At 88-years-old, Alejandro Jodorowsky remains the reigning
godfather of Avant Garde, surrealist cinema. So it’s no surprise that the
Chilean director’s latest, the highly autobiographical Endless
Poetry, is gorgeous, challenging, and weird as all hell.
But beneath the bug-nuts-crazy trappings and cinematic
oddities, lies a sweet coming-of-age tale about a young man attempting to live
life to the fullest and pursue his passions. It’s also Jodorowsky’s most
accessible movie to date. Though don’t worry, this is still an Alejandro
Jodorowsky film, so you’re bound to get flourishes like a dwarf in a Hitler
costume or an angel held aloft, surrounded by a sea of red-clad devils and
walking skeletons. Accessibility is a spectrum.
Endless Poetry follows Alejandro (played
by the director’s son, Adan Jodorowsky) as he becomes a young man, haunting
late-night cafes, searching for his muse, spouting poetry in the streets, and
finding joy amongst a rabble of artists and dancers and painters and tragic
clowns and a rogue’s gallery of weirdos and freaks. Just to add another layer
to the depth chart, Jodorowsky’s older son, Brontis Jodorowsky (who played the
naked kid in El Topo all those years ago), plays the
filmmaker’s father, and the director himself also pops in from time to time to
add his own commentary.
Though Endless Poetry is about art and
joy and friendship and so much more, it’s also Jodorowky looking back on his
own life with the wisdom and perspective of age. It calls to mind Fellini’s
autobiographical films. But at the same time it’s an examination of the past, it
doesn’t dwell on the good times now gone forever or wallow in history. It’s
about looking back but moving forward, for Alejandros both young and old.
Jodorowsky’s theater experience shines through in the
meticulous construction. Elaborate, unusual sets drive home the flimsy,
artificial nature of recollection—the specifics are often soft, with crowds
rendered faceless and anonymous by blank masks or populated by cardboard
cutouts. Shadow men lurk in the background to rearrange sets as scenes call for
it, and Jodorowsky creates a stage on which he plays out his reminiscences for
the audience.
Sweet and sincere, funny and strange, and achingly romantic
in every way, Endless Poetry shows the off-kilter master
working at his highest level, and is one of my favorites of the Seattle International Film Festival so far. [Grade: A-]
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