Fando et Lis

Mention the name Alexandro Jodorowsky wherever two or more film buffs are gathered and a fight is only minutes away. Some argue that he is a latter day Bunuel whose non-linear style of storytelling illustrates the falsities and hypocrasies of the ruling class while others declare that he is a talentless poseur who incorporates his own LSD inspired ramblings into his scripts and "non linear" is just a fancy way of saying his plots make no sense.

Many directors have woven the search for the Meaning of Life into their plots. Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch, Carl Dreyer and Luis Bunuel among them especially. The thing about Jodorowsky is not that his characters are looking for the meaning OF life, rather they are seeking to give meaning TO their lives. This is not wrong per se, but the problem is the characters in EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and even FANDO AND LIS all find what they are seeking, and that is where the problems begin, not end. While having a goal and dedicating your life to it is laudible in itself, once you have satisfied that goal where do you go? Is Life still meaningful once you have solved Meaning of same? Not to reveal the ending of any of these movies but: There are disastrous results for everyone in these pictures once they reach their goal . . .which turns out to be not what they expected anyway.

Fando and his crippled girlfriend Lis are on a journey to the legendary magical city of Tar where, both believe, Lis will be able to walk and all their problems will be solved. Along the way they meet all sorts of odd characters (the only kind who inhabit the Jodorowsky universe) and Fando tries to leave several times only to return repentant. Jodorowsky seems to share a dislike of the upper classes of society with Bunuel. The representatives of the upper crust we encounter are narrow minded ineffectual idiots anxious to maintain the status quo because that is the only life they know and they are unwilling to accept change (think about the townsfolk in EL TOPO and compare them to the rich people in VIRIDIANA).

Tar may be no more real than El Dorado or Atlantis but as long as they are actively involved in searching for it, Fando and Lis's live's have meaning. The question ultimately put before them and, by proxy, also before us is this: Is the realisation of this goal worth it? And what happens if we arrive at the wrong answer? Of course with Jodorowsky the wrong answer is the only one anyone ever seems to reach, EL TOPO being the prime example of this. FANDO AND LIS reaches a climax which, while not wholly unexpected, is no less heartbreaking because we saw it coming.

This film was withdrawn for several film festivals worldwide and allegedly caused riots when it was shown in Brazil. It was withdrawn from distribution for many years by Jodorowsky himself but is now available on videocassette and DVD. So is this man an unsung genius? You figure it out, I'm going home.

This is the first film of this type that I've seen, and I have mixed emotions about it. I have to say that this film is very tedious to watch, and you have to be open minded, and not expecting nothing normal. Watching it from the surface is easy to say it has no sense or narrative at all, but if you pay some attention you'll be able to at least figure out the relation between scenes and basic concepts, such as love, death and fear. This is a very abstract film and I don't think I got all the hidden messages, but the ones I interpreted, left me with a rewarding feeling. If you're looking for something different and unique in film, this is something you'll find interesting, but be patient though, because the movie is slow

I think Fando and Lis is a masterpiece, and one of the least pretentious films I've seen. As it's 2 am and I've just watched it, I am not in a position to be articulate, but I'll sum up my reasons in the following, then come back in a few days and further the commentary.

1. I was never once bored. 2. How the hell did the director get this made, and have all the actors and extras participate in what to them must have seemed embarrassing and weird sacrilege? 3. It was epic poetic fantasy, using creative theatrical games, fresh play of props and brilliant mise en scene - tapping into all kinds of primal emotions, fears and desires. 4. He makes good the limits of the medium. Even the high contrast black-and- white served its purpose; when Fando tries to convince Lis there are flowers, the surrounding many stones and bric-a-brac suggest flowers to the viewer. Where faded acoustics must have reigned given the budget and desert landscape, he fills the soundtrack with compelling auditory images. 5. It's a combination of Fellini's 81/2 (the bewildered director as lover) and La Strada, but even more personal; with more guts; rawer, fresher. 6. Who could deny the plaintively lovely Lis? The forlorn fawning seductress? And wasn't Fando a charming and silly chap, full of fondness for living when he wasn't cast in the role of the brute? And wasn't their chemistry palpable?

Above all, I was moved. I recognized it both as a simple love story toting the truism that love has no road map, and a cry from the wilderness. It was authentic scream of a soul to FEEL the experience of living, good and bad. Watch this film when you're lost - when your heart aches with unfulfilled desires - you want your dead parents back or the lover you mistreated. Watch it then. You'll know what the hell it's about.

Jodorowsky's first film has recently been released on DVD with director's commentary and documentary, and it is looking beautiful for a 'lost' low-budget film. A frequently disjointed film, although to be honest not as much as El Topo, Jodorowsky's adaption of a bizarre stage production (filmed from memory with a one-page outline script) creates some of his most affecting images despite the low-budget. The narrative, which may seem annoying for those unaccustomed to Jodorowsky's work, actually develops in quite a mature and artistic manner; Jodorowsky shows a great understanding of his art despite the fact this was his first feature. But, as Jodorowsky himself says about this film, it is a pure work of art - i.e. a film created without any thought going into what the audience will think about it, he was filming from the heart. So it does drag in places and the pacing prevents any but the most arty of us to be excited by it. But if you liked El Topo (etc.), give it a go.

Fando and Lis depart in search of the magic City of Tar, which will probably offer a cure to Lis' legs in order to make her walk again, aside from granting eternal happiness to both of them. The Search: An early thematic goal to the director's later midnight classics El Topo and The Holy Mountain. Scandalous, and too sacrilegious for the audience at the Acapulco Film Festival, the film was subsequently dropped by the distributor in 1968. Fando and Lis remained obscure for over 30 years.

Alejandro Jodorowsky's long-lost feature debut film is uneven, but it's obvious that a raw energy and a torrent of imaginative ideas went into the making. Shot on weekends with a minuscule budget, casting friends and family, Fando and Lis plays like a cross of the later Fellini circus with the brutality of an early Buñuel film.

Structured as a road movie of sorts, our protagonists have bizarre encounters with an array of unpredictable characters. Many would call it violent, but there is a certain childlike quality in the staging: A burning piano is knocked over again and again in reverse motion; Mud bathers rise (a la Night of The Living Dead) at the base of a mountain; A knife perforates a little doll's crotch, and snakes are introduced in the crack. I could go on describing the stream of images that stuck with me, but you get the point: Watch the movie.

Trying to explain its meaning is beyond the point, as Jodorowsky himself stated: "I'm more attracted to what I don't understand." The symbolism ranges from light social satire to striking, brutal imagery. Same goes for the B&W cinematography, which alternates from bland hand-held "backyard style" to breathtakingly executed shots (see the wonderfully choreographed spiral movement when Fando abandons Lis in a pit, running up the hill in circles in the background while Lis laments in the foreground).

Yet Jodorowsky seems more invested at times in the power of his ideas than in their proper screen execution. The action is sometimes clunky and/or hampered by questionable editing choices. This inconsistency doesn't seem like a deliberate effect, since many sequences are conventionally but effectively cut. However, the use of music is quite expressive as well as many sound design choices.

Fando and Lis is not a perfect film, but "perfection" is an absurd term given the nature of the material. In any case, suffice to say that this feature debut resonates far more deeply than the sober, functional exercises that Hollywood chunks out every year, not to mention the "art-house mainstream" that permeates most of the Cannes Film Festival highlights of late.

Jodorowsky's work is often closer to performance art than it is to film, if we take film as an expression of consistent atmosphere and cinematic flow, illustrating ideas at the fully extent of the medium. The auteur expresses that as a filmmaker; he doesn't care whether the audience is bored or angry, he says a film should be made with your guts, without following any rules of cinematic grammar. The result is sometimes inconsistent but never disappointing.

In a world plagued by artistic concessions, Jodorowsky emerges as an artist with an unique voice, capable of delivering unforgettable images. His work is always refreshing and inspiring.