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Forgive me, Mist, if my post seemed flippant. When you insinuated that any future film career for Jodorowsky would be impossible without the assistance of John Lennon—an assertion so distorted and reductive as to be laughable—I assumed that you were trying to turn this into a comedy thread, and responded in kind.
Since it seems that you were serious, albeit ill-informed, let’s clear up the half-truths and get to my point (and I do have one, beyond simply being a smart-ass).
Yes, Lennon did fund the distribution of El Topo and the production of The Holy Mountain. That’s why those films were impossible to find on video for years—the distribution rights are still owned by Lennon’s former manager Allen Klein. And yes, Jodorowsky did have the funding pulled on his version of Dune while it was still in pre-production; and yes, he has been trying for years to make one particular project—a sequel to El Topo, in fact—and has been unable to do so for lack of funding.
(All this comes from about two minutes of research online, by the way.)
Note, however, that Jodorowsky has made other films, for other producers, in the interim, and has secured funding by agreeing to deliver those films on time, under budget, and without significant deviation from the script. He’s like Terry Gilliam in that respect, who has balanced “visionary” works with more commercial productions.
The important thing, though—the point I was trying to make, in a sideways fashion—is that Jodorowsky has kept furiously busy while not making films. He’s written a shedload of comics and prose and plays, he’s been teaching and practicing magick, doing commentaries and criticism, keeping his media presence at a constant simmer. In this respect he is rather different from Terry Gilliam, who, when not making a film, seems always to be actively seeking to make a film.
I don’t know the man personally, so obviously I can’t say this with certainty—but maybe the reason Jodorowsky goes so long between films isn’t just because of money. Maybe it’s just that he doesn’t need to make a movie every year. It is obvious that he’s got plenty of ideas—but not every idea needs to be a movie. Jodorowsky is not just a filmmaker, but an all-around creative person, and he has other outlets for that creativity besides the movies—outlets that involve l;ess compromise and frustration that the big-budget, high-stakes world of the movies.
So may I suggest, then, that perhaps the world of film did not turn its back on Alejandro Jodorowsky; that perhaps it was the other way around. |
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