of his films.

He immersed himself in reading, and also began writing poetry, having his first poem published when he was sixteen years old, alongside associating with such Chilean poets as Nicanor Parra, Stella Díaz Varín and Enrique Lihn.[8] Becoming interested in the political ideology of anarchism, Jodorowsky briefly attended the University of Chile, studying psychology and philosophy, but dropped out after two years.[9][10] After leaving university, he developed an interest in theatre and particularly mime, he took up employment in a circus as a clown, as well as beginning a career as a theatre director.[1] Meanwhile, in 1947 he founded his own theatrical troupe, the Teatro Mimico,[8] which by 1952 had fifty members, and the following year he wrote his first play, El Minotaura (The Minotaur).

Performing arts career and Panic Movement foundation

[edit]

Jodorowsky moved to France as he felt there was little for him left in Chile.[1] He settled in Paris and started to study philosophy at the Sorbonne.[6] He also started to study mime with French actor Étienne Decroux and joined the troupe of one of Decroux's students, Marcel Marceau. It was with Marceau's troupe that he went on a world tour, and wrote several routines for the group, including "The Cage" and "The Mask Maker". After this, he returned to theatre directing, working on the music hall comeback of Maurice Chevalier in Paris.[1]

In 1960, Jodorowsky moved to Mexico, where he settled down in Mexico City. He continued to return occasionally to France, on one occasion visiting the Surrealist artist André Breton, but had increasingly felt disillusioned by him as he felt he had become somewhat conservative in his old age.[1] Continuing his interest in surrealism, in 1962 he founded the Panic Movement along with Fernando Arrabal and Roland Topor. The movement aimed to go beyond conventional surrealist ideas by embracing absurdism. Its members refused to take themselves seriously, while laughing at those critics who did.[1]

It was in Mexico City that he encountered Ejo Takata [es] (1928–1997), a Zen Buddhist monk who had studied at the Horyu-ji and Shofuku-ji monasteries in Japan before traveling to Mexico via the U.S. in 1967 to spread Zen. Jodorowsky became a disciple of Takata and offered his own house to be turned into a Zendō. Subsequently, Takata attracted other disciples around him, who spent their time in meditation and the study of koans.[11] Eventually, Takata instructed Jodorowsky that he had to learn more about his feminine side, and so he went and befriended the English surrealist Leonora Carrington, who had recently moved to Mexico.[12]

Film career

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Early comics and films

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In 1957, while Jodorowsky was in Paris studying mime, he created Les têtes interverties (The Severed Heads), a 20-minute adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella. It consisted almost entirely of mime and told the surreal story of a head-swapping merchant who helps a young man find courtship success. Jodorowsky played the lead role. The director Jean Cocteau admired the film and wrote an introduction for it. It was considered lost until a print of the film was discovered in 2006.

In 1966, he produced his first comic strip, Anibal 5, which was related to the Panic Movement. The following year he created a new feature film, Fando y Lis,[8] loosely based on a play written by Fernando Arrabal, who was working with Jodorowsky on performance art at the time. Fando y Lis premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, where it instigated a riot amongst those objecting to the film's content,[13] and was subsequently banned in Mexico.[14]

El Topo and The Holy Mountain (1970–1974)

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In 1970, Jodorowsky released the film El Topo, which sometimes is known in English as The Mole,[8] which he had both directed and starred in. An acid western, El Topo tells the story of a wandering Mexican bandit and gunslinger, El Topo (played by Jodorowsky), who is on a search for spiritual enlightenment, taking his young son along with him.[15] Along the way, he violently confronts a number of other individuals, before finally being killed and being resurrected to live within a community of deformed people who are trapped inside a mountain cave. Describing the work, he stated that "I ask of film what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs. The difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film, he need not create a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken a pill; rather, he needs to manufacture the pill."[16] Knowing how Fando y Lis had caused such a scandal in Mexico, Jodorowsky decided not to release El Topo there,[14] instead focusing on its release in other countries across the world, including Mexico's northern neighbour, the United States. It was in New York City where the film would play as a "midnight movie" for several months at Ben Barenholtz's Elgin Theater. It attracted the attention of rock musician and countercultural figure John Lennon, who thought very highly of it, and convinced the president of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, Allen Klein, to distribute it in the United States.[17]

Klein agreed to give Jodorowsky $1 million to go toward creating his next film. The result was The Holy Mountain, released in 1973. It has been suggested that The Holy Mountain may have been inspired by René Daumal's Surrealist novel Mount Analogue. The Holy Mountain was another complex, multi-part story that featured a man credited as "The Thief" and equated with Jesus Christ, a mystical alchemist played by Jodorowsky, seven powerful business people representing seven of the planets (Venus and the six planets from Mars to Pluto), a religious training regimen of spiritual rebirth, and a quest to the top of a holy mountain for the secret of immortality. During the completion of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky received spiritual training from Oscar Ichazo of the Arica School, who encouraged him to take LSD and guided him through the subsequent psychedelic experience.[18] Around the same time (2 November 1973), Jodorowsky participated in an isolation tank experiment conducted by John Lilly.[19]

Shortly thereafter, Allen Klein demanded that Jodorowsky create a film adaptation of Pauline Réage's classic novel of female masochism, Story of O. Klein had promised this adaptation to various investors. Jodorowsky, who had discovered feminism during the filming of The Holy Mountain, refused to make the film, going so far as to leave the country to escape directing duties. In retaliation, Allen Klein made El Topo and The Holy Mountain, to which he held the rights, completely unavailable to the public for more than 30 years. Jodorowsky frequently decried Klein's actions in interviews.[20][21]

Soon after the release of The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky gave a talk at the Teatro Julio Castillo, University of Mexico on the subject of koans (despite the fact that he initially had been booked on the condition that his talk would be about cinematography), at which Ejo Takata appeared. After the talk, Takata gave Jodorowsky his kyosaku, believing that his former student had mastered the art of understanding koans.[22]

Dune and Tusk (1975–1980)

[edit]

In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert's epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour.[23] He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming.[24] The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky, 12 years old at the start of pre-production. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma.[23] Jodorowsky set up a pre-production unit in Paris consisting of Chris Foss, a British artist who designed covers for science fiction publications, Jean Giraud (Mœbius), a French illustrator who created and also wrote and drew for Métal Hurlant magazine, and H. R. Giger.[23]

Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ("It was the size of a phonebook", Herbert later recalled).[25] Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed when no film studio could be found willing to fund the movie to Jodorowsky's terms. The aborted production was chronicled in the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, directed by Frank Pavich. Subsequently, the rights for filming were sold to Dino De Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984. The documentary does not include any original film footage of what was to be Jodorowsky's Dune though it states that the unmade film was an influence on other science fiction films, such as Star Wars, Alien, The Terminator, Flash Gordon and Raiders of the Lost Ark.[26][27] In particular, the Jodorowsky-assembled team of O'Bannon, Foss, Giger, and Giraud went on to collaborate on the 1979 film Alien.[28] Later, in January 2023, Frank Pavich, director of the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, published an essay in The New York Times related to Jodorowsky's Dune (and more) that involved artwork generated by generative AI.[29]

After the collapse of the Dune project, Jodorowsky completely changed course and, in 1980, premiered his children's fable Tusk, shot in India. Taken from Reginald Campbell's novel Poo Lorn of the Elephants, the film explores the soul-mate relationship between a young British woman living in India and a highly prized elephant. The film exhibited little of the director's outlandish visual style and was never given wide release.

Santa Sangre and The Rainbow Thief (1981–1990)

[edit]

In 1989, Jodorowsky completed the Mexican-Italian production Santa Sangre (Holy Blood). The film received limited theatrical distribution, putting Jodorowsky back on the cultural map despite its mixed critical reviews. Santa Sangre was a surrealistic slasher film with a plot like a mix of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho with Robert Wiene's The Hands of Orlac. It featured a protagonist who, as a child, saw his mother lose both her arms, and as an adult let his own arms act as hers, and so was forced to commit murders at her whim. Several of Jodorowsky's sons were recruited as actors.

He followed in 1990 with a very different film, The Rainbow Thief. Though it gave Jodorowsky a chance to work with the "movie stars" Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, the executive producer, Alexander Salkind, effectively curtailed most of Jodorowsky's artistic inclinations, threatening to fire him on the spot if anything in the script was changed (Salkind's wife, Berta Domínguez D., wrote the screenplay).

That same year (1990), Jodorowsky and his family returned to France to live.[30]

Attempts to return to filmmaking (1990–2011)

[edit]
Jodorowsky in Sitges, Spain (2006)
Jodorowsky (left) and Spanish writer Diego Moldes in Paris (2008)

In 2000, Jodorowsky won the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF). Jodorowsky attended the festival and his films were shown, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain,[31] which at the time had grey legal status. According to festival director Bryan Wendorf, it was an open question of whether CUFF would be allowed to show both films, or whether the police would show up and shut the festival down.[32]

Until 2007, Fando y Lis and Santa Sangre were the only Jodorowsky works available on DVD. Neither El Topo nor The Holy Mountain were available on videocassette or DVD in the United States or the United Kingdom, due to ownership disputes with distributor Allen Klein. After settlement of the dispute in 2004, however, plans to re-release Jodorowsky's films were announced by ABKCO Films. On 19 January 2007, it was announced online that Anchor Bay would release a box set including El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando y Lis on 1 May 2007. A limited edition of the set includes both the El Topo and The Holy Mountain soundtracks. And, in early February 2007, Tartan Video announced its 14 May 2007, release date for the UK PAL DVD editions of El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and the six-disc box set which, alongside the aforementioned feature films, includes the two soundtrack CDs, as well as separate DVD editions of Jodorowsky's 1968 debut feature Fando y Lis (with his 1957 short La cravate a.k.a. Les têtes interverties, included as an extra) and the 1994 feature-length documentary La constellation Jodorowsky. Notably, Fando y Lis and La cravate were digitally restored extensively and remastered in London during late 2006, thus providing a suitable complement to the quality restoration work undertaken on El Topo and The Holy Mountain in the States by ABKCO, and ensuring that the presentation of Fando y Lis is a significant improvement over the 2001 Fantoma DVD edition. Prior to the availability of these legitimate releases, only inferior quality, optically censored, bootleg copies of both El Topo and The Holy Mountain have been circulated on the Internet and on DVD.[33]

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Jodorowsky attempted to make a sequel to El Topo, called at different times The Sons of El Topo and Abel Cain, but did not find investors for the project.[34]

In an interview with Première, Jodorowsky said he intended his next project to be a gangster film called King Shot. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in November 2009, however, Jodorowsky revealed that he was unable to find the funds to make King Shot, and instead would be entering preparations on Sons of El Topo, for which he claimed to have signed a contract with "some Russian producers".[35]

In 2010, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City staged the first American cinema retrospective of Alejandro Jodorowsky entitled Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky.[36][37] Jodorowsky would attend the retrospective and hold a master class on art as a way of transformation.[38] This retrospective would inspire the museum MoMA PS1 to present the exhibition Alejandro Jodorowsky: The Holy Mountain in 2011.[39]

The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry (2011–present)

[edit]

In August 2011, Alejandro arrived in a town in Chile where he grew up, also the setting of his autobiography The Dance of Reality, to promote an autobiographical film based upon his book.

On 31 October 2011, Halloween night, the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) honored Jodorowsky by showing The Holy Mountain. He attended and spoke about his work and life.[40] The next evening, he presented El Topo at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.[41]

Alejandro has stated that after finishing The Dance of Reality he was preparing to shoot his long-gestating El Topo sequel, Abel Cain.[42][43] By January 2013, Alejandro finished filming on The Dance of Reality and entered into post-production. Alejandro's son and co-star in the film, Brontis, claimed the film was to be finished by March 2013, and that the film was "very different than the other films he made".[44] On 23 April, it was announced that the film would have its world premiere at the Film Festival in Cannes.[45] coinciding with The Dance of Reality premiered alongside the documentary film Jodorowsky's Dune, which premiered in May 2013 at the Cannes Film Festival, creating a "Jodorowsky double bill".[46][47]

In 2015, Jodorowsky began a new film entitled Endless Poetry, the sequel to his last "auto-biopic", The Dance of Reality. His Paris-based production company, Satori Films, launched two successful crowdfunding campaigns to finance the film. The Indiegogo campaign has been left open indefinitely, receiving donations from fans and movie-goers in support of the independent production.[48] The film was shot between June and August 2015, in the streets of Matucana in Santiago, Chile, where Jodorowsky lived for a period in his life.[49] The film portrays his young adulthood in Santiago, years during which he became a core member of the Chilean poetic avant-garde alongside artists such as Hugo Marín, Gustavo Becerra, Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra and others.[50][51] Jodorowsky's son Adan Jodorowsky plays him as an adult; and Brontis Jodorowsky plays as his father, Jaime. Jeremias Herskovitz, from The Dance of Reality, portrays Jodorowsky as a teenager.[49] Pamela Flores plays as Sara (his mother) and Stella Díaz Varín (poet and young Jodorowsky's girlfriend). Leandro Taub portrays Jodorowsky's best friend, the poet and novelist Enrique Lihn.[52] The film premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016.[53] Variety's review was overwhelmingly positive, calling it "...the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best."[54]

During an interview at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, Jodorowsky announced his plans to finally make The Son of El Topo as soon as financial backing is obtained.[55]

Other work

[edit]

Jodorowsky released a 12" vinyl with the Original Soundtrack of Zarathustra (Discos Tizoc, Mexico, 1970).[56]

Comics

[edit]
Jodorowsky at the 2008 Japan Expo in Paris

Jodorowsky started his comic career in Mexico with the creation of Anibal 5 series in mid-1966 with illustrations by Manuel Moro. He also drew his own comic strip in the weekly series Fabulas pánicas that appeared in the Mexican newspaper, El Heraldo de México. He also wrote original stories for at least two or three other comic books in Mexico during those days: Los insoportables Borbolla was one of them. After his fourth film, Tusk, he started The Incal, with Jean Giraud (Mœbius). This graphic novel has its roots deep in the tarot and its symbols, e.g., the protagonist of The Incal, John Difool, is linked to the Fool card. The Incal (which would branch off into a prequel and sequel) forms the first in a sequence of several science fiction comic book series, all set in the same space opera Jodoverse (or "Metabarons Universe") published by Humanoids Publishing.[57]

Comic books set in this milieu are the Incal trilogy, the Metabarons trilogy, and The Technopriests. Many ideas and concepts derived from Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Dune (loosely based upon Frank Herbert's original novel) are featured in this universe.

Mœbius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the 1997 film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case.[58] The suit was plagued by ambiguity since Mœbius had willingly participated in the creation of the film, having been hired by Besson as a contributing artist, but had done so without gaining the approval of Incal co-creator Jodorowsky, whose services Besson did not call upon. For more than a decade, Jodorowsky pressured his publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés to sue Luc Besson for plagiarism, but the publisher refused, fearing the inevitability of the outcome. In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky stated that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.[citation needed]

Other comics by Jodorowsky include the Western Bouncer illustrated by Francois Boucq, Juan Solo (Son of the Gun), and Le Lama blanc (The White Lama), the latter were illustrated by Georges Bess.[59]

Le Cœur couronné (The Crowned Heart, translated into English as The Madwoman of the Sacred Heart), a racy satire on religion set in contemporary times, won Jodorowsky and his collaborator, Jean Giraud, the 2001 Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip.[60][61] He is currently working on a new graphic novel for the U.S. market.[citation needed]

Jodorowsky's comic book work also appears in Taboo volume 4 (ed. Stephen R. Bissette), which features an interview with the director, designs for his version of Frank Herbert's Dune, comic storyboards for El Topo, and a collaboration with Moebius with the illustrated Eyes of the Cat.[citation needed]

Jodorowsky collaborated with Milo Manara in Borgia (2006), a graphic novel about the history of the House of Borgia.[62]

Psychomagic

[edit]

Jodorowsky spent almost a decade reconstructing the original form of the Tarot de Marseille.[40] From this work he moved into more therapeutic work in three areas: psychomagic, psychogenealogy and initiatic massage. Psychomagic aims to heal psychological wounds suffered in life. This therapy is based on the belief that the performance of certain acts can directly act upon the unconscious mind, releasing it from a series of traumas, some of which practitioners of the therapy believe are passed down from generation to generation. Psychogenealogy includes the studying of the patient's personality and family tree in order to best address their specific sources. It is similar, in its phenomenological approach to genealogy, to the Constellations pioneered by Bert Hellinger.[63]

Jodorowsky has several books on his therapeutic methods, including Psicomagia: La trampa sagrada (Psychomagic: The Sacred Trap) and his autobiography, La danza de la realidad (The Dance of Reality), which he was filming as a feature-length film in March 2012. To date, he has published more than 23 novels and philosophical treatises, along with dozens of articles and interviews. His books are widely read in Spanish and French, but are for the most part unknown to English-speaking audiences.

For a quarter of a century, Jodorowsky held classes and lectures for free, in cafés and universities all over the city of Paris. Typically, such courses or talks would begin on Wednesday evenings as tarot divination lessons, and would culminate in an hour-long conference, also free, where at times hundreds of attendees would be treated to live demonstrations of a psychological "arbre généalogique" ("tree of genealogy") involving volunteers from the audience. In these conferences, Jodorowsky would pave the way to building a strong base of students of his philosophy, which deals with understanding the unconscious as the "over-self", composed of many generations of family relatives, living or deceased, acting on the psyche, well into adult lives, and causing compulsions. Of all his work, Jodorowsky considers these activities to be the most important of his life. Though such activities only take place in the insular world of Parisian cafés, he has devoted thousands of hours of his life to teaching and helping people "become more conscious," as he puts it.

Since 2011 these talks have dwindled to once a month and take place at the Librairie Les Cent Ciels in Paris.

His film Psychomagic, a Healing Art premiered in Lyon on 3 September 2019. It was then released on streaming services on 1 August 2020.[64]

Influences and impact

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He has cited the filmmaker Federico Fellini as his primary cinematic influence;[65] other artistic influences included Jean-Luc Godard,[66] Sergio Leone,[66] Erich von Stroheim,[66] Buster Keaton,[66] George Gurdjieff, Antonin Artaud,[67] and Luis Buñuel.[68] He has been described as an influence on such figures as Marilyn Manson,[69] Darren Aronofsky,[70] Taika Waititi,[71] Guillermo del Toro,[72] Nicolas Winding Refn, Jan Kounen, Dennis Hopper, Eric Andre,[73] the musical duo Suicide,[74] and Kanye West.[75]

Fans included musicians Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of The Mars Volta,[76] Brann Dailor of Mastodon,[77] Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore (of the pop-duo Empire of the Sun).[8] Wes Borland, guitarist of Limp Bizkit, said that the film Holy Mountain was a big influence on him, especially as a visual artist, and that the concept album Lotus Island of his band Black Light Burns was a tribute to it.[78] Lady Gaga was influenced by Jodorowsky and The Holy Mountain in the video for her song 911.[79]

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in the ending titles of his 2011 film Drive, and dedicated his 2013 Thai crime thriller,[80] Only God Forgives, to Jodorowsky.[81] Jodorowsky also appeared in the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, directed by Refn's wife Liv, giving the couple a tarot reading.[82]

Jodorowsky has influenced the poetic work of his friend Diego Moldes, in two books: Ni un día sin poesía (Not One Day Without Poetry, Madrid, 2018), with a prologue by Alejandro Jodorowsky and in Ni una poesía sin día-Not a Poem Without a Day (New York, 2023).[83]

Argentinean actor Leandro Taub thanks Alejandro Jodorowsky in his book La Mente Oculta, for which Jodorowsky wrote the prologue.[84][85]

Personal life

[edit]

Jodorowsky holds both Chilean and French citizenship.[86] His first wife was the actress Valérie Trumblay. They had three sons: Teo, Axel "Cristobal", and Adan. They divorced in 1982.[87] He is currently married to the artist and costume designer Pascale Montandon.[88]

He had five children.

  • Brontis Jodorowsky (b. 1962), an actor who worked with his father in El Topo, The Dance of Reality and Endless Poetry, is the child of Jodorowsky and Bernadette Landru. Brontis has a child, the fashion model Alma Jodorowsky, who is the granddaughter of Alejandro.[89][90]
  • Teo (d. 1995), who appeared in Santa Sangre, was the eldest child of Jodorowsky and Valérie Trumblay.[91][92]
  • Axel Cristóbal (b. 1965, d. 2022),[93] a psychoshaman and an actor (interpreter in Santa Sangre and the main character in the shamanic documentary Quantum Men), was the second child of Jodorowsky and Valérie Trumblay.
  • Eugenia Jodorowsky, Jodorowsky's fourth child, is the child of Jodorowsky and an unknown mother.
  • Adan Jodorowsky (b. 1979), a musician known by his stage name of Adanowsky, was the third child of Jodorowsky and Valérie Trumblay, and Jodorowsky's fifth child overall.

On his religious views, Jodorowsky has called himself an "atheist mystic".[94]

He does not drink or smoke,[95] and has stated that he does not eat red meat or poultry because he "does not like corpses", basing his diet on vegetables, fruits, grains and occasionally marine products.[96]

In 2005, Jodorowsky officiated at the wedding of Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese.[8]

Criticism and controversy

[edit]

When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content.[97] Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks.[98] The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government.[99] Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.[100]

In regard to the making of El Topo, Jodorowsky allegedly stated in the early 1970s:[101]

When I wanted to do the rape scene, I explained to [Mara Lorenzio] that I was going to hit her and rape her. There was no emotional relationship between us, because I had put a clause in all the women's contracts stating that they would not make love with the director. We had never talked to each other. I knew nothing about her. We went to the desert with two other people: the photographer and a technician. No one else. I said, 'I'm not going to rehearse. There will be only one take because it will be impossible to repeat. Roll the cameras only when I signal you to.' Then I told her, 'Pain does not hurt. Hit me.' And she hit me. I said, 'Harder.' And she started to hit me very hard, hard enough to break a rib...I ached for a week. After she had hit me long enough and hard enough to tire her, I said, 'Now it's my turn. Roll the cameras.' And I really...I really...I really raped her. And she screamed ... Then she told me that she had been raped before. You see, for me the character is frigid until El Topo rapes her. And she has an orgasm. That's why I show a stone phallus in that scene ... which spouts water. She has an orgasm. She accepts the male sex. And that's what happened to Mara in reality. She really had that problem. Fantastic scene. A very, very strong scene.

In the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, Jodorowsky states:[102]

When you make a picture, you must not respect the novel. It's like getting married ... if you respect the woman, you will never have child. You need to open the costume and to rape the bride – and then you will have your picture. I was raping Frank Herbert ... but with love.

Jodorowsky was criticised for these statements.[103][104] Matt Brown of Screen Anarchy wrote that "it's easier to wall off a certain type of criminality behind the buffer of time—sure, Alejandro Jodorowsky is on the record in his book on the making of the film as having raped Mara Lorenzo while making El Topo—though he later denied it—but nowadays he's just that hilarious old kook from Jodorowsky's Dune!"[104] Emmet Asher-Perrin of Tor.com called Jodorowsky "an artist who condones rape as a means to an end for the purpose of creating art. A man who seems to believe that rape is something that women 'need' if they can't accept male sexual power on their own".[103] Jude Doyle of Elle wrote that Jodorowsky "has been teasing the idea of an unsimulated rape scene in his cult classic film El Topo for decades ... though he's elsewhere described the unsimulated sex in that scene as consensual", and went on to state that the quote "has not endangered his status as an avant-garde icon".[105]

On 26 June 2017, Jodorowsky released a statement[106] on his Facebook account in response to the question: "Did you rape an actress during the filming of El Topo?" The following excerpts are from said statement:[where?]

Where did [the people claiming that I raped Mara Lorenzio on the set of El Topo in front of the camera] find reports of this alleged incident that would have happened in 1969?

It's very possible that they read some of the interviews I did in the United States or England back then. I produced El Topo independently. When I told the Mexican film industry that I was going to travel to New York to sell El Topo, they made fun of me. "You're crazy, only Emilio Fernandez ('El Indio') has ever managed to release a movie there and that's why there is a statue of him. No Mexican film has ever crossed the cactus wall." In the North American cinematographic environment of the time, Mexican cinema was despised. Hollywood dominated everything.

I had to break through using the only tool I had: shock through scandalous statements. This is how I did it: I dressed up as the mystical bandit character [the titular El Topo], I introduced myself in the interviews with a beard, a mane and a black leather suit, and I said things that purposefully shocked the interviewers. "I am an anti-feminist, I hate women. I hate cats. I've eaten human meat tacos with Diego Rivera. El Topo is a film where things really happened: that scene of rape is a real rape! I killed the animals (that in reality I had purchased dead from a local zoo) with a fork I sharpened myself!" These aggressive, meant to be humorous declarations conquered the era's young public who were against the establishment and affected by the Vietnam war. This is how I managed to get El Topo to be noticed and seen, and, thanks to the openly proclaimed admiration of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, my film became a cult classic. Half a century has passed and it continues to be screened and discussed.

Jodorowsky also offered details in that same statement on the filming of the so-called "rape scene", proclaiming that it would be impossible to commit such a crime on a large movie set:

Filming a scene like this is not achieved with just a cameraman, two actors and an expanse of sand. Cinema is the most costly art because a large number of technicians and artists are required to execute it. First of all, you needed a group of workers to clean a hundred square meters of desert with rakes because of dangerous snakes and spiders that were hidden in the sand. They remained for the duration of the filming, at the ready, to intervene if necessary. There was also a group of makeup artists, hairdressers and dressmakers in charge of costumes.

[In the movie,] El Topo rips apart the woman's dress in a take that lasts 10 seconds.

It is followed by another take of El Topo [doing the same], but from a different angle. Filming stopped for half an hour or so for the technicians to change the reflectors. That is to say that in order to shoot an action sequence that does not even last more than three minutes, several hours were needed. And it wasn't just a single cameraman, but two cameras, each with one operator and four assistants. A total of 10 camera people. Added to this were crewmen placing rails where the camera slid, handling the counterweights of a crane, holding silver reflector cards so that each face is well-lit. There was also the assistant director, the group of set decorators, other actors, etc. A big crowd that the audience does not see. In addition, there were people holding the individual umbrellas protecting the actors from the sun, others that delivered water and food, etc.

How could I have possibly assaulted the actress in front of such a large assembly of people?   

At the slightest hint of any actual violence, a group of men and women would have thrown themselves at me and immobilized me. The actress would have also been defending herself, howling, scratching. And I, vile satyr, would have ended up persecuted, tried and imprisoned.

In July of 2016, Jodorowsky sparked controversy on Twitter when he posted a tweet stating:

Incest can be violent, but it can also be seductive. It may not be destructive or awaken an Oedipus Complex.

[107]

This message provoked negative reactions across the site, with one user replying: "I was raped as a child. Now, despite loving my partner, I still cannot pleasure him.", to which Jodorowsky replied:

Pretend he's the man who raped you. That'll make you horny.

[108]

Jodorowsky proceeded to delete this reply afterwards, stating:

I didn't delete the tweet because I regret it, but because people refused to understand it.

[109]

Filmography

[edit]
Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
1957 La cravate Yes Yes Yes Short film
1968 Fando y Lis Yes Yes No
1970 El Topo Yes Yes No Also composer, costume, and production designer
1973 The Holy Mountain Yes Yes Yes
1980 Tusk Yes Yes No
1989 Santa Sangre Yes Yes No
1990 The Rainbow Thief Yes No No
2013 The Dance of Reality Yes Yes Yes
2016 Endless Poetry Yes Yes Yes
2019 Psychomagic, a Healing Art Yes Yes Yes Documentary

Acting roles

Year Title Role Notes
1957 La cravate Himself Short film
1968 Fando y Lis Puppeteer
1970 El Topo El Topo
1973 The Holy Mountain The Alchemist
2002 Cherif Prophet
2002 Psicotaxi Himself Short film
2003 No Big Deal Pablo, le père
2006 Musikanten Ludwig van Beethoven
2007 Nothing Is as It Seems Unnamed character
2011 The Island Jodo
2013 Ritual: A Psychomagic Story Fernando
The Dance of Reality Old Alejandro
2016 Endless Poetry

Documentary appearances

Bibliography

[edit]

References

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Alejandro Jodorowsky

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Alejandro Jodorowsky (born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French filmmaker, author, comic book writer, and self-styled spiritual healer recognized for his surreal, psychedelic films (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973), which established the midnight movie cult phenomenon through their blend of , violence, and symbolic allegory. Born in , , to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, he relocated to Santiago as a child, pursued studies in philosophy and literature, and later moved to in the 1950s, where he immersed himself in surrealist theater and mime before directing experimental shorts and features. Naturalized as a French citizen in 1980, Jodorowsky's oeuvre spans multimedia, including collaborations on science fiction comics like (1980–1988) with artist Moebius, which influenced aesthetics. Beyond cinema, Jodorowsky developed psychomagic, a therapeutic practice rooted in and genealogy that prescribes symbolic acts to resolve psychological traumas, detailed in his writings as an alternative to conventional . He has also authored books on interpretation, restoring the de deck and using it for divinatory consultations that inform his psychomagical prescriptions. His films and therapeutic methods often provoke debate over their intentional provocation versus perceived exploitation, with El Topo's graphic scenes—including disputed on-set improvisations—drawing accusations of and excess, though Jodorowsky frames them as ritualistic . Despite limited mainstream acclaim, his unorthodox approach has garnered a devoted following in underground and esoteric circles, impacting artists in film, , and .

Early Life

Childhood in Chile and Family Background

Alejandro Jodorowsky was born on February 17, 1929, in , , to Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents who had settled in the country fleeing persecution in . His father, a salesman originally from Yekaterinoslav (now , ), enforced a strict, authoritarian household dynamic, often prioritizing material success and assimilation over emotional openness, which Jodorowsky later described as contributing to his sense of alienation. In contrast, his mother embodied a more intuitive and spiritually inclined presence, singing folk songs and fostering an environment tinged with amid the family's modest circumstances in the coastal mining town. The family concealed their Jewish heritage due to widespread anti-Semitism in Chile, where Jodorowsky faced social rejection and isolation from peers, exacerbating his introverted tendencies and immersion in solitary pursuits like reading and from an early age. When Jodorowsky was eight years old, the family relocated to Santiago for better opportunities, a move that intensified his disconnection from conventional norms but exposed him to urban cultural undercurrents. These formative experiences of familial rigidity, ethnic , and emotional scarcity, as recounted in Jodorowsky's own biographical reflections, instilled a profound rejection of societal conformity that echoed in his later esoteric philosophies.

Education and Initial Artistic Exposure

Jodorowsky enrolled at the in Santiago in , studying and , but discontinued his studies after approximately two years, drawn instead to anarchistic ideas and practical artistic experimentation. His formal education thus remained limited, fostering a reliance on self-directed learning amid Chile's cultural fringes, where he engaged with theater and without institutional support. In Santiago, Jodorowsky immersed himself in pursuits, working as a and while founding the Teatro Mímico, a troupe, at age 18 in 1947; these activities provided his initial exposure to experimental arts, emphasizing physical expression over scripted narrative. He also began writing plays around 1948, experimenting with surreal elements drawn from personal readings and local bohemian circles rather than academic channels. At 23, Jodorowsky relocated to in 1953, pursuing formal mime training under , whose techniques influenced his rejection of verbal dependency in performance. There, he encountered surrealist leader , whose ideas on automatic creation and subconscious exploration resonated with Jodorowsky's emerging style, though he later critiqued surrealism's limitations in direct interviews. Early professional engagements in mime routines and recitations in Parisian cafés solidified his autonomy, prioritizing visceral, audience-confronting acts over conventional validation.

Performing Arts and Theater Career

Involvement in Surrealism and Avant-Garde Theater

In the late 1940s, Jodorowsky began writing plays in and founded an experimental theater group in 1950, drawing heavily from Antonin Artaud's The Theatre and Its Double (1938), which advocated for a "Theater of Cruelty" emphasizing ritualistic spectacle, physical extremity, and visceral confrontation over linear narrative or psychological realism. This approach rejected mainstream dramatic conventions, prioritizing audience immersion through provocative acts of violence and bodily distortion to evoke primal responses, as Artaud proposed plague-like catharsis to purge societal complacency. Relocating to in 1953, Jodorowsky integrated into the scene by studying and collaborating with Marcel Marceau's troupe, for which he composed routines including "The Cage," a performance depicting a performer's futile yet intense struggle against invisible barriers, symbolizing entrapment and rebellion through exaggerated physical contortions and implied violence. These works prefigured his later by provoking spectators with raw, non-narrative intensity rather than intellectual detachment. While associating with surrealists in —who favored dream-like automatism and exploration—Jodorowsky critiqued their tendencies toward passive observation and elitist abstraction, favoring Artaud's active disruption of complacency through direct sensory assault.

Founding the Panic Movement

In 1962, Alejandro Jodorowsky co-founded the (Mouvement Panique) in alongside playwright and artist , forming a surrealist-inspired collective aimed at provoking audiences through ritualistic performances that evoked the chaotic frenzy associated with the god Pan. The group's intent was to dismantle bourgeois norms via spectacles blending theater, absurdity, and simulated violence, positioning itself as a deliberate assault on passive spectatorship rather than a structured artistic school. A pivotal event was the May 1965 staging of Sacramental Melodrama (also known as Teatro Sin Fin), a four-hour "happening" at the Festival of Free Expression, where Jodorowsky performed self-mutilation acts with razors, incorporated mimes, faux animal sacrifices, and hallucinatory elements to induce shock and disorientation among viewers. These provocations extended to sporadic international presentations in the late , but the movement remained ephemeral, lacking sustained organizational cohesion beyond its founders' collaborations. Jodorowsky dissolved the Panic Movement in 1973, following the publication of Arrabal's Le Panique, which included the group's and highlighted irreconcilable creative differences among the principals, underscoring the initiative's from interpersonal dynamics rather than societal backlash. This termination reflected the inherent instability of such collectives, where individual egos and diverging visions precluded longevity, limiting the Panic efforts to a brief series of disruptive but non-enduring actions.

Comics and Literary Works

Early Comics and Scriptwriting

In the mid-1960s, while based in , Jodorowsky entered the comics field amid restrictions on his theatrical work, scripting his first series, the adventure Aníbal 5, illustrated by Manuel Moro and serialized in the newspaper El Heraldo de México. The strip, published by Editorial Novaro, followed the exploits of a bumbling secret agent in humorous, gadget-filled scenarios, marking Jodorowsky's initial foray into commercial genre storytelling as a rather than sole creator. From 1967 to 1973, Jodorowsky wrote and drew Fábulas Pánicas (Panic Fables), a weekly one-page in the cultural supplement of El Heraldo de México, debuting on June 4, 1967, and running for approximately 342 episodes until December 30, 1973. These esoteric, initiatory tales adapted elements of his theater—chaotic, mystical narratives challenging societal norms—into visual fables featuring anthropomorphic animals and symbolic quests for enlightenment, often subversive in a conservative publication. Jodorowsky signed works pseudonymously as "Alexandro Jodorowsky" or variations, occasionally collaborating with artists like his sons Brontis and Axel or Pablo Leder for illustrations. These early serials established Jodorowsky's viability in the market through syndication, leading to a 1977 collection of Fábulas Pánicas by Novaro, though specific circulation or sales figures remain undocumented in available records. The works prioritized accessible, episodic formats over experimental depth, reflecting pragmatic adaptations to editorial demands before his shift toward European projects.

Collaboration with Moebius and the Incal Universe

Jodorowsky first collaborated with French artist Jean Giraud, better known by his pseudonym Moebius, in the mid-1970s after Moebius co-founded the influential comics magazine Métal Hurlant in 1975; their partnership began when Jodorowsky recruited Moebius for storyboarding his ambitious but unrealized adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, drawing on shared interests in psychedelic science fiction and metaphysical themes. This early synergy, built on concept art from the Dune project, laid the groundwork for their landmark comic The Incal, serialized in six volumes by Les Humanoïdes Associés from 1981 to 1988, with the first installment The Black Incal appearing in 1981 and the final The Fifth Essence: Planet Difool in 1988. In this flagship work, Jodorowsky scripted a narrative centered on detective John Difool's entanglement with the universe-altering Incal artifact amid a corrupt, anti-utopian interstellar society, while Moebius provided intricate, dreamlike illustrations that amplified the blend of hard science fiction, mysticism, and social critique. The success of —achieved through Jodorowsky's dictatorial scripting process, where he outlined plots and Moebius contributed visual notes and occasional dialogue suggestions—established the core of what became known as the Jodoverse, an expansive of interconnected stories. Jodorowsky drove the metaphysical underpinnings, emphasizing themes of spiritual awakening and cosmic hierarchy through Difool's odyssey, which critiqued technological overreach and authoritarian structures in a vividly realized . Spin-offs expanded this framework, including (1998–2006), an eight-volume series illustrated by Zoran Janjetov that details the cult's origins and their role in propagating as a tool of control, directly tying into 's lore of techno-religious manipulation. Further extensions like Final Incal (2008–2014), rendered by artist José Ladrönn, revisited and prolonged Difool's saga with escalating threats from a metallic virus and alternate realities, maintaining Jodorowsky's script-heavy approach to plot propulsion. Moebius's involvement waned after the original series, as he expressed reluctance to illustrate additional Jodoverse expansions, citing creative fatigue or misalignment with Jodorowsky's prolific output; this shift necessitated recruiting specialized draftsmen like Janjetov and Ladrönn, revealing Jodorowsky's reliance on exceptionally skilled visual interpreters to translate his dense, symbolic narratives into compelling graphic form. Later frictions emerged in legal disputes over 's film rights, where Jodorowsky alleged Moebius undermined joint interests by independently engaging with director on a separate project.

Major Graphic Novels and Ongoing Output

Following the expansive universe established in The Incal, Jodorowsky extended his narrative scope through the Metabarons series (1992–2003), co-created with artist Juan Giménez, which chronicles the generational saga of a dynasty of cybernetically enhanced warriors traversing a vast, war-torn cosmos. This 13-volume epic, framed as a recounting by the robot servant to its successor , explores themes of , inheritance, and cosmic conquest, originating from the ancient Castaka clan and culminating in the universe's most feared title, the Metabaron. The series' intricate plotting and operatic violence solidified its status as a cornerstone of European , with collected editions emphasizing the family's ritualistic self-mutilations and interstellar vendettas. In parallel, Jodorowsky launched the series in 1998, illustrated by François Boucq, shifting to a gritty Western paradigm set in the vice-ridden town of Infernal Orchard. Protagonist "Bouncer" Clay, a one-armed gunslinger enforcing order in the local saloon, navigates betrayals, duels, and alchemical intrigues across at least seven volumes concluding around 2013, blending pulp revenge motifs with esoteric undertones like prophetic visions and mechanical prosthetics. The collaboration's detailed style and episodic structure highlight Jodorowsky's adaptability to genre conventions while infusing metaphysical elements, such as the protagonist's hallucinatory trials. Jodorowsky's post-2000 output sustained momentum through extensions like the Metabarons second cycle (2010s onward), reintroducing the lineage with artists including Secher, amid ongoing publications primarily in the French market via outlets like Humanoids and Glénat. These works, often serialized in before English translations, underscore his productivity into his 90s, with over 20 major series credited to collaborations with artists from , , and . Empirical reception metrics, such as sustained reprints and festival appearances, reflect robust influence on continental ' mature sci-fi and fantasy segments, where thematic density fosters cult followings; in contrast, U.S. market remains constrained by the material's esoteric and aversion to mainstream norms, limiting it to niche imprints despite promotional efforts.

Film Career

Experimental Debuts and Early Features

Jodorowsky's entry into filmmaking began with the short La Cravate (also known as The Severed Heads), released in 1957 as a surreal mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella "The Transposed Heads." Co-directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly, the 20-minute film stars Jodorowsky as a dissatisfied man who visits a Parisian shop offering head-swapping services to alter his identity and win a woman's affection, utilizing puppetry, grotesque prosthetics, and silent performance techniques drawn directly from his mime and theater background. This primitive technical approach, reliant on handmade effects and non-professional staging, emphasized symbolic absurdity over polished production, planting early seeds of psychosexual and transformative themes in his oeuvre. Transitioning to features, Fando y Lis (1967) served as Jodorowsky's directorial debut in long-form cinema, loosely adapting Fernando Arrabal's play of the same name about a paraplegic woman and her able-bodied companion's futile pilgrimage toward an illusory city of Tar. Shot on a shoestring budget in Mexico with a cast including friends from his Panic Movement circle, the film adopted a guerrilla style marked by improvised sets, raw 35mm footage, and unrefined editing that mirrored the chaotic energy of his live performances. Its content—featuring explicit sadomasochism, ritualistic violence, and allegorical decay—provoked immediate backlash, culminating in riots at its premiere screening during the 1968 Acapulco International Film Festival, where audiences pelted the screen and forced Jodorowsky to flee the venue. The film's extremity directly contributed to its commercial obscurity and bans across , limiting distribution and box-office viability to negligible returns amid . This pattern of low-budget provocation, necessitated by institutional aversion to its uncompromised , entrenched Jodorowsky's early cinematic output in marginality, with production constraints amplifying a raw, unpolished aesthetic that prioritized thematic rupture over accessibility.

Breakthrough Cult Films: El Topo and The Holy Mountain

El Topo, released in 1970, marked Jodorowsky's entry into feature filmmaking with a reported of $300,000, drawn primarily from his personal funds accumulated through prior theater and performance work. Shot over six weeks in Mexico's Mapimi Desert, the film casts Jodorowsky as a gunslinger undertaking a violent, allegorical journey involving graphic acts such as ritual castrations, shootings, and self-mutilations, presented as metaphors for spiritual transformation rather than gratuitous shock. These depictions, including real animal killings for authenticity, provoked immediate audience discomfort and debate, with some viewers interpreting the brutality as a causal trigger for introspective amid the era's psychedelic experimentation. The film's U.S. breakthrough occurred via midnight screenings at New York City's Elgin Theater starting December 1970, where it played seven nights a week until mid-1971, grossing an estimated $80,000 domestically and establishing the midnight movie circuit as a venue for unconventional cinema. John Lennon and Yoko Ono's advocacy was pivotal, as they urged Beatles manager Allen Klein's ABKCO company to distribute it after private viewings, though records confirm no direct Beatles financial investment in production—contradicting persistent rumors—and instead highlight Klein's post-release involvement. Critically, outlets like The New York Times noted its "secret rite" appeal to underground crowds despite pans for structural opacity, with total worldwide earnings reaching $162,437 against its low costs, sustaining mythic status through repeat viewings by audiences seeking symbolic depth over linear narrative. The Holy Mountain, produced in 1973 with ABKCO backing and a $750,000 budget fueled by Lennon's $1 million endorsement to Klein, expands Jodorowsky's into an alchemical odyssey where thieves and planets symbolize ego dissolution and enlightenment quests. Filmed in and , it features empirical scenes of exploitation—such as frog dissections and toad rituals rigged with fireworks—intended to mirror societal illusions, eliciting audience reactions ranging from trance-like immersion to alienation, as psychedelics administered to cast members during key sequences amplified the film's ritualistic intensity. Jodorowsky's script, influenced by his own use, prioritizes visual esoterica over plot cohesion, leading critics at to dismiss it as incoherent despite its technical ambition. In the U.S., the film rode El Topo's cult wave via similar midnight circuits but underperformed commercially, grossing $118,697 worldwide amid reviews faulting its pretentious symbolism and narrative fragmentation. This disparity—modest earnings versus fervent niche devotion—underscores causal audience selectivity, where and obscurity repelled mainstream viewers but magnetized countercultural seekers valuing the films' uncompromised pursuit of metaphysical provocation over accessibility.

The Abandoned Dune Project and Mid-Career Setbacks

In 1974, Alejandro Jodorowsky acquired the film rights to Frank Herbert's following the commercial success of The Holy Mountain and assembled an ambitious , including comic artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud for storyboards, for biomechanical creature designs, for spaceship concepts, and for special effects engineering. The director reimagined the novel as a psychedelic epic, expanding it into a screenplay co-written with his son Brontis that was estimated to require 10 to 14 hours of runtime, far exceeding standard feature lengths. Producer secured partial funding, with pre-production costs reaching approximately $2 million, but pitches to Hollywood studios for a total budget of around $10–15 million were rejected due to the project's scale and perceived commercial risks. The abandonment stemmed from fundamental mismatches between Jodorowsky's uncompromising vision and the economic constraints of filmmaking, where studios demanded narratives fitting two-hour formats and prioritized over experimental reinterpretations that deviated significantly from the source material—incorporating messianic , Oedipal family dynamics, and surreal unbound by Herbert's . This overlooked causal realities: unproven directors lacked leverage for spectacle-driven sci-fi budgets exceeding contemporaries like Star Wars (initially $11 million), and Jodorowsky's insistence on total control alienated potential backers wary of his prior films' niche appeal. Frank Herbert's dissatisfaction with the loose adaptation further complicated rights, leading to their reversion by 1976 after $2 million spent without progress. The project's collapse left Jodorowsky personally drained, prompting a pivot to comics and a seven-year hiatus from feature films as financing evaporated amid his reputation for fiscal unpredictability. His 1980 return with Tusk, a low-budget children's fable shot in India about a boy raised by elephants, failed critically and commercially, hampered by awkward dubbing, tonal inconsistencies, and limited distribution that rendered it obscure and quickly forgotten. This extended drought persisted through the , with Jodorowsky unable to secure major backing until in 1989, a surreal horror co-produced on a modest scale that achieved modest cult reception but underscored ongoing struggles against industry aversion to his style. Meanwhile, elements of the Dune script and 300+ page illustrated "bible" circulated via shared contacts, reportedly informing visual motifs in David Lynch's 1984 Dune adaptation, though the original remained unrealized.

Later Autobiographical Films and Return Attempts

Santa Sangre (1989), Jodorowsky's return to feature filmmaking after earlier financial disappointments, centers on a young man escaping a to reunite with his armless mother, a former trapeze artist leading a , incorporating surreal circus freakshow imagery and themes of and . The film was produced by Argento, brother of horror director , with Argento also contributing to the screenplay alongside Jodorowsky and Roberto Leoni. It premiered at the Film Festival's sidebar, earning modest critical acclaim for its bold visuals and narrative intensity, though commercial distribution remained limited. Jodorowsky then entered a 23-year hiatus from directing features, attributed to ongoing funding challenges following the unproduced project and subsequent production hurdles. He broke this silence with the self-financed (2013), a semi-autobiographical musical fantasy depicting his childhood in , , under a strict communist father and devoted mother, blending psychomagic elements with exaggerated, operatic storytelling. Jodorowsky himself appears as an elderly narrator and actor, emphasizing themes of familial dysfunction and personal reinvention through symbolic acts. Continuing this autobiographical vein, Endless Poetry (2016) chronicles Jodorowsky's adolescence and early adulthood in Santiago, portraying his rebellion against family expectations to pursue poetry and bohemian artistry amid surreal encounters. The film features Jodorowsky's sons—Adan as the young Alejandro and Brontis as the father—alongside Pamela Flores as the mother, integrating real family dynamics into the narrative for authenticity. Funded partly through crowdfunding platforms to supplement personal investment, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving praise for its introspective lyricism but facing distribution constraints typical of Jodorowsky's independent output. As of October 2025, Jodorowsky, aged 96, has directed no new narrative features since , which concluded his planned five-film autobiography of his life (with earlier entries unrealized). His sole post-2016 directorial effort is the documentary Psychomagic, A Art (2019), which showcases demonstrations of his therapeutic "psychomagic" acts on volunteers rather than fictional . Subsequent attempts to secure financing for additional projects, including campaigns, have faltered amid industry skepticism toward his unconventional visions, leaving his cinematic return indefinitely stalled.

Psychomagic and Therapeutic Practices

Origins and Core Principles of Psychomagic

Psychomagic originated in the late 1970s amid Alejandro Jodorowsky's transition from experimental theater and to therapeutic experimentation, particularly following the collapse of his ambitious adaptation project in 1975, which left him in financial and creative distress. In , where he had resided since the , Jodorowsky began conducting initial acts of what would become psychomagic in informal clinic-like settings, drawing from his involvement in surrealist happenings and the Theatre of Cruelty while critiquing the limitations of Freudian psychoanalysis for its over-reliance on verbal interpretation. He posited that symbolic, non-rational actions could directly intervene in the unconscious, bypassing intellectual resistance to effect causal change in deeply ingrained psychological patterns. At its core, psychomagic operates on the principle that individuals inherit a "psychic family tree" of unresolved ancestral traumas and loyalties that manifest as personal neuroses, requiring healing through bespoke, often absurd symbolic rituals tailored to the patient's biography. These acts, informed by shamanic traditions encountered during Jodorowsky's travels and studies in , aim to reprogram the by enacting literal metaphors for resolution, such as confronting inherited guilt or severing toxic bonds, thereby restoring psychological equilibrium through direct experiential causality rather than analytical discussion. Jodorowsky blended these elements with influences from symbolism and psychogenealogy, emphasizing the body's and imagination's innate capacity for self-correction when prompted by provocative gestures. The practice received formal codification in Jodorowsky's 1995 book Psychomagic (translated into English in 2004 as Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic ), where he outlined its foundational acts and prescriptions, though he had already applied it to notable figures including musician in verifiable sessions during the preceding decades. No randomized controlled trials have validated its efficacy, with Jodorowsky himself framing it as an artistic, placebo-augmented approach reliant on individual belief and potency rather than empirical standardization.

Methods, Case Studies, and Celebrity Endorsements

Psychomagic techniques involve prescribing personalized symbolic acts intended to bypass rational resistance and directly influence the unconscious, often drawing on theatrical elements like , object manipulation, and ritualistic performance. Examples include directing individuals to consume foods symbolically linked to familial roles—such as offering portions to effigies representing parents—to resolve inherited emotional patterns, or staging public to confront shame-based traumas by exposing in a controlled manner. These acts, as depicted in Jodorowsky's 2019 documentary Psychomagic: A Healing Art, emphasize physical embodiment, with participants testifying to emotional release through gestures like and communal reenactments. Case studies outlined in Jodorowsky's writings illustrate applications such as a for a individual simulating a symbolic birth—crawling through a lined with supportive figures—to overcome linked to perceived maternal rejection, reportedly leading to restored mobility per the patient's account. Another example from The Manual of Psychomagic (2015) involves a mother arranging actors to "kidnap" her daughter suffering from an , aiming to evoke a sense of life's value through staged peril, after which the participant described reduced disordered behaviors. These anecdotes, drawn from Jodorowsky's therapeutic consultations, highlight acts tailored via readings or biographical analysis to target specific psychogenealogical wounds. Jodorowsky has facilitated psychomagic through individual sessions and group workshops, including a large-scale public act in in 2019 as a against societal constraints, involving hundreds in synchronized symbolic gestures. Similar events occur in , where he has resided since the , often in collaborative settings with followers adapting his prescriptions. Testimonials from participants in these formats, as featured in the 2019 documentary, claim cathartic breakthroughs, though structured follow-up data remains absent.

Empirical Critiques and Lack of Scientific Validation

Psychomagic lacks empirical support from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or peer-reviewed studies establishing its efficacy beyond anecdotal reports. Searches across scientific databases and yield no such validations, positioning it closer to untested folk remedies than evidence-based interventions. Jodorowsky himself has acknowledged that psychomagic's effects function as a , reliant on participant rather than verifiable causal mechanisms. Critics have highlighted its pseudoscientific nature, describing sessions as indulgent and absurd, with demonstrations involving that evoke concerns of voyeuristic exploitation rather than therapeutic necessity. Reviews from , including those of Psychomagic: A Healing Art, label it "New Age poppycock" and question whether it constitutes genuine or mere bordering on the gross. This subjectivity undermines claims of systematic benefit, as outcomes remain unmeasurable and prone to in self-reported successes. In contrast to therapies like (CBT), which boast extensive RCTs documenting symptom reduction via standardized protocols, psychomagic's dramatic, symbolic acts offer no comparable metrics for or long-term gains. Intense rituals risk false —superficial emotional release without resolving underlying issues—or even retraumatization in vulnerable individuals, absent the controlled safeguards of . Such critiques erode the guru-like authority attributed to Jodorowsky, emphasizing unproven intuition over replicable evidence.

Esoteric Interests and Tarot

Restoration of the Tarot de Marseille

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alejandro Jodorowsky collaborated with Philippe Camoin, a descendant of the historic Camoin printing family that produced Tarot de Marseille decks since the 18th century, to reconstruct an early version of the Tarot de Marseille. Their methodology involved comparative analysis of surviving historical decks, including 17th- and 18th-century exemplars like the Nicolas Conver edition from 1760, to identify and restore what they deemed original colors, symbols, and proportions altered by later printings. This effort sought to excise post-medieval modifications, such as 19th- and 20th-century standardization influences, aiming for a facsimile closer to pre-industrial forms without the symbolic expansions seen in later esoteric decks like the Rider-Waite-Smith. The resulting Camoin-Jodorowsky Tarot de deck, comprising 78 cards with dimensions of 65 x 122 mm, was released in 1997 following years of research and redrawing by Camoin under Jodorowsky's guidance. Proponents described the project as a scientific restoration, drawing on fragmented historical sources to revive purported "secret codes" in , such as symbolic alignments in the . However, tarot scholars have critiqued the work for incorporating subjective aesthetic and interpretive decisions, including color restorations not universally attested in primary artifacts, which introduce anachronistic elements unsupported by the variability in extant medieval and early modern decks. These choices prioritize a unified visual harmony over strict fidelity to any single historical variant, potentially projecting modern esoteric preferences onto 17th-century gaming and proto-divinatory origins. The deck's release spurred commercial availability through publishers like Lo Scarabeo and contributed to broader accessibility of patterns beyond academic circles, influencing contemporary production and study. Yet, this reconstruction has faced contention for deviating from empirical historical reconstruction standards, as no complete 600-year-old Marseille deck survives intact, and variants like Type I and Type II patterns from the onward exhibit regional inconsistencies that the Camoin-Jodorowsky version standardizes selectively. Such adaptations, while verifiable in their sourcing from multiple artifacts, underscore the limits of claiming "purity" in a evolved through artisanal variances rather than fixed archetypes.

Integration with Personal Philosophy and Shamanism

Jodorowsky conceptualizes the tarot as a psychic mirror reflecting the unconscious mind and collective human archetypes, prioritizing intuitive insight over rational analysis to cultivate spiritual awareness and self-knowledge. This perspective underscores his anti-materialist stance, positioning the cards as symbolic tools that transcend empirical logic and material determinism, instead invoking chaos and inner transformation akin to shamanic journeys. In The Way of Tarot: The Spiritual Teacher in the Cards (2004), he elucidates the Marseille deck's structure as a hermetic "nomadic cathedral," where the 78 arcana form an interconnected symbolic system for psychological and esoteric exploration. Influences from Kabbalah—linking the 22 Major Arcana to Hebrew letters and the Tree of Life—and Eastern mysticism, particularly Zen's emphasis on present-moment enlightenment, permeate his interpretations, framing tarot as a bridge between Western esotericism and non-dualistic philosophies. Jodorowsky explicitly rejects predictive divination, asserting that tarot addresses the present psyche rather than hypothetical futures, which he labels a "con" that undermines its transformative potential. This restraint highlights empirical boundaries in his shamanic self-conception as an "atheist mystic," where intuitive rituals evoke archetypal healing without verifiable prophetic outcomes, yet sustain a devoted audience through ongoing personal engagement. He sustains this integration via daily tarot readings disseminated on social media, including video interpretations on and into 2025, adapting esoteric symbolism to contemporary seekers' existential queries. Such practices embody his view of the artist-shaman as a guide awakening latent spiritual dimensions, distinct from mechanistic and aligned with a holistic rejection of materialist .

Influences, Philosophy, and Legacy

Key Influences on Jodorowsky's Work

Jodorowsky's early theatrical experiments and films drew heavily from 's The Theatre and Its Double (1938), particularly the "Theatre of Cruelty" framework, which advocated ritualistic spectacles using physical and sensory assault to dismantle societal illusions and provoke metaphysical awakening. This influence manifested in Jodorowsky's adoption of raw, confrontational staging, as seen in his 1960s Parisian mime troupe performances and later cinematic symbolism. Surrealism, spearheaded by André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), informed Jodorowsky's emphasis on the irrational and dream-like to access subconscious truths, evident in his co-founding of the Panic Movement in 1962 as a surrealist offshoot rejecting bourgeois norms. Luis Buñuel's surrealist films, such as Un Chien Andalou (1929), further shaped Jodorowsky's visual lexicon of shocking, associative imagery blended with social critique, influencing works like Fando y Lis (1968). G.I. Gurdjieff's teachings on self-observation and awakening from mechanical existence, outlined in (1950), impacted Jodorowsky's philosophical undercurrents of spiritual evolution through ordeal, though he adapted them into personal esoteric practices rather than strict adherence. His Ukrainian-Jewish father's authoritarian demeanor in , —depicted as tyrannical in Jodorowsky's semi-autobiographical (2013), based on his 2001 memoir—provided a psychological template for themes of paternal domination and rebellion, rooted in real childhood subjugation from 1929 onward. Jodorowsky rejected Sigmund Freud's individual-centric in favor of Carl Jung's archetypes and , as explored in Jung's (1964), prioritizing symbolic universality over personal pathology; this shift is reflected in his restorations and psychomagic acts from the , grounded in anecdotal therapeutic outcomes rather than empirical trials.

Philosophical Themes: Chaos, Spirituality, and Anti-Materialism

Jodorowsky conceptualizes chaos as an indispensable catalyst for creation, enabling the rupture of rigid structures to unleash unconscious potentials and foster alchemical-like transformation. This perspective frames disorder not as destructive but as a dynamic interplay with order, where creative acts emerge from the tension between meaning and its dissolution, informed by his surrealist influences and personal experiments in breaking psychological barriers. His spirituality prioritizes individual and inner evolution over institutionalized doctrines, rejecting organized religion's dogmas in favor of eclectic, self-directed paths to enlightenment drawn from meditation, , and a synthesis of mystical traditions. After five years of practice under a Japanese monk and exploration of Jewish esotericism, Jodorowsky promotes a fluid process of self-inquiry—questioning , , and ego—to achieve spiritual expansion and liberation, viewing divinity as an accessible personal experience rather than mediated authority. Anti-materialism permeates his worldview as a rebuke to capitalist imperatives, portraying material accumulation and consumerist logic as illusory traps ("Maya") that perpetuate pain and obstruct transcendent awareness. Reacting against his father's mercantile mantra of "buy cheap, sell high," Jodorowsky advocates inverting such priorities to favor imaginative, collective processes over possessive individualism, critiquing economic systems for enforcing self-obsession and divorcing humanity from higher realities. These motifs trace causally to his upbringing amid commercial influences and subsequent spiritual pursuits, grounding abstract ideals in lived rebellion rather than detached universality.

Impact on Cinema, Comics, and Counterculture

Jodorowsky's aborted adaptation in the mid-1970s generated a 14-hour bible illustrated by (Moebius) and others, which circulated among filmmakers and seeded visual motifs in subsequent cinema, including the biomechanical designs in (1982) via Giraud's contributions and the extraterrestrial architecture echoed in (2012). Team members like repurposed concepts from the project into Alien (1979), demonstrating how the unmade film's preparatory work indirectly propelled genre innovations without Jodorowsky directing a single frame. Despite such ripples, verifiable direct attributions from major directors remain limited, with hype around the bible's legacy often outpacing documented causal links beyond its artistic team's subsequent outputs. In comics, Jodorowsky's scripting partnership with Moebius on (serialized 1980–1988 in ) exemplified and accelerated the 1970s–1980s European science fiction boom, blending metaphysical themes with intricate world-building that influenced spin-offs like (1992–2003) and broader stylistic trends in Franco-Belgian albums. This collaboration, rooted in the Dune bible's conceptual overflow, helped elevate as a medium for ambitious, philosophically dense narratives, contributing to the genre's expansion beyond American dominance, though Jodorowsky's output faced underappreciation in English-speaking markets until later translations. El Topo (1970) ignited the 1970s circuit, premiering at New York's Elgin Theater on February 13, 1971, where it ran for six months exclusively at midnight, drawing crowds for its psychedelic western symbolism and drawing audiences numbering over 3,000 per week at peak. This phenomenon, tied to post-Woodstock experimentation, briefly positioned Jodorowsky as a icon, with endorsements from figures like aiding distribution, yet the fad dissipated by the mid-1980s as video rentals and blockbusters eroded niche theatrical rituals. Recent events, including a May 2024 retrospective featuring The Holy Mountain (1973) and a , evoke for this era but signal no substantive revival, underscoring how Jodorowsky's visual provocations innovated aesthetics—often synthesizing surrealist —while struggling against charges of narrative derivativeness from earlier traditions like Buñuel's unsubtle grotesquerie.

Personal Life

Marriages, Children, and Family Dynamics

Jodorowsky has had three marriages, with the first two ending in divorce and the third to Montandon-Jodorowsky, a painter 43 years his junior whom he met through readings and who has since collaborated on his creative projects. His second wife, Valerie Jodorowsky (also known as Valérie Trumblay), bore him several sons before their divorce around 1982, including Brontis (born 1962), Teo (died in the early 1990s), Axel (also known as Cristóbal, born 1965, died September 15, 2022), and Adán. His sons have played integral roles in his films, often embodying familial and symbolic themes central to his psychomagical approach. Brontis Jodorowsky debuted as the young son in El Topo (1970) and later portrayed his own grandfather in the autobiographical (2013). Axel and shared the lead role of Fenix at different life stages in (1989), while Teo Jodorowsky appeared as a mambo-dancing bandit in the same film. has also contributed musically, scoring . Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky has extended family involvement into production design, creating costumes for The Dance of Reality and maintaining a shared artistic practice with Jodorowsky in their Paris home. These collaborations reflect Jodorowsky's view of family as a generative force in his work, as explored in metagenealogy practices where ancestral patterns influence creative output, though he has acknowledged early relational failures shaping his later dynamics.

Health Challenges and Longevity at Age 96

In his mid-90s, Jodorowsky has faced the typical physical frailties of advanced age, including reduced mobility that necessitates assistance during public outings, yet he sustains intellectual and creative engagement without major reported illnesses post-2010. His output shifted from film direction—none since Psychomagic, a Art (2019)—to digital and written media, evidencing resilience amid age-related decline. Jodorowsky maintains an active presence on Instagram, where his official account garners approximately 472,000 followers and features regular posts on tarot interpretations, philosophical reflections, and personal anecdotes as of October 2025. This online activity, coupled with occasional in-person events like a February 2025 screening of his work in , demonstrates continued public interaction despite chronological constraints. He attributes his enduring vitality to disciplined routines, including a vegetarian diet adopted decades ago for health optimization and daily practices rooted in his spiritual explorations. Jodorowsky has claimed these habits, alongside psychomagic acts for psychological resolution, contribute to his , expressing aspirations to live centuries more; however, he acknowledges psychomagic's limits to mental and emotional , explicitly distinguishing it from cures for physical conditions like cancer. Empirical assessment favors prosaic factors—genetic , consistent physical discipline, and avoidance of excesses—over esoteric self- claims lacking controlled validation, as his sustained productivity aligns with observable lifestyle patterns rather than intervention.

Controversies and Criticisms

On-Set Allegations of Abuse and Exploitation

During the production of El Topo in in 1970, Jodorowsky, who directed and starred in the film, described in a contemporary penetrating co-star Mara Lorenzio during an unrehearsed sex scene, stating, "I really raped her. And she screamed." In his 1972 book El Topo: A Book of the Film, he elaborated on the incident, writing that after Lorenzio struck him repeatedly as scripted, he instructed the crew to roll cameras and "really raped her," adding that she later disclosed a prior rape experience, which he claimed enabled her acceptance. Lorenzio, making her acting debut with no prior professional experience, has not publicly commented on the account and withdrew from public life following the film. Jodorowsky later contextualized the episode in a 2007 interview as consensual penetration rather than , asserting, "I didn’t Mara, but I penetrated her with her ," while in a 2017 social media post attributing his original phrasing to efforts to provoke interviewers. No criminal charges were filed against him at the time, reflecting the era's limited on-set protections in low-budget independent productions filmed abroad without union oversight. The low-crew shoot, involving non-professional cast members including beggars and amputees, underscored a power imbalance exacerbated by Jodorowsky's dual role as and authority figure. These statements resurfaced amid #MeToo reevaluations of historical claims, prompting to cancel a planned 2019 retrospective of Jodorowsky's work, with director Patrick Charpenel citing the inability to adequately contextualize the remarks in an exhibition format. The decision followed community concerns in over the alleged , highlighting retrospective scrutiny of pre-#MeToo industry norms lacking formal accountability mechanisms for coercion.

Depictions of Violence, Sexuality, and Cultural Insensitivity

Jodorowsky's films are replete with graphic depictions of violence intended to provoke spiritual awakening through shock, including verifiable instances of real animal harm integrated into the narrative. In The Holy Mountain (1973), early alchemical sequences feature the on-screen crushing, , and killing of frogs, toads, and other creatures to represent transformation, with footage confirming these were genuine deaths rather than . Similarly, (1970) incorporates motifs of mutilation, shootings, and rape, such as a prolonged scene where the protagonist assaults a woman amid desert sands, emphasizing raw physical and psychological brutality as metaphors for ego dissolution. In a 2025 Instagram post, Jodorowsky addressed criticisms of these elements, asserting their symbolic purpose in unveiling subconscious truths rather than glorifying literal aggression. Sexual depictions in Jodorowsky's oeuvre often blend androgyny, ritualistic nudity, and sadomasochistic acts to disrupt conventional morality and evoke chaotic enlightenment. The Holy Mountain includes orgiastic scenes with hermaphroditic figures and flagellation, portraying sexuality as a tool for transcending binary norms and material attachments. El Topo extends this through incestuous undertones and masochistic self-harm intertwined with erotic violence, framing such elements as initiatory ordeals. Critics, however, have highlighted potential misogyny, observing that female characters frequently function as passive objects or catalysts for male quests—evident in The Holy Mountain's portrayal of women as attainable "prizes" amid male alchemical ascent—reducing their agency to symbolic vessels. Jodorowsky's engagement with cultural motifs draws heavily from Mesoamerican and indigenous traditions, often rendered through surreal lenses that prioritize personal over historical fidelity. In The Holy Mountain, indigenous-inspired rituals—such as mock sacrifices and ascents—exoticize Aztec and symbols like and cosmic serpents, blending them with European esotericism in ways that strip contextual reverence for . This approach extends to psychomagic appropriations in later works, where shamanic ceremonies are stylized as therapeutic catharses, potentially insensitive to their origins in living indigenous practices by commodifying sacred elements for universal without acknowledgment of cultural specificity or consent from source communities. Such portrayals risk reinforcing of primitive , though Jodorowsky frames them as archetypal universals transcending ethnic boundaries.

Pseudoscientific Claims and Ethical Concerns in Healing Practices

Jodorowsky developed psychomagic in the as a form of shamanic , prescribing personalized symbolic acts—such as ritualistic reenactments of trauma or surreal performances—to purportedly deep-seated psychological wounds by bypassing rational analysis and engaging the unconscious directly. These claims rely exclusively on anecdotal testimonials from participants, with no peer-reviewed studies demonstrating beyond effects, which Jodorowsky himself has likened to the subjective benefits of artistic intervention rather than verifiable causal mechanisms. Critics, including reviews of his 2020 documentary Psychomagic, a Healing Art, have characterized the approach as pseudoscientific pseudotherapy, emphasizing its roots in and performance over empirical validation, and noting the absence of long-term outcome data to substantiate transformative claims. Ethical concerns arise from the inherent power imbalances in Jodorowsky's sessions, where participants—often in states of acute , such as survivors of or —submit to directive, guru-like guidance that fosters dependency on his interpretive authority without independent oversight or evidence-based safeguards. Depictions in his include extreme rituals, like burying a suicidal individual alive amid carrion birds or staging public and , which risk exacerbating trauma or inducing psychological harm if underlying conditions like untreated mental illness are not addressed through conventional diagnostics. Reviews from highlighted potential exploitation, questioning whether such filmed "healings" prioritize Jodorowsky's artistic documentation over participant welfare, paralleling dynamics in cult-like therapeutic settings where charismatic figures exploit emotional needs for personal aggrandizement. The normalization of psychomagic within broader wellness culture underscores anti-empirical tendencies, as its appeal to imagination and sidesteps rigorous testing in favor of subjective narratives, contrasting with data-driven alternatives like cognitive-behavioral that require randomized controlled trials for validation. While Jodorowsky offers sessions free of charge to mitigate financial exploitation, the lack of professional licensing or ethical frameworks—common in accredited —leaves clients exposed to unverified interventions that may delay access to proven medical care.

Complete Works

Filmography

  • La Cravate (1957), a short animated directed by Jodorowsky, with a runtime of 35 minutes, produced in .
  • (1968), directed by Jodorowsky, runtime 93 minutes, produced in .
  • (1970), directed by and starring Jodorowsky, runtime 125 minutes, produced in .
  • The Holy Mountain (1973), directed by Jodorowsky, runtime 114 minutes, produced in and the with a of approximately $1 million.
  • (1980), directed by Jodorowsky, runtime 119 minutes, produced in .
  • Santa (1989), directed by Jodorowsky, runtime 123 minutes, produced in and .
  • The Rainbow Thief (1990), directed by Jodorowsky, produced in the and .
  • The Dance of Reality (2013), directed by Jodorowsky, an autobiographical produced in and .
  • Endless Poetry (2016), directed by Jodorowsky, the second part of his autobiographical series, produced in and .
  • Psychomagic, a Healing Art (2019), a directed by Jodorowsky exploring his therapeutic practices.

Bibliography

Non-fiction
  • Psicomagia (1995), outlining Jodorowsky's therapeutic practices blending and .
  • La danza de la realidad (2001), an autobiographical work detailing early life experiences.
  • El camino del tarot (2004), co-authored with Marianne Costa, exploring as a spiritual tool.
  • El maestro y las magas (2004; English: The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2008), memoirs of encounters with spiritual teachers and healers.
  • Manual de psiconáutica (2009; English: Manual of Psychomagic, 2015), expanding on psychomagic applications.
Fiction
  • Donde mejor canta un pájaro (2001; English: Where the Bird Sings Best, 2014), first in a semi-autobiographical .
  • El hijo del jueves negro (2004; English: The Son of Black Thursday, 2020), continuing the generational narrative.
  • El niño del jueves negro (2008), concluding the trilogy with themes of inheritance and mysticism.
  • Albina y los hombres-perro (2000; English: Albina and the Dog-Men, 2016), a surreal tale of transformation and exile.
Comics scripts Grouped by major series, where Jodorowsky provided primary narrative:
  • The Incal (1981–1988, illustrated by Moebius), foundational sci-fi epic in the Jodoverse.
  • (1992–2003, illustrated by Juan Giménez), prequel saga of warrior ancestors.
  • (1998–2003, illustrated by Zoran Janjetov), exploring technological cults in the Incal universe.

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  120. https://www.instagram.com/popular/alejandro-the-realm-bandit/
  121. https://www.truemythmedia.com/true-myth-media/reviews/theholymountain
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  134. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078356/
  135. https://saltypopcorn.co.uk/detail-page/?movie=tusk~1980
  136. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0423524/
  137. https://www.psychomagic.com/
  138. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56230.Psicomagia
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  145. https://tomlennon.com/alejandro-jodorowsky-jodoverse-comics-reading-guide/
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