News: The El Topo Man Cometh

Mexico has three directors. And then a handful of other directors. I always think Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro because they are contemporary, and because I like their films. In that order. Everytime I hear about another Mexican director I have to trick myself into believing they're just one of three, and things get messy, and I end up with a lot of bruises and a fair deal of lost blood. Eventually I have to accept Mexico has plenty of directors, and also more than three of them are worth watching. Case in point: Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Much like the Jabberwocky, which so resembles his surname, Jodorowsky is a mythical being. Springing out of Chile sometime in the 20s he began on his path to fame. Of his completed feature films, seven strong, I have seen but one: El Topo. A surrealistic Western on the outside, with deep Christian themes and satire running through its core, it... it was pretty trippy. Cool trippy. Not bad trip trippy. His films have a fierce "cult" following, which sounds really fitting when applied to fans of his post-modernistic film style. I'm planning on catching up on his body of work, and fast, because there's another bundle of Jodorowsky on the way, titled King Shot.

If my sources are correct, and they mostly are, King Shot is started production in October this year. They used the term 'trippy' too, and I didn't notice until rereading it just now. Huh. Subconscious whatnot. Anyway, about King Shot. It's going to star his son Adan, plus Nick Nolte and Marilyn Manson. It's another Western, but this time metaphysics are involved. It may be stylized in the manner Sin City was, and has a potential NC-17 rating judging from pre-production.

Also, David Lynch is producing. Lynch does similar things, what with crazy stuff going on, and juxtaposing it with a normal environment, or familiar genre. I'm all mixed feelings with Lynch, and I'm not a fan of Manson's career as a musican, but I enjoy him as an artist and an actor. In Party Monster? So good. Those are the only downsides, and only mixedly down, that I can see about this project, with my little familiarity with Jodorowsky, and the snippets of information on the upcoming film.

I'm geeking out, nerding out, and ready to be freaked out by the results. Go get 'em, Mexican.

- Eric T. Voigt, The Mulan Soundtrack Is Rocking Me