movie trailer, 1973
'The Holy Mountain' (in Spanish, La Montana Sacra) was intended to be a surrealist treatment of 'heavy themes' and a further exploration of the experimental (some might say ultra-pretentious) style of film-making Alejandro Jodorowsky pioneered in his 1970 film 'El Topo'.
'Mountain' caused a stir at its premiere at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It thereafter had a limited circulation in 'art house' theatres in the U.S., mainly because it was considered too avant-garde (and sacrilegious) to be picked up by the establishment film distributors of that era.
Jodorowsky wrote, produced, and directed the film, as well as playing the role of 'The Alchemist'. Jodorowsky is of course best known to sci-fi and Heavy Metal magazine fans for his scripting of the comics The Incal and The Metabarons (among others).
I remember seeing 'El Topo' once, back at college in the early 80s, and finding it dull. I haven't seen 'The Holy Mountain', but the trailer seems to give a pretty good sense of its vintage, early 70's Weirdness.
Jodorowsky (who now is 90 years old) has a reputation for being a professional bullshitter, so I don't have an overwhelming desire to watch the DVD of 'The Holy Mountain'. But if you have, feel free to Comment on your reaction to it.............?!
"...'Mountain' caused a stir at its premiere at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It thereafter had a limited circulation in 'art house' theatres in the U.S., mainly because it was considered too avant-garde (and sacrilegious) to be picked up by the establishment film distributors of that era."
ReplyDeleteThat's not exactly what happened, according to an essay on Jodorowsky by J. Hoberman in MIDNIGHT MOVIES (1983):
Jodorowsky's previous film, EL TOPO, had been brought by him to the Museum of Modern Art for a showing attended by Ben Barenholtz, manager of the Elgin Theater.
Though most of the audience walked out, Barenholtz was blown away and persuaded Jodorowsky and his co-producer/American distributor Alan Douglas to allow him to "preview" EL TOPO in midnight showings at the Elgin.
The film ran seven nights a week at the Elgin from December 1970 to June 1971, where it did turnaway business and had developed a cult audience of repeat viewers, one of whom happened to be John Lennon.
Lennon persuaded his manager Allen Klein to buy the distribution rights to EL TOPO, and Klein pulled it out of the Elgin in June for exclusive distribution through his company ABKCO Films. Klein also signed Jodorowsky to an exclusive deal with ABKCO for future projects.
Klein then launched EL TOPO in its "official" NYC run in a rented Broadway theater, even plastering a block-long Times Square billboard with Jodorowsky's name. ("My whole idea was to build him up as an international director.") The film received a lot of attention but mixed reviews, and Jodorowsky started work on its followup.
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN's disappointing reception at the 1973 Cannes Festival caused Klein to feel a little nervous, and he snapped up American rights to the festival's controversial standout, Marco Ferreri's LA GRANDE BOUFFE. `
That fall, after Jodorowsky had made cuts to THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, Klein was still concerned and decided to limit NYC distribution to midnight showings at the Waverly theater-- where it ran continuously for sixteen months-- and a few limited run double features with EL TOPO elsewhere. (Oddly, it never got shown in LA.) Meanwhile, Klein placed Ferreri's LA GRANDE BOUFFE into full distribution.
Ultimately, Klein withdrew both THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and EL TOPO from circulation, partially due to his insistence that the two must be shown together. Klein rejected Jodorowsky's next idea, a "pirate-themed children's film," and tried to push him into an adaptation of Pauline Reage's STORY OF O, which Jodorowsky rejected as "too commercial." They drifted apart, but Klein retained the distribution rights to both films.
While THE HOLY MOUNTAIN never received a mainstream release, this was due to its distributor ABKCO Films choosing not to place it in normal first run, rather than failing to pick up a distributor.
The documentary on Jodorowsky's Dune is quite an experience, particularly for creative people that may not realize how they may unconsciously limit themselves. His approach was to just crash through any preconceptions and dream as big as possible. Some may consider him a megalomaniac, but when you look at the list of talent he signed on, his cosmic expansion of Herbert's text, and the post-Dune trajectory of many of his team, he comes off as a mad visionary. It's one of those 70's unfinished symphonies that grow with time like Kubrick's Napoleon or Steranko's Talon.
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