It has been a while since I have seen Alejandro Jodorowshy’s
avant-garde film Santa Sangre (1989) but with its recent re-release I thought it
might be just the time to reassess this marvellously bizarre cult movie. At it’s
most basic it’s the story of Fenix, a boy who grew up in a circus, we follow
him through his adolescence into his adult life. But this film is not your
basic coming of age drama. Were taking about a film that was made by an
underground Chilean filmmaker who specialises in surrealism and the theatre of
the absurd and who is obsessed by shocking imagery that can include, blood,
lots of blood, inhumane violence, nudity, mental disability, mutation, real
freaks of nature and God forbid we forget, religious themes and devotions.
Which can all be found in Santa Sangre
(Holy Blood), the closest he has come
to making a movie that would fit the horror genre, and incidentally his most
accessible and accomplished film if you don’t believe me give El Topo (1970) a try described by one
critic as ‘the most shocking and
controversial head-trip ever made’[1]
but that may be the subject of a further ramble.
Written by Jodorowsky along with Dario Argento’s younger
brother Claudio and Roberto Leoni and shot in Mexico City it relates how Fenix
mother Concha (Bianca Guerra) a demented circus trapeze artist who is also the
leader of a religious cult worshiping a shrine to a local girl who was raped
and murdered after having her arms cut off. When Concha finds her husband, the
circus master Orgy (Dean Stockwell’s brother Guy) having sex with the ultra flexible
Tattooed Women she pours acid over his private parts. He in turn cuts off both
his wife’s arms in revenge before cutting his own throat. Fenix is an unwilling
witness to these events and thereafter looses his sense of reason and is
assigned to a mental institution. When we next see this damaged individual he
is a young man and formulates his escape. Meeting up with his mother he is
forced to become her ‘arms and hands’ standing close behind her assisting with
not only her theatrical act but also with her more private moments.
 |
| The ultra flexible Tattooed Lady. |
The best description of this film is by David Flint who
describes it as ‘a dazzling effort which
successfully blurred the boundaries of art and exploitation, mixing scenes of
darkly poetic beauty with moments of outrageous gore and violence, blending
bizarre imagery and ideas into an ostensibly conventional narrative to create
something genuinely unique’[2]
 |
| Fenix helps his mother during theatrical and more private moments. |
Yes this is a genuinely unique experience full of surreal
moments and one in which music forms an integral part of the dialogue. Made by
a man who is too often dismissed by those who denigrate artistic freedom, for
the rest of us: go see this movie your find it a real treat!!
 |
| A film that includes religious themes and devotions. |
No comments:
Post a Comment