Jodo-Watch!!

Some info concerning our favorite film-maker/comic-book author/modern mystic Alejandro Jodorowsky, from an interview on the Premiere Magazine (of all places) website.

On the upcoming DVD (box set?):
"After almost 25 years of conflict with Allen Klein, we made a friendly arrangement. I went, some months ago, to New York to remaster EL TOPO, arranging the color. I made wonderful work with the daughter of Allen Klein, Robin. The DVD includes three of my best pictures FANDO Y LIS, EL TOPO, and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, with two hours of bonus features including the first film I made when I was 24 years old, which was lost. The picture was a tale of Thomas Mann, a pantomime called THE TIDE. There are interviews, commentaries."

On the re-mastering process:
"They have a new machine [to make] the colors I wanted. At that time [I made the film], the technique was not so perfect. Also, some shots that were dark are clear and shots that were static, I gave them movement. It's perfect now. For the first time in my life I have the picture as I like it. I did this with all three pictures. The first picture was black and white, so it was not a problem, but EL TOPO was a problem because the color was not good. And THE HOLY MOUNTAIN is like a painting."

On his next film:
"It's called KING SHOTS. It's a gangster movie. There are a lot of actors who want to play in the picture. Marilyn Manson will play the role of a 300-year-old Pope. Nick Nolte called me and said he saw a picture I did called SANTE SANGRE. He said, "I want to work with you." I said, "How can I pay you." And he said, "That is not important." I want to shoot in Romania and in the desert in Spain where Leone shot his pictures. It's set at a casino in the middle of the desert and all the gangsters come to gamble. In the desert they find the skeleton of a giant man as big as King Kong. I wanted to make a film called ABEL CAIN which was the SON OF EL TOPO but I could not raise the money. Too expensive. You know, I am a poor poet trying to make artistic, individual pictures. I am not a multinational. I think my pictures are some kind of an elixir that can change the mind for the better. I hate pictures where you go in silly and you come out silly, not changed. With my pictures I want to change the way you see the world. That is for me is the meaning of cinema."