Endless Poetry, Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2016, Chile

At the age of 87 Alejandro Jodorowsky directed Endless Poetry, a film reflecting his creative biography,   a cinematic masterpiece excelling his other films El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and his first biographical film The Dance of Reality.  His artistic signature in these productions is an outstanding surreal representation of reality captured with superb photography and imaginative sets. Endless Poetry is more accessible than his other films in spite of a meandering storyline the audience can follow the passage of Alexandro from a conflicted childhood to an adult poet who eventually reconciles with his father. What shapes Jodorowsky’s work is his direction of movie classics noted earlier, authorship of music, poetry and many books, as well as his experience of psychotherapy and exposure to different cultures. His background is rarely matched by other film makers nor is his creative ability to translate his family life into convincing cinematic imagery. In Endless Poetry the principle character, Alejandro, is played by Jodorowsky’s son Adan. Another son, Brontis, is cast in the role of Alejandro’s authoritarian father, and the director performs as Alejandro’s grandfather providing supporting and balancing advice to his grandson in some crucial scenes.  All players deliver persuasive performances, including Alejandro’s mother Sara, who trained as a soprano communicates in this film only through singing opera tunes juxtaposed to the strict commands of the father.

Though the narrative is cast in surreal imagery we get a sense of the conflicts faced and overcome by Alejandro from the oppression by his father who wants to extinguish his son’s craving for poetic self-expression to the rise of fascism, and the rigidity of his extended family. His quest for poetry and beauty cannot be surpressed. The story presents imaginative sets and is inhabited by stunning characters from Santiago’s nightlife in the forties and fifties. As in his youth when a little person, a dwarf dressed up as Hitler guarded his father’s shop, there are dwarfs in the nightlife, with a female one seducing Alejandro who is attracted rather than repulsed her having her period.  The bars he frequents present hallucinatory settings, one has aging poets sleeping on their desks with waiters dressed as if attending  a funeral, another is filled with  middle  aged gay men who try to rape Alejandro. But he is saved by his companion, a strong poetess who takes pride in showing her huge breasts. Skeletons and devils inhabit some stunning sequences

What attracts Aljandro, the son and Jodorowsky,the director, to poetry is the exploration of the unknown and the need to fill in spaces left empty by our consciousness. Aberrations from what is accepted as normal become appealing including the marginal society with its outcasts. The dreamscapes created by Jodorowsky for Endless Poetry have an alluring and hypnotic power. If they disturb it serves our reflection which permits us to escape realities immuring us.

Claus Mueller  filmexchange@gmail.com