part two of Alexandro Jodorowsky quotes, from his book on the making of El Topo:
When I began filming the picture, it was fascinating to work with the blood. I used Mexican technicians who had worked with Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch and they taught me how to do the tricks. They told me that Peckinpah was very bloody, but when I made my effects they were astonished. I actually used a very classic technique, but as I became more familiar with the technique I began to fall in love with it and wanted to use it more and more. I started out with five liters of American blood, which is very expensive in Mexico. It tasted very goodlike strawberries. Like vaginal deodorants taste like strawberries. They never taste like blood.
I know the taste of blood. Ive eaten blood, human blood. Once during a happening in Mexico, my disciples drew a little blood from their arms. Then they collected it all in a glass and offered it to me with some tequilaa sangria. I took the glass in my hands and started to improvise a long Panic poem, trying to put off drinking it for as long as possible. By the time I had decided to drink it, the blood had coagulatedI put my hand in the glass, scooped out the red gelatin, and devoured it. At first it made me sick, nauseous. But almost immediatelyas soon as I allowed myself to sense the taste of it, I felt an exquisite pleasure. It was the finest food my mouth had ever been fed: delicate, velvety, delicious. The next morning I woke up with the smoothest complexionand a dry mouth.
Ill tell you what Godard said when someone asked him, Why do you show so much blood in Weekend? And he answered, I dont use blood; I use the color red. There are so many people who dont like red. Theres a social barrier against red. If all of the violence shown in movies doesnt show blood, people will accept it. The first barrier against red is the red of traffic lights. Then theres the Communist terror. And the menstrual cycles. And hemorrhoidswhich eighty percent of the people in the U.S. suffer fromfrom bad eating habits, from eating hamburgers. To solve this problem, I propose that the audience see different colors of blood. Think of green blood, for example, and you forget that throughout each human being, throughout mankind, flows a river of bloodIn my pirate movie, I wont have these problems; Im going to put green blood in the woundsblue bloodviolet blood. And the wounds will spill out soap bubbles, red butterflies, pieces of shiny cloth, crystal balls, cows tonguesor hamburgers. OK. Ah! Such pleasure! Such pleasure! What a pleasure it is to sing!
When we buried ourselves in the sand, there could have been rattlesnakes there; we killed three of them during the filming of the picture. And every time I got on a horse I was risking my life, because the first time I touched a horse was in this movie. It threw me three times. I couldnt direct the horse. But when the camera started rolling, I had complete control over the horse. When the camera stopped, Id fall off. When the cameras were on, I could have done anything. I was invulnerable, I was invulnerable. I even threw myself down a mountain. The photographer did, too. When we started the picture he told me, I never get tired. Im never sleepy and Im never hungry. And Id fall into a trance we all would and when hed come out of it, he was tired and he was hungry. He nearly died after the film; he was in bed for a whole month. In one day I could climb four mountains and Id take him with me.
In Spanish, to give light means to give birth. And all births take place in darkness. A Chinese poet said, You must be like a caterpillar who makes himself smaller to be able to move forward. Right? So you must fall into darkness to be able to move toward the light. Because the light you think you live in is darkness. The earth is dark. And when the huge angels who fly through the universe approach the earth, theyre blinded by the sun. Because the sun is darkness. The sun is black. And we live in darkness. Thats why the mole loses its eyes. And thats why the great samurai in the Chinese movies we saw in Chinatown are blind. A woman is always blind. And a beggar. Thats what I say. Poor of spirit, poor in spirit. As Christ said, right? Like the Sufi masterstheyre all beggars, who dont confuse being with having. I like Speedy Gonzales!
JODOROWSKY - the Messiah will come on a horse. The horse will be made of water and the Messiah of sugar. And as hes riding, hell start to dissolve into the horse as sugar dissolves in tea. And when the horse comes to mankind, it will burst and fill all of the cups of the world with presweetened horse-tea. If we put all of the teas of the world together, wed produce an enormous horse. And just now, Im beginning to understand the meaning of the Trojan horse; we live inside the horse, but we also hold it in our hands. Right? OK. But who holds me in their hands? In The Circular Ruins by Borges, a character dreams another dream. And the dream dreams a dream. And it has no beginning or end. Theres always someone dreaming. But we could also say that, instead of dreaming, we could create stones in the airlike mediums make manifestations of stone, I once knew a crazy woman who worked with her hands in the airshe made sculptures in the air. I didnt think she was doing anything. But, since she was crazy, she used flour for makeup. She was always making immobile sculptures in the air. But one day she moved her face and the flour fell form her face like a cloud covering up something in the air. And I saw a beautiful geometric form. Then I took a big bag of flour, went into her room and started to throw the flour around in the air. And beautiful sculptures began to appear. Thats the story.
INTERVIEWER But your stories are like labyrinths.
JODOROWSKY Yes. People often talk to me about labyrinths. Many people think in terms of labyrinths. But you must also thinking terms of mobile labyrinths with walls that travel at the speed of lightwhich is the speed of turtles. We usually think of labyrinths as being immobile, but if we think of a mobile labyrinth with just one wall, well have a great labyrinth. Fantastic.
INTERVIEWER Were you stoned at all while you were acting?
JODOROWSKY No, no, no, no. I wasnt. No one was. On Saturdays and Sundays theyre free
INTERVIEWER But not when you were working. Would you like to think your audiences would be stoned when theyre watching this picture?
JODOROWSKY Yes, yes, yes, yes. Id demand them to be. To arrive stoned and get high on the movie. Both.
INTERVIEWER It happened to me both ways.
JODOROWSKY I think its better that way. Both ways. Together. And I had that kind of audience in mind. Good. Id always like to direct my work to that audience.
...the "pirate movie" he mentioned a couple of times in the book, set on the streets of New York and starring (he hoped) Frank Zappa, was never made...but he did use some interesting bleeding techniques in his next film, my favorite, The Holy Mountain. I don't like to give much away, but...people bleed sparrows, for instance.
(I would LOVE to make a movie in which people bled Burger King Whoppers, and McNuggets...and McRibs...FANTASTIC!)
When I began filming the picture, it was fascinating to work with the blood. I used Mexican technicians who had worked with Peckinpah in The Wild Bunch and they taught me how to do the tricks. They told me that Peckinpah was very bloody, but when I made my effects they were astonished. I actually used a very classic technique, but as I became more familiar with the technique I began to fall in love with it and wanted to use it more and more. I started out with five liters of American blood, which is very expensive in Mexico. It tasted very goodlike strawberries. Like vaginal deodorants taste like strawberries. They never taste like blood.
I know the taste of blood. Ive eaten blood, human blood. Once during a happening in Mexico, my disciples drew a little blood from their arms. Then they collected it all in a glass and offered it to me with some tequilaa sangria. I took the glass in my hands and started to improvise a long Panic poem, trying to put off drinking it for as long as possible. By the time I had decided to drink it, the blood had coagulatedI put my hand in the glass, scooped out the red gelatin, and devoured it. At first it made me sick, nauseous. But almost immediatelyas soon as I allowed myself to sense the taste of it, I felt an exquisite pleasure. It was the finest food my mouth had ever been fed: delicate, velvety, delicious. The next morning I woke up with the smoothest complexionand a dry mouth.
Ill tell you what Godard said when someone asked him, Why do you show so much blood in Weekend? And he answered, I dont use blood; I use the color red. There are so many people who dont like red. Theres a social barrier against red. If all of the violence shown in movies doesnt show blood, people will accept it. The first barrier against red is the red of traffic lights. Then theres the Communist terror. And the menstrual cycles. And hemorrhoidswhich eighty percent of the people in the U.S. suffer fromfrom bad eating habits, from eating hamburgers. To solve this problem, I propose that the audience see different colors of blood. Think of green blood, for example, and you forget that throughout each human being, throughout mankind, flows a river of bloodIn my pirate movie, I wont have these problems; Im going to put green blood in the woundsblue bloodviolet blood. And the wounds will spill out soap bubbles, red butterflies, pieces of shiny cloth, crystal balls, cows tonguesor hamburgers. OK. Ah! Such pleasure! Such pleasure! What a pleasure it is to sing!
When we buried ourselves in the sand, there could have been rattlesnakes there; we killed three of them during the filming of the picture. And every time I got on a horse I was risking my life, because the first time I touched a horse was in this movie. It threw me three times. I couldnt direct the horse. But when the camera started rolling, I had complete control over the horse. When the camera stopped, Id fall off. When the cameras were on, I could have done anything. I was invulnerable, I was invulnerable. I even threw myself down a mountain. The photographer did, too. When we started the picture he told me, I never get tired. Im never sleepy and Im never hungry. And Id fall into a trance we all would and when hed come out of it, he was tired and he was hungry. He nearly died after the film; he was in bed for a whole month. In one day I could climb four mountains and Id take him with me.
In Spanish, to give light means to give birth. And all births take place in darkness. A Chinese poet said, You must be like a caterpillar who makes himself smaller to be able to move forward. Right? So you must fall into darkness to be able to move toward the light. Because the light you think you live in is darkness. The earth is dark. And when the huge angels who fly through the universe approach the earth, theyre blinded by the sun. Because the sun is darkness. The sun is black. And we live in darkness. Thats why the mole loses its eyes. And thats why the great samurai in the Chinese movies we saw in Chinatown are blind. A woman is always blind. And a beggar. Thats what I say. Poor of spirit, poor in spirit. As Christ said, right? Like the Sufi masterstheyre all beggars, who dont confuse being with having. I like Speedy Gonzales!
JODOROWSKY - the Messiah will come on a horse. The horse will be made of water and the Messiah of sugar. And as hes riding, hell start to dissolve into the horse as sugar dissolves in tea. And when the horse comes to mankind, it will burst and fill all of the cups of the world with presweetened horse-tea. If we put all of the teas of the world together, wed produce an enormous horse. And just now, Im beginning to understand the meaning of the Trojan horse; we live inside the horse, but we also hold it in our hands. Right? OK. But who holds me in their hands? In The Circular Ruins by Borges, a character dreams another dream. And the dream dreams a dream. And it has no beginning or end. Theres always someone dreaming. But we could also say that, instead of dreaming, we could create stones in the airlike mediums make manifestations of stone, I once knew a crazy woman who worked with her hands in the airshe made sculptures in the air. I didnt think she was doing anything. But, since she was crazy, she used flour for makeup. She was always making immobile sculptures in the air. But one day she moved her face and the flour fell form her face like a cloud covering up something in the air. And I saw a beautiful geometric form. Then I took a big bag of flour, went into her room and started to throw the flour around in the air. And beautiful sculptures began to appear. Thats the story.
INTERVIEWER But your stories are like labyrinths.
JODOROWSKY Yes. People often talk to me about labyrinths. Many people think in terms of labyrinths. But you must also thinking terms of mobile labyrinths with walls that travel at the speed of lightwhich is the speed of turtles. We usually think of labyrinths as being immobile, but if we think of a mobile labyrinth with just one wall, well have a great labyrinth. Fantastic.
INTERVIEWER Were you stoned at all while you were acting?
JODOROWSKY No, no, no, no. I wasnt. No one was. On Saturdays and Sundays theyre free
INTERVIEWER But not when you were working. Would you like to think your audiences would be stoned when theyre watching this picture?
JODOROWSKY Yes, yes, yes, yes. Id demand them to be. To arrive stoned and get high on the movie. Both.
INTERVIEWER It happened to me both ways.
JODOROWSKY I think its better that way. Both ways. Together. And I had that kind of audience in mind. Good. Id always like to direct my work to that audience.
...the "pirate movie" he mentioned a couple of times in the book, set on the streets of New York and starring (he hoped) Frank Zappa, was never made...but he did use some interesting bleeding techniques in his next film, my favorite, The Holy Mountain. I don't like to give much away, but...people bleed sparrows, for instance.
(I would LOVE to make a movie in which people bled Burger King Whoppers, and McNuggets...and McRibs...FANTASTIC!)
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
It's true.
My favorite line from Zoolander: "Sting...Sting would be another person who's a hero. The music that he's made over the years, I don't really listen to, but I respect the fact that he's making it."