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Presentation of El Topo with Brontis and Adán Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky, guest of honor at the 11th FICM, where he will present his new film La danza de la realidad, is here and will spend the night in Morelia. The prelude to his visit began at the Cinépolis Centro with the screening of El Topo (1970), one of the masterpieces that make up his extraordinary filmography. His sons, Brontis, actor and theater director, and Adán, a musician who will exhibit his short film El ladrón de voces here, were present at the screening.

After the film was over, Brontis Jodorowsky answered questions from the audience.

What was the experience making this film like?

When you’re a kid, you have no duality, no separation with yourself. It’s normal for you. For me, it was like making a cowboy movie. I saw how the shootouts and the tricks were done.  In the filming, I discovered how movies were made, which changed my way of seeing a film. I was a very dedicated actor at 6 ½ years old. I took it very seriously. What I learned is that when you’re acting you have to be in a state of total credibility – and not only know what you’re supposed to do. You have fun and discover everything. Later, when you’re in the art world, you have to learn the technique and be very well prepared to capture the spontaneity.

Where did you find the actors?

Amazing, isn’t it? There are dwarfs, deformed people, people with missing limbs, but this is our reality. Alejandro opened his eyes and looked. In the cinema of Mexico and Latin America this is not shown, they don’t exist in our field of vision, but Alejandro brought them to the table. The artist doesn’t invent something; he sees something that you don’t see in order to expand your vision of the world. Art is something that opens our eyes, although it is defined differently for each person.

Do you believe in psychomagic and why?

Yes, because I’ve experienced it and I’ve seen that it has worked for me. I’ve noticed its effect on my own life. It has been useful for people, although not everyone, but that is part of the complexity of the human being. Everyone looks for ways to be cured, to feel good about one’s self. I’ve used it for myself, also for one of my daughters. Here, I have my brother Adán. He knows, we’ve lived with this.

How did El Topo influence you as a person?

It was a model for my artistic quest, but once I was an adult. I never felt traumatized by what happened to my character in El Topo. A work of art is like a dream. Everything you dream is about you. If you watch the film carefully, you will discover that the boy in El Topo, in that scene, is Alejandro, and El Topo is Jaime, his father. El Topo is a story and a film about failure. El Topo wants to evolve but he fails. Don’t worry so much about how it influenced me, but how it can influence you.

Why are you always naked in El Topo and at the end you are dressed as a monk?

I was naked during my entire participation, but at the end it’s not me, it’s another actor. At that time, I was already an exhibitionist. I’m the exhibitionist actor, but only in film. In my real life, I know how to control myself. This question is for Alejandro. I can interpret: It is innocence, purity; it is the first state, it is the beauty of the body. I interpret it that way.

Was there a time when you didn’t like El Topo? Will there be a time when you have the definite vision of it or any work of art?

Look, when I’ve lived my life, I’ll tell you. But you have to turn the page. I’m not going to spend my life rereading my father’s film.

How do you see the image of your father? Has it been a stepping-stone or a shadow?

Something very funny happens to me. For many years, I was the son of, now – oh wonder – I’m the brother of, and even more wonderful, my daughter is an actress and now I’m the father of. My father has never been a stepping-stone for me. I collaborated with him when I was 45 years old, after 20 years of my own career. We worked as artist to artist. That should be hard, right? To have a famous, creative father who is still making films at the age of 85, with full theaters to see a retrospective [of his work], an artist with spirituality and who is sexually active… It would have been tough to have had a father who did not have an imagination, who didn’t concern himself with a person’s education, who had no spiritual life, who didn’t know anything about art, who would say, ‘don’t bother me’ when he was watching Cruz Azul-América [soccer game]. To each his karma.

With this event, we begin to pay tribute to Alejandro Jodorowsky and to present a selection of his exquisite filmography. . El Topo followed by Fando y Lis (1968), La Montaña Sagrada (1973), Santa Sangre (1989) and the national premiere of La danza de la realidad. Welcome, master Jodorowsky.