Alejandro Jodorowsky’s twin masterpieces, El Topo and Holy Mountain, will grace Seattle with their inexcusably rare presence with back-to-back runs at The Grand Illusion Cinema in February. Both films will be shown in 35mm. My impression — unconfirmed as yet, and I’m seeing conflicting reports — is that these are possibly new prints. (Update: the “prints” screening at the IFC Center in NYC are not film but HD digital, presumably from DVD from HDcam tape. What formats will actually be shown here in Seattle remain unconfirmed and I will update further if/when I know for sure.)
El Topo (1971) runs February 2 through 8, and Holy Mountain (1973) runs February 9 through 15. (Now that’s a Valentine’s Day date.)
The only other West Coast dates will be in San Francisco at the venerable Castro Theater during the latter half of January (tho there’s also a late Feb. run in Boulder). The films are making an (did I mention?) unspeakably rare tour of the US that began less than a week ago in NYC. The full US schedule is available at abkcofilms.com (which also features a Flash-ified trailer on the homepage).
This road-show is in advance of fully-restored releases on DVD, apparently including the US market for the first time ever.
If you even pretend to be interested in film, and even if you’ve managed to watch one or both on a home video import (to date only released [legally] in Italian and Japanese editions, with latter with digital blurs over all exposed crotches [the Japanese have a thing about pubic hair, apparently]), you must make tracks to see these justly legendary works of genuine visionary cinema — a much-bandied but rarely deserved appellation.
Sadly, both films have (obviously) suffered a terrible distribution fate, due to the infamously possessive Alan Klein, who owns the rights. (Klein also owns the rights to most of the Rolling Stones catalog, as well as the absolutely brilliant Antony Balch re-interpretation of the already brilliant Häxan, aka Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922), with narration by William S. Burroughs and a soundtrack featuring Jean Luc Ponty, which — thankfully — recently received the always exquisite Criterion Collection treatment on DVD. A definite must-own.)
The lack of distribution has been the nexus of a decades-long feud between Jodorowsky and Klein, now finally resolved for whatever reason. And it’s about damn time. Props, however mitigated, to Klein for finally seeing the light. The irony is that Klein was prompted to obtain the rights to El Topo by no less than John Lennon, who wanted the film to be widely seen. Hey, better late than never. I suppose.
This November 8, 2006 post from the WorldWeird Cinema blog offers an account (via a Yahoo forum) of a Jodorowsky Q&A for a NYC screening of El Topo.
YouTube (Time‘s 2006 “Person of the Year”) offers this clip of Jodorowsky discussing El Topo and Holy Mountain.
Also, the Dinosaur Gardens blog offers twin posts with MP3s of the El Topo soundtrack (high sound quality rips from the Douglas 6 LP) and the Holy Mountain soundtrack (regrettably lo-fi rips, probably from a VHS bootleg) featuring the mighty Don Cherry and Archies (?!) keyboardist Ron Frangipane (ripped from the film, and thus including dialog).
Obviously, I’m excited about this. Watch this space for more related posts.
mugu brainpan, please correct your post:
IFC Center is playing a brand new HD-cam master of EL TOPO. this is the North American premiere of the full High-Definition digital restoration of this title. (the New York Film Festival played a standard definition digibeta of the current restoration version.)
for better or worse, there are no 35mm prints from this new 2006 restoration, in which Jodorowsky participated. (creating a 35mm version of a digital restoration is very expensive process.) any 35mm prints of EL TOPO in circulation are from, at best, the late-90s restoration of EL TOPO, which was done without Jodorowsky’s participation and is very different (in terms of color corrects, sound mix, etc.) from the new digital version.
also, it is not correct at all when you say the IFC Center run is projecting a DVD source. as i noted above, IFC Center’s presentation is projected from HD-cam tape, which is a High-Definition master format, as opposed to DVD, which is an extremely compressed, standard definition consumer format and generally unsuitable for theatrical exhibition.
John — thanks very kindly for the info, including that about the substandard ’90s restoration. I think it’s very unfortunate there will not be film prints stuck of these new restorations.
But please read what I wrote: PRESUMABLY from DVD. That is obviously not a statement of fact.
It would be helpful if the IFC Center — not to mention ABKCO Films — were a little more forthcoming in their public information from the get-go, something others have complained about (as I see you’ve noticed). IFC’s web site states only that it is an “HD restoration”. Well, that could mean anything, and as a projectionist I can tell you it often does. (Much like when a studio promises “a new print” and what actually arrives is beat to hell.)
Furthermore, I find it fascinating that your exact comment — complete with the same mis-capitalizations — but with a different closing paragraph appears under a completely different name on the notcoming.com post I linked to above. If perchance you might represent or work for IFC Center (or perhaps ABKCO?), please inform them they would do well to not stoop to “astroturf” PR. I think I speak for many when I say it pisses me off and does not present an honest or forthcoming image.
I’m pleased to learn that IFC Center is running from HDcam tape vs. a lower quality dub of whatever format — I only hope the rest of the country is as fortunate. As for what formats will actually be shown here in Seattle, as I say right up top there I’ll update once more when I know for sure. (I had assumed it would be 35mm as the Grand Illusion normally runs that format all but occasionally.)
Yo,
Brian of the Grand Illusion here. I wasn’t involved in booking the films so I can’t say much. However, the Cleveland Cinematheque’s calendar list the film as being shown in 35mm format and as far as I know, they don’t have HD capability.