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Thursday, January 18, 2007

Best Movie Ever Made

Okay, if you know me, you're probably really tired of me going on about Santa Sangre and it's bohemian director, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Last year I had the honor of spending the day with Jodorwosky -- he put on a rare seminar called "Psycho Magic, Tarot, and Creativity" for about 25 people...I happened to be one of them...it ranks as one of the trippiest, most enjoyable days of my life. Really.

But that's for another time. This weekend, The Castro Theater in San Francisco will be showing two of his classic films: El Topo and Holy Mountain. If you're not familiar with The Castro Theater, let's just say it's an old movie palace, complete with organist, that's been refurbished to all it's glory.

By the way, most of Alejandro Jodorowsky's films have been unavailable for decades as they were locked up in litigation. A deal was finally made and these two films (both from the 70s, I believe) will soon be on DVD. Until now, only his first film (Fando and Lis) and his last (Santa Sangre) were available in the US.

If you decide to check out Santa Sangre, make sure you find an UNCUT NC-17 version (like the British import pictured here) and not the "Bend over for Blockbuster and Hollywood Video R-Rated one". It's a distrubring, surreal, mysterious wonder of a picture!

Alejandro, if you're listening, thanks again!

3 comments:

Sidney said...

I seem to remember some horrified mainstream reviews of Santa sangre when it came out. I've never had a chance to see it.

The seminar sounds like it was quite an experience.

Clifford said...

It made it on Rogert Eberts top 10 films of the year -- some reviewers got it, and appreciated it's dark beauty. It's one of those films that you piece together in your mind after the theater goes dark.

And yeah, the seminar was incredible...

Charles Gramlich said...

Never saw this but it sounds cool.

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This is me and one of my two cats. His name is Cougar, and he’s an F1 Chausie. A chausie is a new breed of cat under development. Chausies are the result of a cross between a domestic cat (in Cougar’s case, a Bengal) and a jungle cat (Felis Chaus). Cougar’s mom is 8 pounds and his father is a 30-pound jungle cat. He’s about 16 pounds, super intelligent, spirited, and toilet trained. A writer without a cat (or two) is not to be trusted.