Product Description

Fando and his partially paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar; el Topo searches the desert to defeat four master gunmen and to find enlightenment; an alchemist assembles a group of people from all walks of life to prepare them for the trip to Lotus Island where they will ascend the holy mountain to displace the gods who rule the universe.ip to Lotus Island where they will ascend the holy mountain to displace the gods who rule the universe.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 1-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9668 in DVD
• Brand: JODORWSKY,ALEJANDRO
• Released on: 2007-05-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 333 minutes

Amazon.com
How can so much mysticism be contained in a simple DVD box set? The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky is a divine collection of the director's early films, restored and ready for repeated viewings. For it does take several viewings to imbue Jodorowky's invented archetypes with personal meaning and to familiarize oneself with his avant-garde approach to communicating artistic concepts. In this box, El Topo and Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky's stories of spiritual journeys through barren deserts, are paired with Fando Y Lis and La Cravate, a never before seen gem from the 1950s. This alone justifies the box set. La Cravate is a Technicolor tale of a man whose sadistic girfriend urges him to visit the head shop to shop for a new head. Miming his way through rows of living human heads, and trying several on with the help of a shop manager skilled in stitching skin, this Frankensteinian story establishes Jodorowsky's affinity for pitting effusive love against cruelty for maximum tension between involved characters. Fando Y Lis, on the other hand, is an early version of the later two masterpieces, about a couple whose quest for an imaginary land in the future, called Tar, introduces them to wizened forest masters, wild packs of women bowling, and enlightened drag queens. Filmed in black and white, Fando Y Lis proves that Jodorowsky's radical use of color in El Topo and Holy Mountain is no simple trope. Here, he relies more heavily on dramatic physical action, including miming and a paraplegic protagonist who is wheeled around in a wagon by her lover.

The box set contains the film soundtracks, director commentaries, and several interviews with Jodorowsky, including the documentary, La Constellation, in which he discusses his reliance on intuition, the notion of absurdism versus mystery, and his infamous usage of violence, which he eloquently explains as creative violence versus the destructive. Though this talented director refuses the claim that he is a mystic, it becomes clear in watching this body of work that he is achieving the sublime in a visually transcendental fashion. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

From out of the depths
Rescued at long last from inaccessibility, "El Topo" lives up to its reputation as one of the great idiosyncratic "art films" of all time, filled with amazing -- even astonishing -- imagery and enhanced by the director's own haunting musical score. A tour de force for Alejandro Jodorowsky and a genuine must for anyone who enjoys adventurous, maverick moviemaking. Once seen, NEVER FORGOTTEN.

Youll never expect
whats coming next in these movies which is why there so great!
youll be surprised and amazed. these films are incredulous.

Real art
The Holy Mountain is really the only movie you need to see (and I mean among all films ever made). El Topo and Fando y Lis are almost variations on or preperations for the Holy Mountain, but they are still worth seeing in their own rite. I wouldn't recommend this entire box set unless you are a die hard Jodorowsky fan or a surreal film buff. If you are a surreal film buff I recommend you lower your dose of movies and start engaging with the world more. The cd's are kind of useless, but in general you get more than you pay for with this box set, so if you must buy it you won't be disappointed. Jodorowsky is a rare and genuine artist.