Alejandro Jodorowsky takes viewers on quite an acid trip in surreal Western EL TOPO
THE CINEMATIC ALCHEMY OF ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY: EL TOPO (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
Museum of Arts & Design
2 Columbus Circle at 58th St. & Broadway
Thursday, September 23, $10, 7:00
212-299-7777
www.madmuseum.org
Chilean-born Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s EL TOPO is a psychedelic head trip, an acid Western that will blow your mind. Jodorowsky stars as the title character, a gunslinger traveling through a deserted landscape accompanied by his naked young son, who already knows his way around a firearm. After coming upon a town that has been decimated by a nasty group of marauders working for the Colonel, El Topo seeks violent revenge, eventually taking off with a woman and leaving his boy behind as he meets four masters on his path to proving he is the best there is. But soon El Topo is praying for redemption with a community of inbred cripples trapped in a cave. EL TOPO is a wild and bizarre journey through religious imagery, romance, and vengeance, a surreal spaghetti Western strained through the mad mind of Jodorowsky, widely hailed as the creator of the midnight movie. The film melds Bergman with Leone, Tod Browning’s FREAKS with Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, filtered through Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s LONE WOLF AND CUB. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before and, despite your better instincts, will lure you into the cult of Jodorowsky. EL TOPO kicks off the Blood into Gold: The Cinematic Alchemy of Alejandro Jodorowsky series at the Museum of Arts & Design, which continues with screenings of THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) on September 24, FANDO Y LIS (1968) on September 30, SANTA SANGRE (1989) on October 1, Jodorowsky’s LA CRAVATE and Louis Mouchet’s LA CONSTELLATION JODOROWSKY (1994) on October 7, and RAINBOW THIEF (with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif!) on October 8. Jodorowsky himself will be on hand to teach a sold-out master class on September 25 that should be quite an event.