Writer. Film Scholar. Journalist. Editor.
I contributed an essay on Fando y Lis and surrealism to the new monumental Alejandro Jodorowsky box set from Arrow. Jodorowsky's first feature Fando y Lis (1968), an infernal adaptation of Fernando Arrabal's Panic play, psychedelic Western El Topo (1970) and delirious spiritual initiation The Holy Mountain (1973) are presented in new 4K restorations, and... Continue Reading →
I contributed a video essay on We Are the Flesh (Tenemos la carne), the spectacular debut by Mexican director Emiliano Rocha Minter. This hallucinatory tale of rituals and rebirth, libidinous excess and transformative violence creates its own Theatre of Cruelty, in direct line with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Antonin Artaud. In the spirit of its illustrious... Continue Reading →
After producing Alejandro Jodorowsky’s incendiary first feature Fando y Lis (1968) as well as El topo (1970), Juan López Moctezuma went behind the camera in 1971 to make The Mansion of Madness (released in 1973), which was loosely based on an Edgar Allan Poe story. He followed it up with two vampire stories, Mary, Mary,... Continue Reading →
On April 13th the BFI Southbank in London was packed with a motley crowd of Jodorowsky enthusiasts, from old-timers to young hipsters, from red-haired eccentrics to scruffy types in seventies cords. The Chilean-born director had travelled from Paris, where he now lives, on the occasion of the re-release of his legendary seventies films El Topo... Continue Reading →
Virginie Sélavy 