PICK OF THE WEEK: "The Holy Mountain"
Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 Surrealist Masterpiece
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo is widely recognised as the first ‘Midnight Movie’ - a piece of underground cinema that never received a wide release and was only screened at the Elgin Theater in New York City, who ran it on a late night roster every night for several months throughout 1971. Legend has it that John Lennon used to show up regularly, to smoke a joint in the cinema and trip out on the raw, visceral, violent spaghetti western.
In 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono offered Jodorowsky one million dollars to make the wildest movie his imagination could conjure, but even so, there is no way anyone could have been prepared for the mind-bending enigma of a film he would deliver - “The Holy Mountain”.
“The Holy Mountain” is a metaphysical parable loosely based on the teachings of George Gurdjieff, telling the story of an alchemist (played by Jodorowsky himself) who guides nine criminals on a group journey towards spiritual enlightenment.
Jodorowsky intended the film to be something of a magic spell of its own, designed to permanently alter his audience’s worldview, and used various techniques of altering consciousness (sleep deprivation, psychedelics, breath work etc) on himself and his cast during pre-production and the shooting of the film. The cast all lived together studying an occult syllabus for a month leading up to the shoot, immersing themselves in the teachings and concepts behind the script.
The film is an absolute visual delight, every frame a fully realized work of art. Below you can check out some of the arresting and unforgettable images from “The Holy Mountain.” You may recognise echos of these images from videos by artists like MGMT, Empire of the Sun, Santigold and Kasabian. The reach of this psychedelic masterpiece is deep and wide.
One word of warning: there has been some warranted discourse around Jorodowsky’s treatment of animals during the filming of his work. The lack of ethical oversight in this area was relatively common in experimental filmmaking of the 1960s and 1970s. This is not a defence of these practices and obviously we believe film sets should be safe spaces for all living beings. If you have difficulty viewing art with this type of understanding of historical context, you may want to skip this one.
But for those that want to be challenged, inspired, confused and delighted, we present you with Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain” (trailer below. Film can be rented via YouTube or appletv+ )
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
