The Chilean-French born Alejandro Jodorowsky is among the few filmmakers who deserve the overused descriptor “visionary.” His films, including El Topo and The Holy Mountain defined the outermost limits of cinema in the ‘60s and ’70s, and helped to bridge the gap between art film and narrative film. In recent years, he has written many books on a bewildering range of topics, including a mythopoetic novel, a dream-like memoir, a handbook on a personal style of shamanic psychotherapy he calls “psychomagic”, a series of sci-fi graphic novels, politically satirical cartoons, and an investigation into Tarot readings, which he regularly gives, often to celebrities. At 92 years old, he continues to produce new work at a vigorous pace and after a twenty year hiatus from film, he returned in 2017 with two surreal autobiographical films: The Dance of Reality and his newest, Endless Poetry.
Poetry/100 poems of Kabir
Poetry doesn't sell books. It's the only art that isn't a business. When you make poetry, you make a gift to humanity. It is the only real art now. I just finished a picture called Endless Poetry about a poet finding his poetry. It took one year to make. Very difficult. Big work.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
The philosophy of Wittgenstein is fantastic. He destroyed philosophy. He showed us we cannot speak about a thing. We can only speak about the photograph of the thing. We need to study Wittgenstein to discover the real way to think. Like Gurdjieff, he is a man acting as a machine.
Zen Koans
I have a very devoted mind. I learned to read at five years old and what has always interested me is what I don't understand. Like the Tarot of Marseilles. He is important to me because he is anonymous. He inspired me to write a book called The Way of the Tarot. Then I started koans. With koans, you understand nothing.
Celtic Harp Music
For 30 years I only listen to one record when I write. When I need to sit and work I put on this record and I immediately want to write. Rock and a Roll is amusing but when I found this profound music, it affected my soul.
Feet
I also put perfume on my feet to write. I spiritulize the feet. The hand can indicate and caress but the feet have the same sensibility as the hands. So I do this to wake all my sensibilities.
House of Cards
I hate Hollywood. They colonize the planet. I don't see pictures because I'm tired of the idiocy, the oscars. So I watch series on television. House of Cards is a lot of fun. Awful politics, awful persons. And when the series is finished you have nothing. It's like smoking a cigarette. You have fun but it makes you an idiot.
Originally published in 2017 in Art in America.
ALSO:
Read my new essay The All: In Praise of Generalism at The Believer Magazine
And listen to my new EP, Standards Volume 2