Jodorowsky’s films

In “Holy Blood,” Jodorowsky explores the genre of terror. However, it is a kind of terror that does not stem from lurking external monsters, but from monsters that exist in the human mind. This topic, previously presented by Hitchcock in his classical film “Psycho,” gives Jodorowsky the perfect excuse to dive into the subconscious world.

In terms of structure and characterization, “Holy Blood” is the director’s most conventional movie. We know the main conflict that affects the leading character, and a resolution is suggested: healing his mental disturbance.

The leading character’s conflict takes place in a present that is always conditioned by the visible past through successive flash-backs. The editing style shows recurringly, through quick cuts that join past and present in a matter of seconds, the extent to which the leading character is controlled by his family past. This is particularly noticeable in his oedipal love towards his mother, and in certain features inherited from his father’s personality, such as his passion for subjecting the women he wants to extremely dangerous games. And, like in any therapy of psychoanalytical counseling, healing comes when Félix symbolically kills his parents, who, up until this moment, controlled his subconscious mind.

In Jodorowsky’s words : “The genealogical tree acts upon us, whether we like it or not. The only way to get cured is to study our genealogical tree and to discover what we are repeating. When you are not being yourself, but what your family wants from you. When you are living in the place of the deceased. When you are imitating someone from your family. When, for example, if you are a woman, you are living like a man, simply because your father wanted a son, or vice versa.”

The Holy Mountain is one of the most originals films by Jodorowsky, given its peculiar narrative structure: it is an episodic narration that describes a collective quest by nine characters. In other words, no hero or lonesome protagonist can be identified, but the narration focuses on a group of characters set out to find something equally as complex: immortality.

Jodorowsky was aware that he was going against the aristotelic structure, which is the most frequently used in Hollywood’s movies: “All the movies we know are structured in the same way. They start with a first act, which introduces a hero that does not want to enter the action, but is pushed into it by something that happens. Then, there is a second act, where enemies and allies perform their actions. Finally, there is a third act where all of this gets resolved. In “The Holy Mountain,” I did away with this. I did not want to tell a story. I wanted to present characters and express myself in a different way.”

In the first scenes of the movie, we follow the story of a thief, a corrupt man given to vice that walks around a violent world until his encounter with the Alchemist leads his personality to undergo a radical transformation.

In the second part of the movie, the Alchemist introduces to the Thief seven other characters, powerful millionaire men and women that will accompany him on his initiatic journey.

Finally, in the third part of the movie, all nine characters set off in search of the summit of the Holy Mountain, where, as the Alchemist promised them, they will be able to achieve, after overcoming the hurdles along the way, the long desired immortality.

But it is in the very last scene where we find the most transgressive and transcending moment of the movie: the Alchemist, played by Jodorowsky himself, turns his eyes to the lens, and – no longer playing his role, but acting as a director – orders the camera to go back (“Zoom back, camera!”.) This shoot reveals the technical crew behind the cameras, with their microphones and reflecting screens. It brings down the representational convention that had been sustained up to that moment, and denounces the cinematographic artifice.

This ending tells us about the impossibility of finding an absolute and permanent truth, and proposes us instead to continue on with the search regardless of the results. This ending is again a challenge to the classical narrative structures. There is no hero here that, after a challenging search, triumphs over evil, finds the treasure, or joins his beloved princess. Here the search is so important that becomes an object by itself.

In the words of the director: “Another mountain, and another, and another. And there is no need to stop, because the world is permanent impermanence. So we have to go towards impermanence with a lot of perseverance, dedication, and faith. Illumination is a continuous process.”

After his brief introduction to films with “La Cravate,” Jodorowsky waits eleven years before exploring this form of art. In the meantime, he continued with pantomime, the Movimiento Pánico, and theater productions, among which it is worth mentioning the play “Fando y Lis,” written by Fernando Arrabal. The play, produced and starred by Jodorowsky, stayed in theaters for a whole year. But it was not making enough money, so the members of the theater company decided to close it.

On this subject, Jodorowsky says: “Drama is the hardest and most humble activity. It’s ephemeral. It’s like a religion. You do a play, the play is over. You do another play, it is also over. Nothing is left remaining.”

He then starts imagining ways to preserve part of the work done in theater productions, and asks Arrabal for the copyright of the play to make a feature film freely based on it.

The film tells the story of a crippled woman (Lis) who, in the company of her disfunctional partner (Fando), searches for the city of Tar, a place of happiness and peace. However, they run into multiple characters and situations on their way, which prevent their arrival in the mythical city.