This deluxe box set titled Alejandro Jodorowsky: 4K Restoration Collection, includes three of Jodorowsky’s cult-favorite classics: El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando Y Lis, restored in 4K on region free Blu-ray, as well as his latest, and most inspirational film Psychomagic, A Healing Art. Loaded with extras and ephemera, the box set features a 78-page book with photos and essays, a set of art cards together with 4 blu-ray discs and 2 CDs housed in a high quality case. Also included are new interviews with Jodorowsky, his son Brontis, who makes his acting debut as the young boy in El Topo and Pablo Leder, Jodorowsky’s long time personal assistant. Columbia University professor Richard Peña provides insightful introductions to each of these classic films. A short film, The A to Z of The Holy, narrated by Jodorowsky biographer Ben Cobb, probes the history of Jodorowsky and his films. Also included are CD soundtracks for El Topo and The Holy Mountain plus Jodorowsky’s rarely seen first film, the 1957 short film La Cravate completes this special collectable package.
In 2020, Jodorowsky is as relevant as he's ever been. In addition to completing Psychomagic, A Healing Art, he supervised the color correction of the 4K restorations of his essential films using the original 35mm elements, with stunning and vibrant results. El Topo is presented in 1:33 aspect ratio as it was shown in theaters in 1970. It is also available for the first time in 1.85:1 widescreen. Jodorowsky originally envisioned the film with this aspect ratio as an homage to Sergio Leone, and a half century later, that dream has finally been fulfilled.
KEY DETAILS
New 4K restorations on Region Free Blu-Ray from original 35mm elements
• New color corrections supervised by Alejandro Jodorowsky
• El Topo first time ever director approved wide screen (1:85:1)
• Director commentary tracks • English, French, and Spanish subtitles
• Soundtracks from The Holy Mountain and El Topo on CD
• Book with photos and essays NEW EXTRAS A to Z of Jodorowsky – Ben Cobb
• 2019 interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky
• Newly filmed interview with Brontis Jodorowsky (El Topo) • Newly filmed interview with Pablo Leder, personal assistant to Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo and The Holy Mountain)
• New introductions by Columbia Film Professor Richard Peña
Feature Films:
PSYCHOMAGIC, A HEALING ART (2019) 120 minutes Explores the directors therapeutic work, showing by means of real acts, what Psychomagic is: its principle, how it is practiced and how it applied in life. In the film, Jodorowsky works directly with real, suffering people who are eager to solve their problems through the use of this radical and transformative mode of therapy.
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1972) 113 minutes The scandal of the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s flood of sacrilegious imagery and existential symbolism is a spiritual quest for enlightenment pitting illusion against truth. The Alchemist (Jodorowsky) assembles a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept’s intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.
EL TOPO (1970) 124 minutes It was the landmark cult film that began the whole Midnight Movie phenomena of the counterculture crazy 1970s. EL TOPO was the most talked about, most shocked about and most controversial quasi-Western head trip ever made transforming the way risk-taking audiences, seeking mainstream Hollywood alternatives, watched edgy under-ground films and how the industry learned to market them. Classic Americana and avant-garde European cinema sensibilities meet Zen Buddhism and the Bible as master gunfighter and cosmic mystic El Topo (played by writer/director Alejandro Jodorowsky) must defeat his four sharp-shooting rivals on an ever-increasingly bizarre path to allegorical self-enlightenment and surreal resurrection.
FANDO Y LIS (1968) 93 minutes Banned in Mexico, a permanent cause celebre, surrealist “fabulator’” Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unique career began with this bizarre tale of corrupted innocence, sadomasochistic love and unattainable paradise. Created from hazy memories of the controversial Fernando Arabal play he staged in Paris. Jodorowsky’s sublime freak-out follows impotent Fando (Sergio Kleiner) and his paraplegic sweetheart Lis (Diana Mariscal) searching for the enchanted city of Tar where spiritual ecstasy resides. Boasting some of his most disturbing images, the astounding road trip takes them through urban rubble, scalding deserts, treacherous mountains, their own pasts and close encounters of the weirdest kind in Jodorowsky’s seminal signature work of startling provocation and incendiary art.
Short Film: LE CRAVATE (1957) 20 minutes The Maestro’s first film. A short mime adaptation of a Thomas Mann story about a Parisian urchin who makes her living selling human heads.
