[INFLUENCERS] The Psychomagic of Alejandro Jodorowsky

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Film still from El Topo

With gallons of blood, dwarves, and maimed circus performers, weirdness is almost always guaranteed. Your money's worth? Not so much if you're not ready for the holy mountain that is Alejandro Jodorowsky.  A gunfighter on a violent quest for enlightenment, a feverish search for a mythical holy mountain, and a man serving as his armless mother's arms, carrying out vengeful murders on her behalf, all summarize, albeit briefly, the trifecta of Chilean filmmaker and artist Alejandro Jodorowsky's surreal and mystical cinematic masterpieces: El Topo, Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre. Or maybe they're a summary of all the alter-egos of the man himself, the cult legend, the auteur of weird.

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Film still from El Topo

Most people have probably never heard his name before - much less seen his films, but Jodoorsky has had a massive influence on the avant garde, as well as impact on mainstream culture, for almost 30 years.  And thankfully, these days his name has been rising to the surface a lot more. With a high definition version of El Topo, slated for release on April 26, and various premiers of his films, lectures, and collaborations Jodoworsky seems to be getting his rightly due.

In March, Jodowosky started production on a film version of his autobiography The Dance of Reality. To date he has published over 23 novels in the field of psychomagic - which aims to heal wounds of the soul using the Tarot and various forms of holistic mysticism.  He has even spent fifteen years recreating the Tarot of Marseilles - cards that have been de rigueur to the practice of Tarot reading since the 15th century; the cards most are familiar with.  In the end it seems as though Alejandro Jodorowsky is satisfied in the role as shaman and he professes that his main goal is mainly "to spread consciousness." But no matter the course of the artist's multiple identities, Jodorowsky will always be an artist and whatever the medium may be he will continue to have a tremendous influence and voice each time culture sheds its fickle skin.

Visit Alejandro Jodorowsky's official site

Text by Oliver Maxwell Kupper for Pas Un Autre

[Cinema] Let There Be Rock

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A little over a month of rock n' roll films? Starting April 29 at the Queensland Cinémathèque in Australia, 'Let There Be Rock' brings together a wide range of documentaries and feature films capturing the rebellious spirit of rock music culture. The program features intimate portraits of bands and musicians, showcasing their magnetic stage presence and musical talents, as well as the fans, collaborations and locations that surround them.

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Wild experiments with rock operas and musicals illustrate the blending of rock music and cinema into a unique film genre. Concert films and live recordings capture bands in full flight and the transformation of stage performances into visceral experiences. Iconic music events caught on film also chronicle rare pieces of music history and their ensuring influence on new generations of music fans. http://qag.qld.gov.au/cinematheque

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Fear & Loathing in San Juan: The Rum Diaries

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Its a tale all too Hunter Stockton Thompson. In 1958 he completed his first novel, The Rum Diary - he was in his late 20s.  Letters around this time, Hunter Thompson was a voracious letter writer - he kept a carbon copy of almost every letter he ever wrote since his teens and lasted until his suicide at 67 as some kind of obsessive, seemingly feverish, prophetic preservation of his legacy, before and after completion of the Rum Diary,  paint  a Hunter Thompson excited about finishing his first, real novel - after hopscotching from one one horse town newspaper to the next throughout much of his early journalistic career. But letters also show the harsh side of rejection and many letters to the effect from editors, as well as replies back from Thompson with belligerent threats of murder, revenge and spilled teeth.  The Rum Diary tells the tale of a young American journalist disillusioned by a hopelessly bland America under Eisenhower who moves to a pristine San Juan, Puerto Rico to work for a flailing newspaper and becomes obsessed with a young blonde fiancee of a cohort. Its a tale all to Hunter Thomson: reportage of the strange world from behind the bullet proof glass of his own conciousness, a consciousness too big in a world that at same time made him feel so small. Rum soaked and covered in white tropical sand, The Rum Diary is a tale of bliss and abandon from a young writer finding his voice at the apex of an entirely American 20th century, groping madly for the American dream up the fuzzy blouse of some young, dumb secretary.  The Rum Diary wasn't published until 1998, nearly 50 years after it was completed.  This October, a film, entitled The Rum Diary, will bring this incredible book to to the silver screen.

[Nouvelle Vague] Jean-Paul Belmondo Canonized at Cannes

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Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless 1960

With his rough and tumble good looks and eternally dangling cigarette, Jean-Paul Belmondo has been a fixture in French cinema for nearly six decades. Belmondo, the actor who defined "New Wave" cinema with his debut roll in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless will be canonized at this years Cannes Film Festival with a grand fΓͺte apropos for the celluloid icon; as well as the premier of Vincent Perrot and Jeff Domenech’s documentary Belmondo, The Career. The Cannes Film Festival runs May 11 – 22.

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Jean-Paul Belmondo in Philippe de Broca's That Man From Rio 1964

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Claudia Cardinale and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Mauro Bolognini's The Lovermakers, 1961

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Jean-Paul Belmondo in Jean-Pierre Melville's LΓ©on Morin, Priest, 1961

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Belmondo as Belmondo

[FILM] The Face Behind the Mask (1941)

Peter Lorre in The Face Behind the Mask

The Face Behind the Mask is the story of a hopeful new immigrant, Janos Szaby (Peter Lorre), who, on his first day in New York City, is trapped in a hotel fire that leaves his face hideously scarred. Refused employment due to his appearance although he possesses tremendous skill as a watchmaker, the only way he can survive is by turning to theft, using his skilled hands to disable alarms. Eventually he becomes the leader of a gang of thieves, and raises enough money to commission and wear a realistic latex mask of his own face. Janos then falls in love with Helen (Evelyn Keyes) a blind woman who sees only the good in him, and attempts to leave his life of crime behind him. Unfortunately, his gang come to believe that he has betrayed them to the police, and attempt to kill him by car bomb, an attempt on his life that he survives but that Helen does not. In retaliation, Janos disguises himself as the pilot of the private plane the gang is flying out of the city with, which he lands in the Arizona Desert and lets out the fuel, suicidally stranding both the gang and himself without food or water, dooming them all to a slow death. At the film's end, Janos's body and that of his enemies are discovered by the police.

Post by Dustin Lynn

Film: Beautiful Darling

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Beautiful Darling, a documentary film, pays tribute to the short but influential life of an extraordinary person -- the actress Candy Darling, born James Slattery in a Long Island suburb in 1944. Drawn to the feminine from childhood, by the mid-Sixties James had become Candy, a gorgeous, blonde actress and well-known downtown New York figure. Candy's career took her through the raucous and revolutionary Off-off-Broadway theater scene and into Andy Warhol's legendary Factory. There she became close to Warhol and starred in two Factory movies that still shock and amuse today: Flesh and Women in Revolt. Candy used her Warhol fame to land further film roles, and her admirer Tennessee Williams cast her in his play Small Craft Warnings. She dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star, but tragically died of lymphoma in the early Seventies, at only twenty-nine.
Andy Warhol and Candy Darling
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Candy Darling on her deathbed

The film will be released this April. www.beautifuldarling.com

Italian Style on the Silver Screen

Italian Style on the Silver Screen

A major collection of rare images depicting the influence of Italian style in film will be unveiled at an exhibition at Proud Chelsea,  which launched last Tuesday with a private viewing. The exhibition has been curated by celebrated top photographer Rankin and Italian fashion writer, film expert and cultural commentator Anna Battista in conjunction with Peroni Nastro Azzurro. The exhibition officially opened yesterday at Proud Chelsea and from there will tour another four UK cities , until Saturday 2nd April where it finishes in Bristol. The Peroni Collection – Italian Style on the Silver Screen explores the relationship between Italian fashion design and its enduring influence on film making, image making and characterisation. The exhibition will feature rare and never seen before images and costumes from the cinematic world. The Peroni Collection references not only classic Italian films like Ladri di Biciclette and Bellissima, but also more contemporary titles (including American Psycho and Casino Royale). The images, taken from classic Italian film and fashion archives from around the world, showcase the beauty of Italian fashion on celluloid. www.proud.co.uk

Deneuve

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Stunningly beautiful, mysterious, ageless, and possessed by a peerless elegance, Catherine Deneuve is one of the most legendary actresses in all of cinema. Over the course of her 40 year careerβ€”from early work with film giants like Luis BuΓ±uel, FranΓ§ois Truffaut, Roman Polanski, AgnΓ¨s Varda, and Jacques Demy to later films with celebrated contemporary cineastes like FranΓ§ois Ozon, Arnaud Desplechin, Raoul Ruiz, and moreβ€”Deneuve has played muse for Europe’s greatest filmmakers, channeling her remarkable beauty and compelling eroticism to create some of cinema’s most iconic roles. Presented in collaboration with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and Institut Francais, a 25-film tribute to the actress being held at the Brooklyn Academy represents only a sliver of the over 100 films she has appeared in during her career. Deneuve runs from March 4 to March 31.  www.bam.org

Openings: JAMES FRANCO / GUS VAN SANT "Unfinished"

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"Unfinished" features two films, Endless Idaho and My Own Private River, which are collaborations between Gus Van Sant and James Franco. After casting Franco in the award-winning film Milk (2008), Van Sant showed him the dailies and other footage that he had shot many years before for My Own Private Idaho (1991), which starred River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as street hustlers in Portland, Oregon. Much of this material did not make it into the final cut, and so Franco decided to fashion it into two new films, riffing off the original title. The opening is February 26th at the Gagosian in Beverly Hills and runs till April 9. www.gagosian.com