Sunday, November 13, 2011

Alejandro Jodorowsky: El Topo, Part 2















A little more on Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo, (1969-1971). In yesterday's post, Sergio Leone was evoked, and there is definitely strong imagery that seems directly related to Leone's films. Others were added to the mix. After going through the second half, I'd expand the comparison and influences (across time, before and after) to Hieronymus Bosch, John Waters, all sorts of Medieval distortions of ancient myths, the Grimm brothers and David Lynch.

El Topo also reminds me of The Canterbury Tales / I racconti di Canterbury (1972), which was created with evidently scabrous delight by Pier Paolo Pasolini, adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer's influential late fourteenth century fragments and tales. For The Canterbury Tales, Pasolini employed Ennio Morricone, who also worked on the Sergio Leone films, to do the soundtrack, proving once more that everything is connected one way or another. 














Finally, after the nightmarish surrealism of El Topo, I'm happy to return to a more mundane reality, as least for a while!

Today's Rune: Initiation.

4 comments:

the walking man said...

"I'm happy to return to a more mundane reality, as least for a while!"



Why?

Erik Donald France said...

Balance . . . nightmares startle and surprise, but are not serene places of peaceful contemplation.

Charles Gramlich said...

Nightmares are a lot of fun in my experience.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Quite a combination of influences here. Oh, netflix, why did you desert me.