Jonathan Harris’ Top 10
The Holy Mountain La montaña sagrada Alejandro Jodorowsky
Mexico, United States, 1973 DCP, color, 114 min Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky Cinematography: Rafael Corkidi Editing: Federico Landeros Production: Robert Taicher for
ABKCO Music & Records
Screening Copy: ABKCO Music & Records
Alejandro Jodorowsky:
La cravate (fiction, 1957) Fando y Lis (fiction, 1968) El Topo (fiction, 1970) Tusk (fiction, 1980) Santa sangre (fiction, 1989) The Rainbow Thief (fiction, 1990) La danza de la realidad (fiction, 2013) Poesía sin fin (fiction, 2016)
The Holy Mountain can’t be pigeonholed in a particular genre, and the same goes for Alejandro Jodorowsky, who’s not only a filmmaker, but also a strip cartoonist, playwright and tarot reader. His story of a hippie-like Christ figure led by an alchemist (played by the director himself) on a quest for release from earthly passions and desires takes place in a surreal world in which futuristic stage sets flow seamlessly into glorious Mexican landscapes. The film is an avalanche of visual metaphors and symbols, with dozens of ludicrous, perverse or nightmarish characters and events passing by in what seems like an almost two-hour-long LSD trip. Birds fly out of a fresh bullet wound, a naked woman brings a machine to an “electronic orgasm,” and costumed toads and chameleons do battle in a psychedelic circus—the scenes are as bizarre as they are intriguing. In the 1970s, the film was not a box-office success, but over the years it has acquired cult status.
Into Great Silence Die große Stille Philip Gröning
Germany, Switzerland, 2005 DCP, color, 162 min
Philip Gröning:
The Last Picture Taken (1983) The Swimmer (1983) Summer (fiction, 1986) Director: Philip Gröning Stachoviak! (1988) Cinematography: Philip Gröning The Terrorists! (fiction, 1992) Editing: Jörg Schulze Victims, Witnesses (1993) Sound Design: Max Jonathan Silberstein, Michael Hinreiner, Benedikt Just, Peter Crooks, L’Amour, L’Argent, L’Amour (fiction, 2000) Samir Foco, Michael Kranz, Ben Rosenkind Production: Philip Gröning for Philip Awards: Best Documentary Bavarian Groning Filmproduktion, Andres Pfaeffli Film Awards, Best Documentary Prix & Elda Guidinetti for Ventura Film Arte European Film Award, Special Distribution for the Netherlands/ Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival Screening Copy: ABC Theatrical
Distribution - Cinemien Involved TV Channels: BR, ZDF/ARTE, TSI
Deep in the French Alps lies La Grande Chartreuse, one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, the German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian religious order requesting permission to shoot a documentary about them. They wrote him back saying they needed to think about it. Sixteen years later they gave their approval, in a unique gesture by this monastery that otherwise never admits outsiders. For six months Gröning lived among the monks, filming their daily prayers, chores, rituals and rare visits outdoors. He used neither crew nor artificial lighting, and there’s no musical soundtrack or voice-over. The monks spend 18 hours each day in silence; living in silence and solitude brings them as close as possible to God. This observational film offers a thorough immersion into transcendental monastic life. In the silence, all that remains is elemental: time, space and light. More than a documentary, Gröning’s masterpiece is a meditation, a film about consciousness and absolute presence. This is cinema at its purest.
193