Alejandro Jodorowsky

of the experimental films from that era, though, I liked Kenneth Anger's 'Lucifer Rising' (1972) and its Bobby Beausoleil score

still haven't seen Pink Narcissus (1971)

There were regular double bills of El Topo and The Holy Mountain in Toronto for many years while they were being kept out of distribution in the States by Allen Klein. Apparently it was a contractual requirement for them to be shown together; I watched them both on the same night and that was WAY too much Jodorowsky at once.
I just saw Santa Sangre recently, with no particular expectations, and was really pleasantly surprised. For a filmmaker who I tend to think of as having a narrow range of effects (doing one particular thing very well), there was a lot of humour and emotional depth to the story that was entirely compatible with the usual grotesquerie. The Dance of Reality, which I saw a few years ago, was soulful in the same way, but I had supposed that that was a recent development in his style, related to the film being autobiographical. I'd probably rank him above Fellini now.

he doesn't even come close to Fellini

Love Jodo for the most part but no way he even touches Fellini as a filmmaker.

Fantastic Planet would be my 1973 experimental pick.

The comparison of the two came to mind because of the circus milieu of Santa Sangre. My personal view on Fellini is that he peaked early with I Vitelloni, and got bigger not better.

Sante Sangre is included in my Kanopy subscription, I will watch it

Wish there were more films like it. Bit of a shame it isn't as well known as El Topo and Holy Mountain

Santa Sangre is free (with ads) on Tubi if anyone needs to see it.

I bought the bluray of it last year from Mr Bongo who issued it.
https://www.mrbongo.com/collections/film/products/santa-sangre

i finally saw Holy Mountain, last night, in a small room. the colors were bright, the sounds were loud. i thought all the scenes with the fool carrying his replica around were so good. climbing that giant tower, then the alchemist descending the staircase in the slowest of realtime motion. at the end, the alchemist sending the fool home with the woman and chimpanzee who have been following him, before he can reach the top of the mountain. lots to think about.

i wish i were a little more versed in all the symbolism that permeates the film. for example, i recognized these symbols when they appeared and thought it was from the i ching,

https://i.imgur.com/4JcA7v9.png

but they're from something else in taoism, the eight trigrams, and represent Heaven and Earth

https://i.imgur.com/C6kfw7n.png

i might do some internet hunting and see if i can find a shot-by-shot breakdown of the symbolism throughout the movie. would like to watch El Topo soon as well! also, are his 21st century films good?

I like The Dance of Reality, Endless Poetry is a decent sequel but not as good.

i think the new ones were supposed to be a part of a 5-film autobiographical series? i wonder if that's been abandoned or if the scripts/screenplays are somewhat developed

really want to track down the Incal, as well

I think Santa Sangre and Dance Of Reality are his best

Maybe I posted on another thread, I got the incal a couple of christmases ago. It was abysmal.

He's been paired with some truly stunning comic artists. His plots are nonsense, but I'm willing to roll with it and enjoy the art.

I gave up on The Incal pretty early. Moebius was not fully operational and I think even Jodorowsky was disappointed in his work there.

Santa Sangre is great, an ultra-lurid telenovela-style horror movie. But it's a regular movie-movie, with a plot and whatnot, not a pure yank-your-brain-out-your-ass shotgun blast of symbolism like The Holy Mountain. I don't think any movie on earth is like The Holy Mountain, really.

I will not stand for this nonsense Incal talk. Moebius "not fully operational"?!? As opposed to...?

I think all his famous comics from before that had better artwork. I wasn't that impressed by his art on Madwoman Of The Sacred Heart either

Incal is 3rd tier Moebius in my view