03.21.07

Jodorowsky DVD Box Set Details — El Topo, Holy Mountain, Fando y Lis & more

Posted in Cinema, DVDs, Experimental Film at 8:58 pm by Spencer

May 1, 2007 is the official street date for the long-awaited Alejandro Jodorowsky DVD box set, The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky. (See related posts from this here blog.) The MSRP is $49.98 (do retailers still think we think that doesn’t mean $50??), but if you poke around you can find web sites offering presales for less.

Beware, tho — one asshole with an Amazon shop is actually trying to sell this for $165 — a more than 440% markup over the MSRP. The jerk even claims it’s “in stock” and that you can “buy with confidence.” Suffice to say, never buy anything from the ImportCDs_Com Amazon shop! No doubt other scamming shitbags are out there trying to prey on unknowning Jodorowsky fans, so caveat emptor my friends.

It should also be noted that the title of the box set is slightly misleading — it does not include all of the films made by Jodorowsky, tho his best ones are indeed represented.

Ahem. So getting back to the happier news, this is the first-ever US home video release (let alone on DVD) of Jodorowsky’s masterworks, El Topo and The Holy Mountain — previously available (legally) only on Italian Region 2 import DVDs and older Japanese import VHS and Laserdisk (and in the latter instances only with blurred nasty bits) — plus his first feature, Fando y Lis, soundtrack CDs, and a boat-load of delicious extras (see below). You can buy singleton DVDs of El Topo and The Holy Mountain, but at $19 a pop MSRP you really really should spring the extra 10 lousy bucks for the box — or even less for the aforementioned discounted presales. Seriously, yo.

All three of the features have been newly-remastered to HD specifications from the original negatives, personally supervised by Jodorowsky himself. This includes Fando y Lis, which was released on Region 1 DVD by Fantoma (in a very fine edition, I might add) in 2003.

Inexplicably — and rather inexcusably — Anchor Bay (the label handling the releases) has zero, and I mean zero, info on their site. But following below is the full text of the press release with full details of the extras (including deleted scenes from Holy Mountain!), et cetera, courtesy of DVDsnapshot.com. (A slightly truncated version, minus the company self-promo babble, was posted way back in January by Fangoria.com — so full props to them, they who well corrupted my young mind back in the pre-Web ’80s.)

FROM ABKCO FILMS: THREE CLASSICS OF CINEMATIC SURREALISM FROM “MIDNIGHT MOVIE” PIONEER ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY — EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN AND FANDO Y LIS DISTRIBUTED BY ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT!

PREMIERING ON DVD MAY 1st [2007] WITH EXCLUSIVE NEVER-BEFORE SEEN EXTRAS!

New York, NY – On May 1, 2007 ABKCO Films will release Alejandro Jodorowsky’s trio of mind-bending classics, El Topo, The Holy Mountain and Fando Y Lis, on DVD for the first time ever [sic]. These astonishing films, which have been fully restored and remastered, will be available as a special limited edition collector’s box set featuring exclusive rare bonus materials. The box set will be available for an SRP of $49.98, with El Topo and The Holy Mountain also available separately at $24.98 each. [Note: Various online retailers are offering these individual titles for less than $20 each.]

Originally released in 1970, El Topo quickly caught the imagination of movie audiences, becoming a landmark in independent film-making. The early screenings at New York’s Elgin Theater sparked the Midnight Movie phenomena, catalyzed by an endorsement from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Classic Americana and avant-garde European sensibilities collide with Zen Buddhism and the Bible as master gunfighter and mystic El Topo (played by writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky) tries to defeat four sharp-shooting rivals on a bizarre path to allegorical self-awareness and resurrection. As it seeks an alternative to the Hollywood mainstream, El Topo is also the most controversial quasi-Western head trip ever made!

Jodorowsky’s high budget follow up effort, The Holy Mountain, takes his psychedelic allegorical mastery to another level. Grotesque, mystical and sacrilegious, it is an excursion into the meaning of earthly wealth and immortality.

Rounding out this unique set is Jodorowsky’s first full-length feature film, Fando Y Lis. Based on Jodorowsky’s memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal, it caused an uproar in the avant-garde community when it premiered in 1967 in Acapulco.

Among the extras included in this collector’s box is previously unseen footage, a feature on the restoration process, an exclusive interview with Jodorowsky, optional director commentary tracks, subtitles, two special CDs of the films’ soundtracks and a separate DVD of the first film ever made by Jodorowsky, La Cravate.

EL TOPO:
Digitally restored to HD from original negative
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
5.1 Dolby & 2.0 Stereo
Original Feature Language: Spanish
Optional Subtitles: EN, SP, FR & BR PORT
Optional commentary track by Director (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)
Optional English overdub track

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN:
2K scanned digitally restored to 35mm & HD
Original Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Enhanced for 16×9
5.1 Dolby & 2.0 Stereo
Original Feature Language: English
Optional Subtitles: EN, SP, FR & BR PORT
Optional commentary track by Director (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)

FANDO Y LIS
Digitally restored from original negative
Original Aspect Ratio 1.66:1 Letterboxed
Original Language: Spanish
Optional Subtitles: EN, SP, FR & BR PORT
Optional commentary track by Director (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)

EXTRAS -

EL TOPO:
-Original theatrical trailer- English V.O.
-2006 on camera interview with Jodorowsky (Language English/English subtitles)
-Photo Gallery/Original script excerpts
-Exclusive interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN:
- Deleted scenes with director commentary (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)
- Original theatrical trailer -English V.O
- The Tarot short with director commentary (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)
- Restoration process short (Original Language English)
- Photo Gallery / Original Script excerpts
- Restoration Credits

BOX SET EXTRAS:
FANDO Y LIS
-La Constellation Jodorowsky documentary
-Original language French and English Stereo

TWO AUDIO CDs
- El Topo soundtrack
- The Holy Mountain soundtrack

LA CRAVATE
- Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first film
- Never released before

Street Date: May 1, 2007
Runtime: EL TOPO: 125 minutes
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN: 114 minutes
FANDO Y LIS: 93 minutes
Price: Box set $49.98, EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN $24.98 each when purchased separately
Language: Varied, see above
Subtitles: Varied, see above
Available at: Retailers Nationwide

ABKCO Films has been involved with many successful movies including La Grande Bouffe (winner of the International Critics prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival), The Greek Tycoon starring Anthony Quinn and Jacqueline Bisset, The Concert for Bangladesh featuring Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr. In 2003 ABKCO won a Grammy for their DVD release of Sam Cooke – Legend and the following year released on DVD The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus to critical acclaim.

ABKCO Films is a division of ABKCO Music and Records, one of the leading independent record companies in the world. It is home to critical catalogue assets that include recordings by Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Marianne Faithfull, The Kinks as well as the Cameo Parkway label, which include the master recordings of artists such as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Orlons, The Dovells, The Tymes, Charlie Grace and Dee Dee Sharp. www.abkcofilms.com / www.abkco.com.

Anchor Bay Entertainment is distributed by Starz Home Entertainment, a division of Starz Media. Starz Media, LLC, is a programming production and distribution company operating worldwide. It includes the Film Roman, Anchor Bay Entertainment, and Manga Entertainment brands. Its units create animated and live-action programming — including theatrical films — and programming created under contract for other media companies. It distributes that programming, and programming acquired from outside producers, through home video retailers, theaters, broadcasters, ad supported and premium television channels, and Internet and wireless video distributors in the US and internationally. Starz Media is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation that is attributed to Liberty Capital Group.

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