Alejandro Jodorowsky on the Panic Movement.
That was a moment of my life which has passed because I love surrealism enormously. Then I came from Chile 23 years to be a surrealist with Breton. At four o’clock in the morning, I call Breton, “I am here.” “Who are you?” “I am Jodorowsky.” “Who is Jodorowsky?” “I am the guy who came here to save surrealism. I will change surrealism. It will be fantastic.” “Oh, wait a second.” “I am a great artist. I will make real surrealist art.” “Come tomorrow at two o’clock.” “No, no, now.” “It’s four o’clock in the morning.” “You are surrealists, now.” “No, tomorrow. Or you are not a surrealist, I will not see you.” Then three or four years later, I knew him, he wanted to know me.
I go through surrealism. It was political like Trotsky. After that, I found rock music. They didn’t have science fiction, not pornography, not sex. He was a romantic writer. Then I found Arrabal and Topor and we said we’ll make a movement, Panic movement to go far of this reality. Freedom, freedom to do whatever you want. You must not be only cinematist, a writer, painter, dancer, fighter. You can be everything. You can make a lot of things, not only one thing.
Here, what is that [iPhone]? When I was young, it was a telephone but now they are not telephones. What is this? It’s a telephone, yes, but it’s a machine to write, the weather, yes, maybe [makes vibrating noise] masturbating? Yes. Very soon they will have masturbators. It’s everything. And then you, why you have not like this? You can do everything. That was the Panic.
Alejando Jodorowsky on the possibility of an artistic movement today.
I think it’s possible because I am possible. I cannot change the world. I can start to change. I did that. I am in Cannes. Why I am in Cannes is a miracle. Why they accept me, first the red carpet didn’t accept me. Then the Director’s Fortnight accepted me, but life is very funny they reject me because the director Nicolas Winding Refn loves me. I knew him before he was famous. Now he dedicated this picture to me and asked me to go with him on the red carpet where I was ejected.
He said to me, “I am going to make a picture but I am scared. You have some advice?” I said, “Hollywood will destroy you. I will say what to do. The people who are not artists, they’re businessmen, they won’t exist and then they will come to you and they will say idiocy. Do that, do that, do that. You smile and say yes, yes, accept. And when they go, do whatever you want because in six months they will forgot.” And he directed and had success. We became friends and now I will go on the carpet. I will not wear a bow tie and then they will eject me. Fantastic.
Alejandro Jodorowsky on Spielberg heading the Cannes jury.
What I can say? What I can say? He’s a visionary. He’s the product of the fucking of Superman with Minnie Mouse. That’s what I say because I knew his first film, with the car pursued [Duel], was very good. Later he began making idiocy. It’s terrible. It’s terrible but that is the theme of the movies like it is today. King of industry, no? That he’s the president here, it’s saying Cannes is the official industrial festival, not artistic. By happiness they are directors with visionaries, really lovely pictures, not the industry. And then he has the right to exist. Superman can exist.
CraveOnline: What about Schindler’s List? That was a personal film for Spielberg.
Yeah, but this is opportunistic because he’s coloring with good colors something that is not that. You can not profit off that. This picture is only to make Americans remember their history because Americans have no history. We have history. We remember that. I think we must not exploit war and things like that. It’s a commercial movement.
CraveOnline: Has making a movie gotten any easier in the last 23 years because of technology? Was La Danza de la Realidad easier than Holy Mountain and El Topo?
No! It was a technical adventure because I used numeric [digital CGI], I get crazy with the possibilities. You see this picture, It’s a new aesthetic. There are not shadows, there are colors. It’s another way to shoot. I use numeric effects but I’m not in the service of numeric effects. I use them in the service of the story. I see the picture with the tiger, Life of Pi. I was not scared because it was a guy with a tiger who is not real. He will never eat the guy! Why are we seeing this if it’s not a real tiger? If you give that to me, I make the boy, I make the tiger and then I make glass walls but I make the tiger. I will not use the effect like this, but you can use the effect and change the world. You can be an artistic possibility. I use it like that, like art.
Alejandro Jodorowsky on casting his younger self in La Danza de la Realidad.
In Chile, there’s a school. I went to the director of the school, “Do you make theater here?” “Yes, I make theater.” “Do you have a good actor?” “Yes, my son.” I say, “Well, I will make a picture with your son. Show me.” He was fantastic immediately, as you see. I say, “But he needs to be naked.” They say, “Listen, I am very free but he cannot be completely naked. He cannot show his ass and not his sex.” Why? “Because they will eject me from the school. He needs to have pants” and then I agree. Okay, I put pants on him. It was a unique limit. He came and it was fantastic.
And I need an actor without hands. Where can I find an actor without hands? I put in the theater “I need an actor without hands.” [The phone rings] “Hello, I have no hands.” Good. “But I don’t have an eye because there was an accident.” Ah, you have only one eye? Fantastic! I take him. It all depends on the person I find because I don’t use stars. I use my son to play his father. Everything I make, I make without stars.
All the town, I stopped the town because in the picture you don’t see cars, nothing, because they stopped the town. Anyway, in this town, nobody worked there. We loved the town but they go to work, the man goes to the mill and the woman goes to the house to clean the houses. Then I needed 300 people and 300 people came. I said, “We’re shooting the red [light district] with prostitutes,” they came dressed as a Tocovilla woman and I have a lot of people. Big production, eh? Not expensive.
