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00:00:15,328 --> 00:00:19,374
First, a set decorated without furniture.
It's clean, like a hospital,
2
00:00:19,499 --> 00:00:25,171
with crosses on the wall
to convey a sense of mysticism.
3
00:00:25,296 --> 00:00:29,008
There are only essential objects,
like a sacred ceremony.
4
00:00:29,133 --> 00:00:34,097
The master's outfit conceals his face.
He hides his face, like Mohammed.
5
00:00:34,222 --> 00:00:38,226
He is an essential being,
without ego.
6
00:00:38,351 --> 00:00:42,313
These are the actual movements
of a Japanese tea ceremony.
7
00:00:42,438 --> 00:00:45,108
All the movements are conscious.
8
00:00:54,242 --> 00:00:59,038
Alejandro Jodorowsky.
That is still my name.
9
00:00:59,163 --> 00:01:01,457
I have lost pieces of it.
10
00:01:01,583 --> 00:01:06,087
My full name was
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky.
11
00:01:06,212 --> 00:01:10,592
Prullansky was the name of my mother,
but it was too long.
12
00:01:10,717 --> 00:01:14,387
It's too bad,
I have lost the name of my mother.
13
00:01:14,512 --> 00:01:17,890
Only my father's name has prevailed.
14
00:01:24,647 --> 00:01:27,650
I'm very happy
to record these commentaries
15
00:01:27,775 --> 00:01:32,405
because The Holy Mountain
was a great adventure for me.
16
00:01:32,530 --> 00:01:35,116
I shot this film in a different life.
17
00:01:35,241 --> 00:01:37,702
I am not the same man anymore.
18
00:01:37,827 --> 00:01:44,792
In these commentaries, I'll try to resurrect
an Alejandro that no longer exists.
19
00:01:44,917 --> 00:01:48,921
I will make a concerted effort
to bring him back to the present,
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because I like the young man
that I once was.
21
00:01:51,674 --> 00:01:58,139
He was trying with all his soul
to make a sacred film.
22
00:01:58,264 --> 00:02:01,517
He wanted to change mankind
with his films.
23
00:02:01,643 --> 00:02:05,396
He thought that cinema
was better than LSD.
24
00:02:05,521 --> 00:02:11,527
He thought his film would be a source
of enlightenment for the audience.
25
00:02:15,406 --> 00:02:19,243
I am the first actor
who painted his fingernails black.
26
00:02:19,369 --> 00:02:22,372
Many people in rock later copied it.
27
00:02:26,334 --> 00:02:31,714
These two girls weren't actresses.
They wanted to have a spiritual experience.
28
00:02:31,839 --> 00:02:36,761
They were searching for their own truth,
their naked truth.
29
00:02:38,721 --> 00:02:42,100
The inner God that opens in circles
30
00:02:42,225 --> 00:02:45,061
toward a greater consciousness.
31
00:02:45,186 --> 00:02:49,440
A heart that opens
toward a greater consciousness.
32
00:02:50,233 --> 00:02:53,820
The target that the arrow must hit.
33
00:02:54,862 --> 00:02:56,864
The eye of Buddha.
34
00:02:56,989 --> 00:03:00,910
The pearl,
the soul that must be polished.
35
00:03:01,035 --> 00:03:04,622
When the door is opened,
a key is found to the trilogy.
36
00:03:05,331 --> 00:03:08,751
Now, descend into the world of the dead,
37
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to the world of dreamless dreams.
38
00:03:14,215 --> 00:03:16,759
Descending...
39
00:03:16,884 --> 00:03:20,138
Butterfly wings
symbolize metamorphosis.
40
00:03:20,263 --> 00:03:23,433
Back up through the serpent, Kundalini...
41
00:03:24,142 --> 00:03:27,061
...the pearls of Eros,
42
00:03:28,062 --> 00:03:34,652
until it arrives at a geometric figure,
which is the interior consciousness.
43
00:03:38,364 --> 00:03:44,162
He's "The Fool" of the tarot,
lying on the ground.
44
00:03:46,122 --> 00:03:49,584
His face is covered with flies,
symbolizing useless thoughts.
45
00:03:50,501 --> 00:03:52,712
He is urinating on himself.
46
00:03:55,882 --> 00:03:58,509
He's lost and drunk.
47
00:04:00,219 --> 00:04:04,599
This is the card that defines him,
the tarot's Fool card.
48
00:04:04,724 --> 00:04:08,227
The Fool is always represented
by an animal that is his ego.
49
00:04:08,895 --> 00:04:11,105
The frog is the ego.
50
00:04:16,027 --> 00:04:20,281
This character
is the divine aspect of The Fool.
51
00:04:29,916 --> 00:04:33,044
These boys have their genitals
painted green.
52
00:04:34,253 --> 00:04:37,965
He pulls out the flower
that grows on his hand like a root
53
00:04:38,090 --> 00:04:39,884
and forms the wound of Christ.
54
00:04:40,009 --> 00:04:43,721
The boys take him over
a crumbling Egyptian pyramid,
55
00:04:43,846 --> 00:04:46,557
symbolizing an ancient civilization.
56
00:04:46,682 --> 00:04:52,230
With a donkey's leg,
he traces a line, a limit.
57
00:04:59,946 --> 00:05:04,075
They throw stones to wake Christ,
who is on a cross,
58
00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,913
on a "T", the "T" of tarot.
59
00:05:09,038 --> 00:05:16,212
He finally wakes up
to begin the long initiation
60
00:05:16,337 --> 00:05:18,798
that will give him wisdom.
61
00:05:29,433 --> 00:05:33,646
He shoos away his childhood,
his primitivism.
62
00:05:35,398 --> 00:05:40,194
He uncovers his rage,
his basic instincts.
63
00:05:40,319 --> 00:05:45,116
He wants to attack
this being that has woken him.
64
00:05:48,077 --> 00:05:53,666
But he is placated through vice -
"Smoke a little joint with me."
65
00:05:53,791 --> 00:05:56,335
And that's how he tames him.
66
00:05:58,838 --> 00:06:02,008
Every character in this film
has an astrological symbol.
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00:06:02,133 --> 00:06:07,096
The man with no arms
has a moon in his ear.
68
00:06:12,435 --> 00:06:19,901
The sleeping man
begins to understand human emotions.
69
00:06:22,778 --> 00:06:28,034
He finds friendship with himself -
with his monstrous side.
70
00:06:35,041 --> 00:06:40,004
They carry on taking their drugs,
happy and drunk, celebrating.
71
00:06:40,922 --> 00:06:46,552
But we're in a dictatorship,
where students are killed
72
00:06:46,677 --> 00:06:52,934
and hundreds are crucified,
while the rich speak of religion
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00:06:53,059 --> 00:06:55,686
and feel good about themselves.
74
00:07:03,361 --> 00:07:06,280
I borrowed these carcasses
from a restaurant.
75
00:07:06,405 --> 00:07:09,116
When I returned them later,
the customers ate them.
76
00:07:40,564 --> 00:07:44,402
The man who plays the American tourist
is David Kapralik,
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00:07:44,527 --> 00:07:50,032
the agent for Sly & The Family Stone,
a famous American singer.
78
00:07:54,412 --> 00:07:58,916
This American doesn't worry
about the political situation.
79
00:07:59,041 --> 00:08:04,505
They're raping his wife,
which he finds very amusing.
80
00:08:04,630 --> 00:08:06,424
It's very entertaining. He films it.
81
00:08:06,549 --> 00:08:11,387
This refers to the American spirit,
oblivious to what's going on overseas.
82
00:08:11,512 --> 00:08:16,058
Even today, Americans don't know
what they have done abroad.
83
00:08:16,183 --> 00:08:24,150
Non-Americans are not beings,
they're aspects of tourism.
84
00:08:24,275 --> 00:08:27,611
He gives him a dollar
for having let him film it.
85
00:08:27,737 --> 00:08:32,116
Our character
is learning the value of money.
86
00:08:32,241 --> 00:08:36,954
Now he works
in the "Toad and Chameleon" circus,
87
00:08:37,079 --> 00:08:40,082
which refers to
the conquest of America.
88
00:08:44,003 --> 00:08:47,173
They hire the character
to advertise their circus.
89
00:08:48,591 --> 00:08:50,885
He likes money now.
90
00:08:51,927 --> 00:08:55,639
He's become an accomplice to money.
91
00:09:11,947 --> 00:09:15,367
He announces this show
made with toads and chameleons,
92
00:09:15,493 --> 00:09:18,162
which were so hard to dress!
93
00:09:18,287 --> 00:09:21,540
Their urine was like acid.
94
00:09:21,665 --> 00:09:25,002
When I put on their armor,
they'd fill up with air,
95
00:09:25,127 --> 00:09:30,007
then they would blow it out
and try to escape.
96
00:09:30,132 --> 00:09:34,762
The chameleons
were dressed in Aztec outfits.
97
00:09:36,722 --> 00:09:39,809
All the symbols are Aztec symbols.
98
00:09:45,189 --> 00:09:48,818
We had to wait ages until a chameleon
stuck out its tongue or moved its eyes.
99
00:09:48,943 --> 00:09:51,112
They wouldn't move.
100
00:09:52,071 --> 00:09:54,782
Every move they make is a treasure,
I swear.
101
00:09:54,907 --> 00:09:57,326
Look, here it's going to move.
102
00:09:57,451 --> 00:10:02,081
I'd say, "Move! Move! Move!"
There he moved, see?
103
00:10:13,884 --> 00:10:18,681
This headdress is a copy
of Montezuma's, the great Emperor.
104
00:10:24,311 --> 00:10:27,815
Here Christopher Columbus's
three ships arrive.
105
00:10:28,941 --> 00:10:32,903
The first person off the ship is a priest
who would convert everyone.
106
00:10:37,825 --> 00:10:44,915
And then come the Nazis, the Germans.
I used a song by Wagner.
107
00:11:06,187 --> 00:11:08,147
I chose toads
because they were soft...
108
00:11:09,815 --> 00:11:17,114
...and chameleons because
they were so immobile, so perfect.
109
00:11:24,705 --> 00:11:26,916
And here comes the drama.
110
00:11:27,041 --> 00:11:33,214
The bloodbath begins.
The slaughter, the genocide,
111
00:11:33,339 --> 00:11:36,008
under the pretext
that the law must be imposed.
112
00:11:36,133 --> 00:11:41,263
It's a law that is alien to these people.
113
00:11:41,388 --> 00:11:43,933
It's like imposing democracy
on the Aztecs.
114
00:11:44,058 --> 00:11:46,560
What use is it to them?
115
00:11:50,147 --> 00:11:57,196
I filmed this on the street,
among astounded passers-by.
116
00:12:05,955 --> 00:12:11,126
Our character was driven by money.
Here's the other one, counting money.
117
00:12:11,252 --> 00:12:15,923
He starts to suffer,
because he feels like one of the toads.
118
00:12:16,048 --> 00:12:19,301
The public is satisfied with the show,
but he cries.
119
00:12:20,094 --> 00:12:22,721
He realizes he has been destroyed.
120
00:12:25,391 --> 00:12:31,522
Here Christ is for sale.
Religion has become a business.
121
00:12:40,739 --> 00:12:45,286
Here I start making
references to various films.
122
00:12:47,496 --> 00:12:49,748
Italian films, for instance,
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00:12:49,873 --> 00:12:54,878
those huge productions
that explored biblical themes.
124
00:12:55,004 --> 00:12:58,007
The tourists still don't understand.
125
00:12:58,132 --> 00:13:03,220
She wears the Sacred Heart
on her genitals.
126
00:13:08,767 --> 00:13:14,106
He buys a cross. It's very heavy,
so they give him some help.
127
00:13:40,799 --> 00:13:47,765
I find those three soldiers and the fat guy
dressed as the Virgin Mary very funny.
128
00:13:59,568 --> 00:14:03,614
They seduce him
because he looks like Christ.
129
00:14:03,739 --> 00:14:07,868
They want to reproduce Christ's image.
That's what this scene is about.
130
00:14:07,993 --> 00:14:13,957
He leaves his friend,
he ends up betraying him.
131
00:14:14,083 --> 00:14:17,127
In other words,
he betrays a part of himself.
132
00:14:48,659 --> 00:14:54,581
The grease of the pig symbolizes the ego.
They cover him with it.
133
00:14:56,750 --> 00:15:02,381
How much better is reality,
compared to an optical effect?
134
00:15:02,506 --> 00:15:07,636
Here he is breathing through two tubes,
so he's alright.
135
00:15:31,076 --> 00:15:35,581
This is my own version
of Michelangelo's La Pietà,
136
00:15:37,207 --> 00:15:42,504
Michelangelo's famous sculpture
in which the Virgin holds the dead Christ.
137
00:15:44,882 --> 00:15:49,386
Tequila Cuervo. Cuervo means "raven",
which is the primary matter in alchemy.
138
00:15:58,395 --> 00:16:02,483
The merchants of the temple
are asleep, and he wakes up.
139
00:16:03,650 --> 00:16:06,612
He will have another moment
of enlightenment.
140
00:16:06,737 --> 00:16:11,575
He realizes he's been used
to play the role of Christ.
141
00:16:13,827 --> 00:16:17,915
This is his most profound moment
of insight.
142
00:16:48,987 --> 00:16:53,450
I dubbed the thief's voice.
It was me who was screaming.
143
00:17:20,519 --> 00:17:27,776
This is a metaphor for Christ
chasing the merchants out of the temple.
144
00:17:30,112 --> 00:17:35,909
It's a biblical image.
He destroys his fake egos.
145
00:17:36,034 --> 00:17:38,662
"This isn't me! This isn't me!"
146
00:17:38,787 --> 00:17:42,583
And then he finds a sculpture
that really looks like him.
147
00:17:42,708 --> 00:17:45,168
"This is what I want to be.
148
00:17:46,378 --> 00:17:51,383
"This is what I want to be.
This is the Christ I want to be."
149
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:00,434
The prostitutes in the church.
150
00:18:00,559 --> 00:18:04,813
One of them has a monkey -
her hairy ego.
151
00:18:11,236 --> 00:18:13,864
I didn't want to work with actors.
152
00:18:13,989 --> 00:18:19,161
I wanted to work with real people
playing characters similar to themselves,
153
00:18:19,286 --> 00:18:22,956
because the first thing I wanted to do
was to help the actors evolve.
154
00:18:23,081 --> 00:18:27,711
In order to change the world
I had to change the actors in the film.
155
00:18:27,836 --> 00:18:33,175
I thought, "I will work with real people
and enlighten them."
156
00:18:33,300 --> 00:18:37,763
I didn't give the actors any directions.
I just told them, "Move around."
157
00:18:38,347 --> 00:18:40,974
I asked them to move,
but I didn't give them directions
158
00:18:41,099 --> 00:18:43,185
because they were playing themselves.
159
00:18:43,310 --> 00:18:48,440
The scene we are about to see
symbolizes perversion,
160
00:18:48,565 --> 00:18:51,151
the pedophilic perversion
of this world.
161
00:18:52,361 --> 00:18:56,239
This poor little girl is selling herself.
162
00:19:32,901 --> 00:19:37,906
The character has gained dignity.
He is searching for himself.
163
00:19:38,031 --> 00:19:43,328
He finds his apostles, who are whores
and apostles at the same time.
164
00:19:43,453 --> 00:19:48,792
This one sees the Christ within him
and falls in love.
165
00:19:50,335 --> 00:19:54,214
She doesn't fall in love with
a human being, but with a spiritual one.
166
00:19:54,756 --> 00:19:57,175
She sees his spirituality.
167
00:19:57,300 --> 00:20:00,262
She heals his wounds,
which are also her wounds.
168
00:20:00,387 --> 00:20:02,431
She is compassionate.
169
00:20:02,556 --> 00:20:07,060
She reveres him
and takes him as her master.
170
00:20:31,918 --> 00:20:37,591
They arrive at a dance
where men are dancing with men.
171
00:20:37,716 --> 00:20:41,219
We see soldiers dancing with civilians.
172
00:20:41,344 --> 00:20:46,141
I already knew back then
that civilians get killed in wars.
173
00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:50,353
So, I joined soldiers and civilians
together in a dance of love.
174
00:20:50,479 --> 00:20:54,316
A civilian is a soldier without a uniform.
175
00:20:55,692 --> 00:20:59,196
A soldier is a civilian wearing a uniform.
They're equals.
176
00:20:59,321 --> 00:21:04,576
In this scene, a crazy charro
stuck a gun into my chest and said,
177
00:21:04,701 --> 00:21:07,704
"Stop filming or I'll kill you."
178
00:21:07,829 --> 00:21:14,336
I went insane and insulted him.
And I said, "If you kill me, I'll kill you."
179
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,340
I yelled at him,
he got scared and left.
180
00:21:18,465 --> 00:21:21,468
But I risked my life in this scene.
181
00:21:21,593 --> 00:21:23,970
That Mexican could have killed me.
182
00:21:25,764 --> 00:21:29,226
The place where I was
threatened the most was Mexico.
183
00:21:29,351 --> 00:21:35,941
During the shoot they wanted me dead,
the Church published a book against me.
184
00:21:36,066 --> 00:21:43,031
The Minister of the Interior
called me and said,
185
00:21:43,156 --> 00:21:44,783
"The President really likes you,
186
00:21:44,908 --> 00:21:50,038
"but we've had a lot of complaints.
Don't put uniforms in the film.
187
00:21:50,163 --> 00:21:55,585
"No priests, no soldiers, no firefighters.
Take all that out
188
00:21:55,710 --> 00:21:59,840
"because the Government is being good
to you, but it could become dangerous."
189
00:21:59,965 --> 00:22:02,384
It was almost a direct threat to my life.
190
00:22:02,509 --> 00:22:06,096
The next day I left Mexico with
all the footage and came to New York.
191
00:22:06,221 --> 00:22:09,099
I finished The Holy Mountain here.
192
00:22:09,224 --> 00:22:14,604
Mexico is a fascinating country
because they like black heroes.
193
00:22:14,729 --> 00:22:19,526
They attack their heroes,
but if you stand your ground,
194
00:22:19,651 --> 00:22:21,778
later they admire and love you.
195
00:22:21,903 --> 00:22:25,824
The priest yells at him
in a made-up language.
196
00:22:27,158 --> 00:22:31,538
"This isn't true, this naked Christ!
Get him away from here."
197
00:22:34,791 --> 00:22:41,882
He realizes that in that church they have lost
the true meaning of Christianity.
198
00:22:43,508 --> 00:22:47,971
And he holds communion
by eating the face.
199
00:22:48,096 --> 00:22:50,181
"The image is me."
200
00:22:51,766 --> 00:22:55,145
This is another step forward
in his evolution.
201
00:23:15,582 --> 00:23:20,670
He wants to ascend
toward spiritual development,
202
00:23:20,795 --> 00:23:23,298
which is symbolized by the sky.
203
00:23:24,382 --> 00:23:26,384
Yin and Yang.
204
00:23:26,509 --> 00:23:28,970
The receptive and the active.
205
00:23:29,095 --> 00:23:33,016
The primitive world ends
when he floats toward the sky.
206
00:23:33,975 --> 00:23:37,354
Now the second part of the film begins.
207
00:23:37,479 --> 00:23:40,190
The first part
described the primitive world.
208
00:23:40,315 --> 00:23:43,818
Now we go toward the mystical world.
209
00:23:44,945 --> 00:23:49,574
They are all looking up, as if waiting
for something to fall from the sky.
210
00:23:53,078 --> 00:23:57,332
They are still doing it.
They only eat fish and grapes,
211
00:23:57,457 --> 00:23:59,376
which are Christian symbols.
212
00:24:00,543 --> 00:24:03,880
They arrive in the middle
of a crowd of waiting people.
213
00:24:05,966 --> 00:24:07,592
What are they waiting for?
214
00:24:07,717 --> 00:24:13,306
There is a tower with a hole at the top,
and a hook descends.
215
00:24:13,431 --> 00:24:17,769
On the hook there is a pouch
with a solar symbol.
216
00:24:18,436 --> 00:24:19,771
The pouch contains gold.
217
00:24:21,648 --> 00:24:25,944
He gets on the hook and,
driven by his desire for money,
218
00:24:26,069 --> 00:24:29,072
which is the only thing he knows,
he goes up the tower.
219
00:24:30,448 --> 00:24:35,662
It is an initiation tower,
a link between Heaven and Earth.
220
00:24:36,663 --> 00:24:38,832
He is determined to steal.
221
00:24:38,957 --> 00:24:42,085
He is a thief.
He's going to steal the gold.
222
00:24:42,210 --> 00:24:49,384
He's taken the bait. Sometimes
our inner God casts bait for us.
223
00:24:49,509 --> 00:24:54,431
He says, "I'm right here, inside you.
Come look for me. Recognize me.
224
00:24:55,390 --> 00:24:58,101
"I am you and you are me.
225
00:24:58,226 --> 00:25:01,896
"Get in touch with your divine side."
226
00:25:09,029 --> 00:25:12,991
The more I watch this film, the more
I notice the tarot symbols in it.
227
00:25:13,116 --> 00:25:17,370
The Tower, for example, is card 16.
228
00:25:17,495 --> 00:25:23,626
The Lovers, the Fool... Almost all
the tarot characters are in this film.
229
00:25:34,637 --> 00:25:38,516
Now he enters a sort of womb.
230
00:25:38,641 --> 00:25:41,644
At the end of it
there is a hymen that he must break
231
00:25:41,770 --> 00:25:46,441
in order to pass through the threshold,
to pass from one world to another.
232
00:25:46,566 --> 00:25:49,110
He's about to enter the magical world.
233
00:25:49,235 --> 00:25:53,364
The primitive world
converges with the magical world.
234
00:25:58,203 --> 00:26:02,582
He thinks it's very tough,
but it doesn't take much to get through.
235
00:26:05,460 --> 00:26:09,798
It's easy to enter another world
if you set your mind to it.
236
00:26:09,923 --> 00:26:11,925
You must jump into the void.
237
00:26:14,302 --> 00:26:19,891
And here we see the rainbow,
a room shaped like the rainbow.
238
00:26:23,728 --> 00:26:27,357
He walks toward the light,
toward awareness.
239
00:26:29,609 --> 00:26:32,654
He finds a world of symbols.
240
00:26:32,779 --> 00:26:36,449
A camel for crossing the desert,
Yin and Yang.
241
00:26:44,874 --> 00:26:48,628
The soul with words,
the drop that falls on the spirit.
242
00:26:48,753 --> 00:26:53,258
The Tao, the rod of Jehovah,
243
00:26:53,383 --> 00:26:59,097
the Kabbalah,
the symbol of Mercury.
244
00:26:59,222 --> 00:27:06,020
The tattoos on the black woman
are something I came up with myself
245
00:27:06,146 --> 00:27:09,899
and now I see them everywhere.
246
00:27:10,024 --> 00:27:14,571
Here's the master of the enneagram -
a system of nine symbols.
247
00:27:18,366 --> 00:27:21,202
Igneous is the symbol of fire.
248
00:28:00,033 --> 00:28:02,368
I was impressed
by Frankenstein's shoes,
249
00:28:02,493 --> 00:28:07,957
so I asked my designer, Nicky,
250
00:28:08,082 --> 00:28:15,089
to come up with shoes that not only
had heels, but high platforms as well.
251
00:28:25,016 --> 00:28:27,727
The camel did a great job.
252
00:28:27,852 --> 00:28:31,356
A zookeeper I knew
lent us the animals.
253
00:28:31,481 --> 00:28:34,901
We'd take them out at night in a truck
and then we'd return them.
254
00:29:10,353 --> 00:29:14,065
He's like a fly trapped in a spider's web.
255
00:29:16,276 --> 00:29:21,155
But instead of killing him, they will
give him true life. He will be reborn.
256
00:29:26,369 --> 00:29:28,204
The chakras.
257
00:29:33,334 --> 00:29:36,587
He touches his heart again,
and his mind opens up.
258
00:29:42,218 --> 00:29:44,846
Now they are going
to eradicate his past.
259
00:29:44,971 --> 00:29:49,309
That tumor he has is his past
and it will be removed.
260
00:29:51,227 --> 00:29:57,775
I changed the color of the blood
and made it blue.
261
00:29:57,900 --> 00:30:00,695
The best thing I could find
to represent the tumor
262
00:30:00,820 --> 00:30:04,032
was an octopus
that I bought in the market.
263
00:30:07,910 --> 00:30:10,496
The past has been removed.
264
00:30:19,297 --> 00:30:22,842
Now the chakras, and he'll be reborn.
265
00:30:30,808 --> 00:30:35,271
He gives him the weapon.
The knife is useless now.
266
00:30:35,396 --> 00:30:37,148
It's a cross-shaped knife.
267
00:30:39,150 --> 00:30:42,945
This is his mirror image.
They have the same voice.
268
00:30:51,329 --> 00:30:54,665
When I decided to make
The Holy Mountain,
269
00:30:54,791 --> 00:30:59,837
Allen Klein introduced me to
The Beatles, including George Harrison.
270
00:30:59,962 --> 00:31:03,508
George Harrison read the script
and loved it.
271
00:31:03,633 --> 00:31:06,761
He asked to meet me
in the Plaza Hotel, here in New York,
272
00:31:06,886 --> 00:31:10,098
to discuss how we would make the film.
273
00:31:10,223 --> 00:31:11,599
I arrived quite happy, of course.
274
00:31:11,724 --> 00:31:17,730
He said he was willing to do
the entire film except for one scene.
275
00:31:17,855 --> 00:31:21,901
- "Which one?"
- "The scene where the thief is nude
276
00:31:22,026 --> 00:31:27,907
"in a bathroom and the alchemist
washes his anus in front the camera."
277
00:31:28,032 --> 00:31:31,119
He said, "I'm not willing
to show my anus."
278
00:31:31,244 --> 00:31:33,746
I said, "You have to.
279
00:31:33,871 --> 00:31:38,709
"This isn't just a film,
this will change people's minds.
280
00:31:38,835 --> 00:31:43,589
"You'll provide a wonderful example
of leaving your ego behind."
281
00:31:43,714 --> 00:31:46,134
"No, I can't," he replied.
282
00:31:46,259 --> 00:31:50,888
So, I said, "Well, unfortunately,
I cannot take out this scene."
283
00:31:51,013 --> 00:31:53,266
And he decided not to do it.
I went back to Mexico,
284
00:31:53,391 --> 00:31:57,812
gave the role to this unknown actor
285
00:31:57,937 --> 00:32:01,232
and lost millions of dollars.
286
00:32:01,357 --> 00:32:06,696
But at the time that was me.
I didn't make films to earn money or fame.
287
00:32:06,821 --> 00:32:10,700
I made them to change mankind.
That's the truth.
288
00:32:11,534 --> 00:32:14,871
The pelican is one
of the symbols of Christ
289
00:32:14,996 --> 00:32:17,707
because it is said
that when their babies are hungry
290
00:32:17,832 --> 00:32:21,586
pelicans peck at their own chest
to feed them with their blood.
291
00:32:22,712 --> 00:32:29,469
He uses the Tefillin,
which are Jewish sacred objects,
292
00:32:29,594 --> 00:32:33,264
because alchemy and Kabbalah
have Jewish roots.
293
00:32:35,224 --> 00:32:37,560
In psychoanalysis,
294
00:32:37,685 --> 00:32:42,523
excrement by children
is considered something creative.
295
00:32:43,483 --> 00:32:47,487
Excrement and gold amount
to the same thing in psychoanalysis.
296
00:32:50,573 --> 00:32:55,411
According to Freud,
the greatest sin is to be born.
297
00:32:56,621 --> 00:33:02,835
He said, "When you're born, you create
an ego that wants to be the Universe.
298
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:06,214
"It wants to be God, but can't be."
299
00:33:06,339 --> 00:33:09,967
He thought we were guilty
of being born
300
00:33:10,092 --> 00:33:14,889
and of having this great ambition
of being everything.
301
00:33:15,014 --> 00:33:18,559
In a similar way, according to Buddha,
302
00:33:18,684 --> 00:33:24,524
apart from old age, illness, and death,
303
00:33:24,649 --> 00:33:30,738
the greatest tragedy is to be born.
To be born is to enter pain.
304
00:33:30,863 --> 00:33:36,911
He wanted to free himself from
the chains of being born and reborn.
305
00:33:37,537 --> 00:33:40,957
Damn! They're both wrong!
306
00:33:41,082 --> 00:33:45,711
I am against psychoanalysis
and against Buddhism. Stop it!
307
00:33:45,836 --> 00:33:47,838
It's wonderful to be born!
308
00:33:47,964 --> 00:33:52,885
It's wonderful to be ill, because
the illness becomes your master.
309
00:33:53,010 --> 00:33:57,014
It's wonderful to grow old,
because it makes you wiser.
310
00:33:57,139 --> 00:34:02,728
And it is wonderful to die, because
being immortal would be so boring!
311
00:34:34,218 --> 00:34:37,888
He will transform
the excrement into gold.
312
00:34:38,014 --> 00:34:44,770
He will transform this primitive being
into a disciple.
313
00:34:44,895 --> 00:34:49,442
It is very important to know
that all of our negative traits
314
00:34:49,567 --> 00:34:54,280
can become positive attributes
and contribute to our development.
315
00:35:04,915 --> 00:35:09,587
An oval mirror.
He looks at himself and is embarrassed.
316
00:35:13,758 --> 00:35:17,803
When he breaks the mirror,
he enters a world full of mirrors.
317
00:35:25,269 --> 00:35:30,816
The pyramid above the cube
is a Masonic image.
318
00:35:30,941 --> 00:35:32,777
They call it "working the stone" -
319
00:35:32,902 --> 00:35:37,281
working the ego to get to the essence.
320
00:35:51,003 --> 00:35:56,425
He can't break the stone because
he's trying too hard, he's ambitious.
321
00:35:56,550 --> 00:36:01,263
If you are ambitious and desire things,
you will not get them.
322
00:36:01,389 --> 00:36:05,309
The master has no ambition.
One hit and the stone opens.
323
00:36:06,727 --> 00:36:09,021
Just one blow to the top...
324
00:36:12,858 --> 00:36:14,360
There lies transparent awareness.
325
00:36:20,074 --> 00:36:24,078
We're going to enter
a tarot initiation session.
326
00:36:24,203 --> 00:36:26,622
I started studying
the tarot when I was very young,
327
00:36:26,747 --> 00:36:31,460
when I was 23 years old.
328
00:36:31,585 --> 00:36:38,008
I've been studying it and trying
to understand its meaning ever since.
329
00:36:38,134 --> 00:36:43,889
The tarot is a visual language,
an encyclopedia of symbols.
330
00:36:44,014 --> 00:36:49,311
Once I memorized it, understood it,
and was able to use it,
331
00:36:49,437 --> 00:36:54,567
once I became a tarot master,
my perception of the world changed.
332
00:36:54,692 --> 00:36:59,947
I started to perceive the world differently
and to think in symbols.
333
00:37:00,072 --> 00:37:03,993
The tarot images we are seeing
were invented by me.
334
00:37:04,118 --> 00:37:07,580
I shouldn't have done that.
I should have used the real ones.
335
00:37:07,705 --> 00:37:13,169
But back then I was a pretentious artist
and believed I could outdo it.
336
00:37:14,962 --> 00:37:19,925
The tarot of Marseille
is a sacred piece of work.
337
00:37:20,050 --> 00:37:24,221
The best you can do to understand it
is not to create a new one,
338
00:37:24,346 --> 00:37:27,016
but to use the one that already exists.
339
00:37:28,100 --> 00:37:35,900
In sacred art, perfection
is defined like this -
340
00:37:36,025 --> 00:37:39,320
there's nothing to add
and nothing to remove.
341
00:37:39,445 --> 00:37:44,658
When I did The Holy Mountain
I didn't quite understand the tarot.
342
00:37:44,784 --> 00:37:47,828
I tried to create my own tarot.
343
00:37:54,168 --> 00:37:58,172
These are the elements of the tarot -
the four components of a human being.
344
00:37:58,297 --> 00:38:02,218
First of all, the wand,
which symbolizes sex.
345
00:38:02,343 --> 00:38:04,428
Creative sex.
346
00:38:14,522 --> 00:38:20,569
The sword, for intellect. From sex,
toward the spirit, toward the head.
347
00:38:28,953 --> 00:38:31,580
The cup, for the heart.
348
00:38:41,215 --> 00:38:47,555
And finally, the gold. The material life
rising until it becomes an aura.
349
00:38:51,308 --> 00:38:56,814
The movements
were created by my Zen master,
350
00:38:56,939 --> 00:38:59,400
Ejo Takata, in Mexico.
351
00:38:59,525 --> 00:39:02,319
I also hired a master
who worked in the States.
352
00:39:02,444 --> 00:39:04,572
He had created a group
called Arica Training.
353
00:39:05,281 --> 00:39:10,077
He came to Mexico
to teach me how to be a master.
354
00:39:10,202 --> 00:39:15,624
He came to Mexico, gave me LSD
and guided me for eight hours.
355
00:39:15,749 --> 00:39:19,086
Oscar Ichazo, from Arica Training.
356
00:39:23,340 --> 00:39:28,262
I had never done drugs before
and thought he'd train me with exercises.
357
00:39:28,387 --> 00:39:32,391
He told me, "Don't waste your time.
Just have some LSD."
358
00:39:32,516 --> 00:39:34,935
And that's what I did.
359
00:39:35,060 --> 00:39:39,315
He was from Bolivia
and came from the Guryev tradition.
360
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:43,235
He taught us the enneagram,
which I used in this film.
361
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:45,321
There are nine characters.
362
00:39:56,457 --> 00:40:00,586
There is a white peacock,
a symbol of enlightenment.
363
00:40:11,388 --> 00:40:15,017
The characters in my films never
move their mouths when they speak.
364
00:40:15,976 --> 00:40:19,188
It's a film,
so why should they move their mouths?
365
00:40:27,154 --> 00:40:32,076
This was the only real actor in the film,
although he worked in television.
366
00:40:32,201 --> 00:40:35,871
I filmed this in a real factory,
which I converted.
367
00:40:37,915 --> 00:40:43,087
Each character represents
the negative side of their planets.
368
00:40:43,212 --> 00:40:48,425
This one is Venus, and so he has
many wives and children.
369
00:40:48,550 --> 00:40:52,054
He is concerned with beauty
and narcissism.
370
00:40:53,472 --> 00:40:59,269
According to the Greeks, the god of love
was a woman, but this one is a man.
371
00:41:01,522 --> 00:41:05,234
There is also a political meaning
to all of this.
372
00:41:05,359 --> 00:41:12,449
Politics are an element of our world,
but not everything is political.
373
00:41:12,574 --> 00:41:16,954
In this world not everything is political.
374
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:23,794
But it's a part I couldn't ignore if I wanted
to give a comprehensive overview.
375
00:41:23,919 --> 00:41:26,797
There is a religious side,
a political side,
376
00:41:26,922 --> 00:41:32,469
a mystic side, an alchemic side,
an artistic side.
377
00:41:32,594 --> 00:41:35,139
All of this exists in life.
378
00:41:56,535 --> 00:42:01,248
This is Bobby,
from the San Francisco "Coquettes".
379
00:42:03,208 --> 00:42:05,753
He was the most beautiful
transvestite I had met.
380
00:42:05,878 --> 00:42:08,464
He became a woman later,
he's a transsexual.
381
00:42:16,346 --> 00:42:22,686
She becomes the primary lover.
The sperm is made of little hearts.
382
00:42:22,811 --> 00:42:28,358
The boss's sperm is made of little hearts.
It's very romantic. I love it.
383
00:42:35,157 --> 00:42:39,078
I always wonder
what the purpose of art is.
384
00:42:39,203 --> 00:42:42,623
Are artists the jesters of society?
385
00:42:42,748 --> 00:42:49,046
It's a bit like smoking.
People smoke to enjoy themselves,
386
00:42:49,171 --> 00:42:51,757
but it is an entertainment that kills.
387
00:42:51,882 --> 00:42:54,384
When you go to the cinema
388
00:42:54,510 --> 00:42:59,640
and are treated
like a twelve-year-old child,
389
00:42:59,765 --> 00:43:02,392
you have a good time,
390
00:43:02,518 --> 00:43:05,729
but you come out
more stupid each time.
391
00:43:06,563 --> 00:43:09,441
Cinema is making audiences stupid,
392
00:43:09,566 --> 00:43:12,194
it's treating them like babies.
393
00:43:13,487 --> 00:43:17,074
I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to wake people up.
394
00:43:17,199 --> 00:43:23,497
I wanted to wake up a society
that has been ill since the Middle Ages.
395
00:43:23,622 --> 00:43:25,833
I must make films that heal.
396
00:43:25,958 --> 00:43:30,587
Art is good when it heals,
when it's therapeutic.
397
00:43:30,712 --> 00:43:35,300
I wanted my films
to have an emotional impact on people,
398
00:43:35,425 --> 00:43:38,303
to cause an unconscious reaction,
399
00:43:38,428 --> 00:43:44,268
so people would leave the theater changed,
charged with a new energy,
400
00:43:44,393 --> 00:43:46,937
with some revelation, with something.
401
00:43:47,062 --> 00:43:51,608
It had to be more than just entertainment,
after which you feel like a stupid child.
402
00:43:56,530 --> 00:43:58,991
We see here a facial
enhancement operation,
403
00:43:59,116 --> 00:44:01,827
they are very common these days.
404
00:44:17,718 --> 00:44:20,429
Someday soon
the dead will be able to speak.
405
00:44:20,554 --> 00:44:23,265
We'll give them machines
and they'll move their mouths and say,
406
00:44:23,390 --> 00:44:28,729
"Goodbye, my children."
Or they will bless us, like this one here.
407
00:44:44,036 --> 00:44:46,371
This is a lesbian actress.
408
00:44:53,795 --> 00:44:55,672
Here I address gay issues.
409
00:44:57,382 --> 00:45:00,802
I addressed homosexual problems,
as well as those of war.
410
00:45:00,928 --> 00:45:04,097
Because... this is Mars.
411
00:45:05,724 --> 00:45:08,685
There's a French painting
in the background.
412
00:45:08,810 --> 00:45:12,731
A woman grabs another woman's nipple.
It has a lesbian touch.
413
00:45:12,856 --> 00:45:18,654
I got closer to the painting
and put a flashing light on the nipple.
414
00:45:23,367 --> 00:45:28,455
The music of The Holy Mountain
was composed by Don Cherry and myself.
415
00:45:28,580 --> 00:45:32,876
I came across Don Cherry because
I was looking for a spiritual musician.
416
00:45:33,001 --> 00:45:38,340
I saw this sort of clown, dressed in a suit
made from bits and pieces.
417
00:45:38,465 --> 00:45:44,429
His wife was Swedish,
she was an avant-garde artist,
418
00:45:44,554 --> 00:45:47,474
and all her possessions
came from rubbish bins in New York,
419
00:45:47,599 --> 00:45:49,184
from things that people threw away.
420
00:45:49,309 --> 00:45:52,688
The pieces of cloth
came from what people threw away.
421
00:45:52,813 --> 00:45:54,982
Because in New York,
when people got rid of something,
422
00:45:55,107 --> 00:45:56,483
they would just put it out on the street.
423
00:45:56,608 --> 00:46:00,404
The furniture in their house,
the spoons, everything they had
424
00:46:00,529 --> 00:46:03,073
came out of rubbish bins.
It was all free.
425
00:46:03,657 --> 00:46:06,827
She'd make outfits out of bits and bobs
for him to wear at his gigs.
426
00:46:06,952 --> 00:46:10,455
He also played a broken trumpet.
427
00:46:13,583 --> 00:46:20,632
I wanted to show homosexual positions,
as seen through a microscope.
428
00:46:44,990 --> 00:46:51,621
I shot this scene in a steel factory
that I was allowed to use.
429
00:46:51,747 --> 00:46:55,917
My budget was low, but I wanted
a grandiose film with grandiose sets.
430
00:46:56,043 --> 00:47:00,964
So, I would film real locations and add
something to make them a bit unreal.
431
00:47:03,467 --> 00:47:05,135
Human ferocity.
432
00:47:07,095 --> 00:47:09,389
The Taliban.
433
00:47:39,586 --> 00:47:43,882
And this is war
turning into rock and roll.
434
00:47:44,007 --> 00:47:49,513
I was prophetic because I addressed
the issue of religious wars,
435
00:47:49,638 --> 00:47:54,684
which would take place later on.
This is a war, a religious war.
436
00:47:55,894 --> 00:47:59,314
At first it is just fashion.
Then we see the grenades.
437
00:47:59,439 --> 00:48:03,568
Everything is beautiful.
It is the beautification of crime.
438
00:48:06,822 --> 00:48:10,325
There are the Buddhists,
the Jews...
439
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:15,455
the Christian Catholics.
All of them manufacture weapons.
440
00:48:23,130 --> 00:48:26,591
This is the millionaire.
He was a millionaire in real life.
441
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:31,430
He has an art collection.
442
00:48:38,687 --> 00:48:42,858
This woman didn't have breasts.
She had had them amputated.
443
00:48:44,526 --> 00:48:47,696
The millionaire's wife
didn't have breasts.
444
00:48:47,821 --> 00:48:49,614
She was not an actress.
445
00:48:50,657 --> 00:48:53,952
If you look closely,
you can see she hasn't got breasts.
446
00:49:07,132 --> 00:49:14,264
The piano rig didn't work very well.
I wanted it to look like a huge condom,
447
00:49:14,389 --> 00:49:16,141
but it doesn't quite work.
448
00:49:27,194 --> 00:49:33,992
The chauffeur was the son of a famous
Hollywood producer called Harry Cohen.
449
00:49:34,701 --> 00:49:39,247
The chauffeur is played
by Harry Cohen's son.
450
00:49:48,757 --> 00:49:52,260
This is some American girl
that just happened to be around.
451
00:49:52,385 --> 00:49:54,387
Her name was Re.
452
00:49:55,472 --> 00:49:58,308
I liked this girl very much.
453
00:50:05,774 --> 00:50:08,360
I got her to take drugs through her ear.
454
00:50:08,485 --> 00:50:13,156
Nobody does that.
I invented "ear cocaine".
455
00:50:33,885 --> 00:50:38,598
I think this symbolizes
the poetic girl that sells herself.
456
00:50:52,195 --> 00:50:54,906
Here I intended to poke fun
at modern art.
457
00:50:55,031 --> 00:50:59,452
This is something I invented -
people painting with their buttocks.
458
00:51:07,252 --> 00:51:12,591
These sculptures are
by a Mexican artist called Felguérez.
459
00:51:12,716 --> 00:51:17,012
I asked him to merge human bodies
with abstract sculptures.
460
00:51:19,097 --> 00:51:22,142
He got angry because his sculptures
don't have much time on screen.
461
00:51:22,267 --> 00:51:25,520
He didn't realize people would see them
for years to come.
462
00:51:25,645 --> 00:51:30,317
"I worked so hard for months and you
only get to see them for a few seconds."
463
00:51:33,486 --> 00:51:39,826
They are still considered modern art.
They'd fit in the Museum of Modern Art.
464
00:51:40,785 --> 00:51:46,416
Nobody has yet merged human bodies,
in an aesthetic fashion,
465
00:51:46,541 --> 00:51:49,085
with abstract sculptures.
466
00:52:04,976 --> 00:52:08,855
The creation of this machine
is based on metaphysical concepts.
467
00:52:08,980 --> 00:52:13,360
I wanted to show a small machine
that would get bigger and bigger,
468
00:52:13,485 --> 00:52:17,614
to give the idea that this machine
was taking over the Universe.
469
00:52:17,739 --> 00:52:21,034
And because of the pleasure
it gives to humans,
470
00:52:21,159 --> 00:52:25,080
the machine itself becomes human
and gives birth to a new machine.
471
00:52:25,205 --> 00:52:30,502
It was abstract art turned into biology.
That was the intention.
472
00:52:30,627 --> 00:52:34,589
I use the same concept
in the art exhibition,
473
00:52:34,714 --> 00:52:38,343
mixing human bodies
with abstract forms.
474
00:52:38,468 --> 00:52:41,221
Humans inside geometric forms.
475
00:52:42,055 --> 00:52:46,267
I wanted to fuse geometry with biology.
476
00:52:46,393 --> 00:52:51,731
This happens nowadays with the robots
that the Japanese are creating.
477
00:53:04,869 --> 00:53:10,250
I think man is meant to create machines
that he will later insert into his body,
478
00:53:10,375 --> 00:53:12,752
and that will transform his life.
479
00:53:12,877 --> 00:53:18,758
In the future, man and machine
will be joined as one being.
480
00:53:18,883 --> 00:53:22,137
That's what I think,
or what I would like to happen.
481
00:53:22,262 --> 00:53:25,014
Machines are dangerous, of course.
482
00:53:26,099 --> 00:53:30,145
They can develop
intelligence and autonomy
483
00:53:30,270 --> 00:53:33,565
and create their own society.
484
00:53:33,690 --> 00:53:37,110
It can happen.
It could happen.
485
00:53:56,713 --> 00:54:03,386
With this machine,
I confronted that fear with humor.
486
00:54:03,511 --> 00:54:07,640
I got the machine to give birth
to a baby machine,
487
00:54:07,766 --> 00:54:10,268
which will eventually grow up,
I suppose.
488
00:54:23,072 --> 00:54:27,702
This is Saturn. It's very important,
because Saturn plays with children,
489
00:54:27,827 --> 00:54:30,288
and then eats them.
490
00:54:39,297 --> 00:54:42,759
We shot this at an actual school.
491
00:54:42,884 --> 00:54:46,179
These children were excited
about the sweets
492
00:54:46,304 --> 00:54:49,933
and the dwarfs dressed up
as Santa Claus.
493
00:54:55,855 --> 00:55:00,193
I had trouble finding that huge man
that's following her. He's a giant.
494
00:55:02,737 --> 00:55:06,616
This is Valerie, my wife at the time.
495
00:55:08,618 --> 00:55:14,457
Here's the elephant with the white
and the black moons - Yin and Yang.
496
00:55:16,626 --> 00:55:20,880
Pachyderms are very powerful
geological symbols.
497
00:55:21,005 --> 00:55:24,801
They symbolize the earth,
the roots I haven't got.
498
00:55:26,803 --> 00:55:32,308
Aside from living in my shoes,
I'd like to live on as an elephant.
499
00:55:38,523 --> 00:55:41,818
My country is my shoes.
500
00:55:50,368 --> 00:55:53,454
When I screened
The Holy Mountain in Cannes,
501
00:55:53,580 --> 00:55:59,127
the Festival's president required
that I submit the film under a country.
502
00:55:59,252 --> 00:56:04,257
I said that it was Mexican, but Mexico
didn't want to recognize it as theirs.
503
00:56:04,382 --> 00:56:09,679
It was too weird a film,
with no charros. It wasn't Mexican.
504
00:56:09,804 --> 00:56:13,600
That fact affected the chance of winning
an award at the festival.
505
00:56:13,725 --> 00:56:18,605
But I didn't care because I wasn't
playing football. I was making a film.
506
00:56:52,847 --> 00:56:56,768
In this scene there are only old people.
I got them from a retirement home.
507
00:56:56,893 --> 00:57:00,939
It was hard. I had to pick them up
from the home and then take them back.
508
00:57:01,064 --> 00:57:03,566
They'd piss and soil themselves.
509
00:57:08,613 --> 00:57:12,700
This is a toy factory
run by old people.
510
00:57:14,118 --> 00:57:17,497
They make things for children,
bizarrely enough.
511
00:57:17,622 --> 00:57:22,835
The only thing they make is weapons.
All the toys are weapons.
512
00:57:36,099 --> 00:57:39,769
As long as children's education
doesn't change,
513
00:57:39,894 --> 00:57:41,771
the world will not change either.
514
00:58:00,707 --> 00:58:03,501
Those are the heads of state
for every country.
515
00:58:05,503 --> 00:58:10,133
They are getting ready
to corrupt the children.
516
00:58:48,212 --> 00:58:52,508
The Peruvian revolution I talk about here
517
00:58:52,633 --> 00:58:55,011
would take place later on
with The Shining Path.
518
00:58:55,136 --> 00:58:59,766
It was a catastrophe in Peru,
and I foresaw it.
519
00:59:01,684 --> 00:59:06,189
Peru's problems appeared in this film,
long before they happened.
520
00:59:12,236 --> 00:59:14,530
The world is very ill.
521
00:59:14,655 --> 00:59:21,287
The world needs to heal the seas, the rivers,
the environment, society, money.
522
00:59:21,412 --> 00:59:22,955
It must heal itself.
523
00:59:23,081 --> 00:59:25,333
We're all ill.
524
00:59:25,458 --> 00:59:27,668
The artist must react.
525
00:59:27,794 --> 00:59:30,671
The artist must be a healer.
526
00:59:30,797 --> 00:59:33,883
Cinema must be some sort of revelation.
527
00:59:34,008 --> 00:59:39,764
Audiences should not identify
with a hero who is generally a pervert.
528
00:59:39,889 --> 00:59:42,183
James Bond is a pervert.
529
00:59:42,308 --> 00:59:44,519
Superman is a pervert.
530
00:59:44,644 --> 00:59:48,439
Superman!
Imagine him with a woman.
531
00:59:48,564 --> 00:59:52,527
He would have an ejaculation so big
that it would destroy her body,
532
00:59:52,652 --> 00:59:55,696
exit through her brain
and destroy a building!
533
00:59:55,822 --> 00:59:59,575
Superman is a being who can't make love,
because he'd kill his partner.
534
01:00:16,092 --> 01:00:19,887
This boy was a homosexual.
His name was Nicky.
535
01:00:20,012 --> 01:00:24,267
I found him at the Max's City Bar.
536
01:00:25,685 --> 01:00:29,230
He was dressed up as a woman
and he seduced me when he got drunk,
537
01:00:29,355 --> 01:00:33,109
because he took off his wig, threw it
on the table and revealed a bald head.
538
01:00:33,234 --> 01:00:34,777
I thought, "This is fantastic."
539
01:00:34,902 --> 01:00:39,323
He was a great artist and helped me
make the costumes for the film.
540
01:00:46,664 --> 01:00:52,962
This lady...
used to wander the film studios
541
01:00:53,087 --> 01:00:55,882
looking for work as an extra.
542
01:00:56,007 --> 01:01:00,803
I took her in. Everyone made fun of her
because they thought she was mad.
543
01:01:00,928 --> 01:01:06,934
I loved her because she showed up
with green hair and green pubic hair.
544
01:01:07,059 --> 01:01:10,688
She was wearing a pubic wig.
545
01:01:19,822 --> 01:01:24,702
The most fascinating thing was that
she had no belly button. It was amazing.
546
01:01:26,579 --> 01:01:29,540
Because I am a mystic,
I immediately thought of Eve.
547
01:01:29,665 --> 01:01:34,629
Eve had no belly button
because she was born from Adam's rib.
548
01:01:39,926 --> 01:01:44,055
I loved building that tall toilet.
549
01:01:44,180 --> 01:01:48,601
That's my golden dream -
to sit on the toilet with my legs dangling.
550
01:01:48,726 --> 01:01:53,689
That's the perfect, mystical toilet.
551
01:01:53,814 --> 01:01:59,612
I thought that the force of falling excrement
could create free electricity.
552
01:02:01,447 --> 01:02:08,120
If you raise the toilet and shit,
the turds generate electricity when they fall.
553
01:02:08,246 --> 01:02:11,832
If all mankind
shitted from a two-meter high toilet,
554
01:02:11,958 --> 01:02:15,795
we could have
all the electricity we wanted.
555
01:02:23,970 --> 01:02:30,685
This is a relationship between
the universal mother and an intellectual.
556
01:02:30,810 --> 01:02:34,397
This mad, flamboyant character
557
01:02:34,522 --> 01:02:39,694
is an intellectual
who deals with electronics,
558
01:02:39,819 --> 01:02:43,364
which in those days
were not so much in vogue.
559
01:02:43,489 --> 01:02:49,537
He is a genius mathematician
and has a tremendous Oedipus complex.
560
01:02:54,875 --> 01:02:58,379
I've always considered Uranus
561
01:02:58,504 --> 01:03:02,425
to represent
the dark and depraved side of humans.
562
01:03:02,550 --> 01:03:04,510
That's how I see Uranus.
563
01:03:05,303 --> 01:03:09,432
It's the farthest, most mysterious
and darkest of all planets.
564
01:03:09,557 --> 01:03:15,146
It's related to the deep,
dark energy in the Universe.
565
01:03:16,105 --> 01:03:19,400
It's related to the unconscious.
566
01:03:20,359 --> 01:03:25,573
I foresaw the use of computers
and the Internet.
567
01:03:29,952 --> 01:03:35,082
Many people ask me how I feel
about technological developments,
568
01:03:35,207 --> 01:03:40,046
about the Internet and so on,
things like robots.
569
01:03:40,171 --> 01:03:46,552
I think that if we have got this far,
it's because man was created for it.
570
01:03:46,677 --> 01:03:50,306
Spiders make spider's webs,
and nobody finds it surprising.
571
01:03:50,431 --> 01:03:55,353
Man makes machines because
that is part of their brain programming.
572
01:03:55,478 --> 01:03:57,730
Machines are sacred.
573
01:03:57,855 --> 01:04:02,985
It's also in man's encoding
to explore the mystery of life
574
01:04:03,110 --> 01:04:05,654
and to know
that there is a message for us.
575
01:04:05,780 --> 01:04:10,785
We only know one percent
of the matter in the Universe.
576
01:04:10,910 --> 01:04:15,748
We must explore and create life.
It's something positive.
577
01:04:15,873 --> 01:04:18,376
But it is also a double-edged sword.
578
01:04:18,501 --> 01:04:22,880
The Internet has globalized the world,
579
01:04:23,005 --> 01:04:25,716
but it could become a global dictatorship.
580
01:04:25,841 --> 01:04:27,843
These things are dangerous,
581
01:04:27,968 --> 01:04:31,138
but when hasn't human development
been dangerous?
582
01:04:31,263 --> 01:04:33,432
Everything is dangerous,
583
01:04:33,557 --> 01:04:40,564
but mankind will move forward,
because we have three essential missions -
584
01:04:40,689 --> 01:04:45,152
number one,
to know the whole Universe,
585
01:04:45,277 --> 01:04:50,908
secondly, to survive for as long
as the Universe does,
586
01:04:51,033 --> 01:04:56,080
and thirdly, we must become
the Universe's conscience.
587
01:04:58,499 --> 01:05:04,547
This is one of the producers. He left with
$300,000 and we never saw him again.
588
01:05:06,006 --> 01:05:10,428
He just ran off, disappeared,
and left us hanging.
589
01:05:10,553 --> 01:05:16,559
I had an assistant, Robert Taicher,
a young American man.
590
01:05:16,684 --> 01:05:21,480
He said, "What are you going to do?"
I said, "Nothing. I'm going to wait,
591
01:05:21,605 --> 01:05:27,236
"and someone will bring me $300,000
wrapped up in a newspaper."
592
01:05:27,361 --> 01:05:29,822
He said, "You are crazy."
And I said, "Yes, I am."
593
01:05:29,947 --> 01:05:31,949
I sat around waiting.
594
01:05:32,074 --> 01:05:36,912
Six weeks went by
and people were getting desperate.
595
01:05:37,037 --> 01:05:39,373
I said, "Let's wait. Miracles happen."
596
01:05:39,498 --> 01:05:40,791
Taicher, who had disappeared -
597
01:05:40,916 --> 01:05:43,711
I thought he had deserted us,
came back with a parcel
598
01:05:43,836 --> 01:05:48,632
wrapped in newspaper
containing $300,000 and gave it to me.
599
01:05:49,717 --> 01:05:55,306
His father was one of the biggest
footwear retailers in America.
600
01:05:55,431 --> 01:05:58,559
He was a millionaire.
So he took $300,000
601
01:05:58,684 --> 01:06:02,229
and gave it to me.
And that's how we finished the film.
602
01:06:33,886 --> 01:06:35,804
I had trouble finding this boy.
603
01:06:35,930 --> 01:06:40,976
I asked my gay assistant
to find me a boy with big testicles.
604
01:06:53,364 --> 01:06:58,202
This is about Nazism
and I had this huge weapon built.
605
01:07:02,581 --> 01:07:05,167
I wanted a Nazi ceremony.
606
01:07:15,636 --> 01:07:18,472
This man had taken LSD
when we shot the scene.
607
01:07:18,597 --> 01:07:22,101
At the end of the scene,
I said, "Cut!"
608
01:07:23,852 --> 01:07:26,939
He thought I meant,
"Cut off his testicles!"
609
01:07:27,064 --> 01:07:29,191
He almost cut them off.
610
01:07:32,361 --> 01:07:35,239
You see there...
"Cut!" Ouch!
611
01:07:40,995 --> 01:07:44,456
These hair styles
weren't in vogue at that time.
612
01:07:44,582 --> 01:07:49,378
They were invented for the film.
Nowadays they are very common.
613
01:08:02,016 --> 01:08:07,187
The scandal in Mexico grew
as I shot The Holy Mountain.
614
01:08:07,313 --> 01:08:11,817
I got attacked. 2,000 people marched
equating me with Manson, the killer,
615
01:08:11,942 --> 01:08:15,821
and saying they wanted me dead,
or out of Mexico.
616
01:08:15,946 --> 01:08:21,243
It was a great scandal
and a real struggle to shoot.
617
01:08:21,368 --> 01:08:26,123
The Church accused me
of performing black masses.
618
01:08:26,248 --> 01:08:30,878
Echeverria, the minister of defense,
threatened to kill me.
619
01:08:31,003 --> 01:08:37,843
I fled to New York with all the footage
because they came to my house.
620
01:08:37,968 --> 01:08:41,972
There was a paramilitary group
called "The Hawks".
621
01:08:42,097 --> 01:08:44,808
They were dressed as civilians
and started shouting,
622
01:08:44,933 --> 01:08:49,146
"Jodorowsky, we are going to kill you,"
in the middle of the night.
623
01:08:49,271 --> 01:08:53,942
I was afraid they would bomb
my house, and my children were there.
624
01:08:54,068 --> 01:08:57,655
I gathered my family together
and moved to New York.
625
01:09:33,190 --> 01:09:37,820
For me, this is one of the most
interesting sequences,
626
01:09:37,945 --> 01:09:41,240
because in it I reveal
627
01:09:41,365 --> 01:09:44,785
the artifice of special effects.
628
01:09:45,953 --> 01:09:51,875
In the slaughter of the students,
you see how the special effects are made.
629
01:09:52,751 --> 01:09:55,629
I show it openly,
but the scenes are just as dramatic.
630
01:10:43,385 --> 01:10:50,142
Smoke moves through an alley.
It was natural, it wasn't done electronically.
631
01:10:50,267 --> 01:10:52,644
It's a divine miracle.
632
01:11:04,072 --> 01:11:05,866
This man is an architect.
633
01:11:11,705 --> 01:11:16,502
I think one of the greatest evils
of contemporary society is architecture,
634
01:11:16,627 --> 01:11:18,587
because of its geometric, linear forms.
635
01:11:18,712 --> 01:11:22,174
For instance,
right now we are talking inside a cube.
636
01:11:22,299 --> 01:11:26,887
But the brain is not cubic or geometric,
it has an organic form.
637
01:11:27,012 --> 01:11:31,975
Homes do not match our spirit,
our organism,
638
01:11:32,100 --> 01:11:36,980
and this provokes a series
of psychological diseases.
639
01:11:54,414 --> 01:11:58,293
This is about pedophilia,
child abuse.
640
01:11:59,586 --> 01:12:01,129
Back then, nobody spoke
about this issue.
641
01:12:01,255 --> 01:12:05,342
Obviously he's a child abuser.
642
01:12:06,134 --> 01:12:08,804
All the children are dressed up
as Minnie Mouse.
643
01:12:11,849 --> 01:12:16,436
This is modern architecture
with its typical buildings.
644
01:12:16,562 --> 01:12:20,190
Everybody here is crippled.
645
01:12:21,400 --> 01:12:25,320
Blocks of flats... It's tragic.
646
01:12:26,238 --> 01:12:29,074
It's a snapshot of multi-family units.
647
01:12:37,374 --> 01:12:42,379
Gaudí is the only architect
who has ever moved me to tears.
648
01:12:42,504 --> 01:12:44,923
Gaudí used to improvise.
When he was building,
649
01:12:45,048 --> 01:12:51,805
if he found a stone
or a sculpture that he liked,
650
01:12:51,930 --> 01:12:54,558
he would incorporate it into his project.
651
01:12:54,683 --> 01:13:00,480
He was the first one to break dishes
and make mosaics.
652
01:13:00,606 --> 01:13:03,191
I consider him one
of the greatest geniuses.
653
01:13:03,317 --> 01:13:10,365
I have a deep admiration for Gaudí,
Leonardo Da Vinci and Cocteau.
654
01:13:10,490 --> 01:13:14,202
They are versatile. They don't practice
just one form of art.
655
01:13:14,328 --> 01:13:18,290
They include all forms of art
in their work.
656
01:13:27,424 --> 01:13:30,677
This was the most famous
transvestite in Mexico.
657
01:13:30,802 --> 01:13:34,348
His name was Shalimar,
like the French perfume.
658
01:13:38,185 --> 01:13:44,232
Gustavo Alatriste, who had produced
some of Buñuel's films,
659
01:13:44,358 --> 01:13:46,360
bought The Holy Mountain.
660
01:13:46,485 --> 01:13:52,115
Afraid of the scandal in Mexico,
he decided not to screen it as it was.
661
01:13:52,240 --> 01:13:55,243
He owned
an experimental cinema chain.
662
01:13:56,453 --> 01:14:00,832
He had the film edited for his theaters
and cut out 40 minutes.
663
01:14:00,958 --> 01:14:06,588
Nowadays Mexico sends out this film
to represent Mexican cinema, finally.
664
01:14:16,515 --> 01:14:18,725
I decided to film
The Holy Mountain in English
665
01:14:18,850 --> 01:14:21,561
because Allen Klein
gave me the money to do it.
666
01:14:21,687 --> 01:14:24,314
He was American and I wanted
to shoot the film in English
667
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:29,027
so that he could show it in the States
and get his money back.
668
01:14:33,824 --> 01:14:38,954
Here I show how we'll be living in coffins,
which actually happened in Japan later.
669
01:14:40,414 --> 01:14:44,543
In Japan they have hotels
where you can't lie down.
670
01:14:44,668 --> 01:14:47,254
They didn't exist when I shot this.
671
01:14:47,379 --> 01:14:51,883
I had a premonition
that we'd live in coffins.
672
01:14:56,930 --> 01:15:01,727
I wanted to show subtly the transition
between the different parts,
673
01:15:01,852 --> 01:15:05,272
without being too obvious about it.
674
01:15:05,397 --> 01:15:08,191
The sky links them all together.
675
01:15:20,829 --> 01:15:25,500
We didn't ask for permission to shoot
this helicopter scene from the street.
676
01:15:25,625 --> 01:15:28,920
We just did it and ran away.
677
01:15:29,046 --> 01:15:35,010
We got an actor to wear a police
uniform and to stop the traffic.
678
01:15:35,135 --> 01:15:37,596
We shot the scene and ran off.
679
01:15:42,934 --> 01:15:46,354
The introduction of the nine characters
ends here.
680
01:15:46,480 --> 01:15:48,899
Now the adventure begins.
681
01:16:15,550 --> 01:16:19,888
All of these mountains do exist.
682
01:16:20,847 --> 01:16:27,354
In the Far East and in... Central Europe...
683
01:16:27,479 --> 01:16:34,444
the mountain, just like the alchemist,
is a very common symbol.
684
01:16:36,822 --> 01:16:41,493
The Buddhists go to the mountain
to meditate.
685
01:16:41,618 --> 01:16:44,412
It's where Heaven and Earth
come together.
686
01:17:01,471 --> 01:17:05,517
There is an alchemical legend
about these immortal men,
687
01:17:05,642 --> 01:17:12,232
a group of men who live on Earth
and are about 30,000 years old.
688
01:17:12,357 --> 01:17:14,943
They're called the Knights of Heliopolis.
689
01:17:16,444 --> 01:17:18,572
It's an alchemical legend.
690
01:17:20,031 --> 01:17:22,534
Here is the rose cross.
691
01:17:22,659 --> 01:17:25,579
And here are the wise men
around the enneagram.
692
01:17:44,306 --> 01:17:49,769
Ever since Freud, it has been said
that the son steals fire from his father.
693
01:17:49,895 --> 01:17:54,524
Knowledge has to be stolen.
Nobody gives it to you.
694
01:17:54,649 --> 01:17:59,029
The gods need you to make an effort.
695
01:17:59,154 --> 01:18:02,908
Nothing is free.
You have to make an effort.
696
01:18:23,803 --> 01:18:27,474
I love this eye-shaped set.
697
01:19:05,887 --> 01:19:10,016
I didn't tell them what to do.
When they threw the money into the fire,
698
01:19:10,141 --> 01:19:14,437
each character tossed it
in a different way.
699
01:19:14,562 --> 01:19:17,399
Isla tosses them one by one.
700
01:19:19,234 --> 01:19:23,071
This one tosses them like a card player.
701
01:19:23,196 --> 01:19:26,074
The millionaire counts it
before tossing it.
702
01:19:26,199 --> 01:19:28,493
The thief keeps it.
703
01:19:30,078 --> 01:19:32,747
This woman sows.
704
01:19:32,872 --> 01:19:40,213
The Nazi thinks it over
and then brutally tosses it.
705
01:19:43,717 --> 01:19:47,804
This man is greedy
and takes his time before doing it.
706
01:19:53,977 --> 01:19:56,646
The rich man is the one
who takes the longest.
707
01:20:07,657 --> 01:20:10,952
A banknote fell from the sky,
that was a miracle.
708
01:20:48,656 --> 01:20:55,080
The burning of the sculptures
was the end of my elegant phase,
709
01:20:55,205 --> 01:20:59,000
my art-film photography.
710
01:21:00,502 --> 01:21:04,589
Once these bodies were burnt,
711
01:21:04,714 --> 01:21:08,385
I realized
it was time to go back to reality.
712
01:21:08,510 --> 01:21:12,305
I simplified the shooting style,
713
01:21:12,430 --> 01:21:17,602
and made it more like cinéma vérite.
714
01:21:18,561 --> 01:21:21,481
This is the last aesthetic scene.
715
01:21:21,606 --> 01:21:24,067
From here on, the style changes.
716
01:21:26,569 --> 01:21:29,823
Not only do I burn the statues,
but I burn my style as well.
717
01:21:29,948 --> 01:21:32,617
I burn my vision of cinema.
I don't want it anymore.
718
01:21:33,326 --> 01:21:35,120
It's too beautiful.
719
01:21:35,245 --> 01:21:38,748
It's too thought-out and aesthetic.
720
01:21:39,833 --> 01:21:44,045
We move on to something more real.
721
01:21:52,095 --> 01:21:55,682
When we started shooting,
Corkidi, the DP, was delighted,
722
01:21:55,807 --> 01:21:59,185
but then he became my enemy
because he didn't understand anything.
723
01:22:00,437 --> 01:22:06,526
He didn't get it. He liked the beginning
because of the aesthetical qualities,
724
01:22:06,651 --> 01:22:11,739
but when I went into reality
and filmed a scene in Monte Albán
725
01:22:11,865 --> 01:22:14,701
and gave hallucinogenic mushrooms
to all the actors,
726
01:22:15,535 --> 01:22:19,622
he shot it all wrong. I couldn't use the footage
because he didn't get it.
727
01:22:31,593 --> 01:22:36,347
This is a Mexican witch doctor,
a masseur.
728
01:22:36,473 --> 01:22:39,434
He is an authentic witch doctor,
not an actor.
729
01:22:40,852 --> 01:22:44,898
He is a real shaman
in his real environment.
730
01:22:46,983 --> 01:22:50,820
You can tell by looking at his hands.
731
01:22:53,781 --> 01:22:58,661
Now the movie is seeking the truth,
but not in a fairytale,
732
01:23:00,038 --> 01:23:02,123
in real life.
733
01:23:38,326 --> 01:23:42,664
This is in the Tepoztlan area, which is
said to have been the Mexican Eden,
734
01:23:42,789 --> 01:23:45,583
where the gods lived.
It was a sacred land.
735
01:23:51,589 --> 01:23:56,594
I said, "Let's film at the top of
that mountain and we'll find a master."
736
01:23:56,719 --> 01:23:58,721
And this woman was waiting.
737
01:23:58,846 --> 01:24:02,141
No one had told her anything,
and she said, "I've come to help you."
738
01:24:02,267 --> 01:24:05,812
She is another shaman
who lives in the mountains.
739
01:24:05,937 --> 01:24:12,360
Look at how precisely
she dishes out the soup.
740
01:24:12,485 --> 01:24:15,530
The process is flawless, perfect,
741
01:24:15,655 --> 01:24:18,283
just like the master herself.
742
01:24:19,867 --> 01:24:23,079
I didn't give directions to the shamans.
743
01:24:23,204 --> 01:24:26,749
They did as they pleased
and I used that material.
744
01:24:36,759 --> 01:24:41,681
When we got to Monte Albán,
another shaman was waiting for us.
745
01:24:41,806 --> 01:24:46,769
I knew I'd always find a master in these places
who would teach us something,
746
01:24:46,894 --> 01:24:49,105
and there he was.
747
01:24:49,230 --> 01:24:53,151
They are not actors, they live there.
748
01:25:01,367 --> 01:25:06,122
They are wandering among plants,
gathering pollen with their bodies.
749
01:25:06,247 --> 01:25:08,458
They're in contact with nature.
750
01:25:23,681 --> 01:25:29,228
This is the world of the sacred plants,
which produce hallucinations.
751
01:25:30,688 --> 01:25:36,402
The knife cut looks fake,
752
01:25:36,527 --> 01:25:39,697
but it's something that I did on purpose.
753
01:25:41,407 --> 01:25:44,327
The actors spent two months
locked in a house,
754
01:25:44,452 --> 01:25:47,747
sleeping only four hours a day
and doing all kinds of exercises.
755
01:25:47,872 --> 01:25:50,625
I gave them hallucinogenic mushrooms.
756
01:25:50,750 --> 01:25:53,044
They completely tuned into it.
757
01:26:13,189 --> 01:26:18,236
Castañeda had tackled the issue
of human transference to animals,
758
01:26:18,361 --> 01:26:20,405
which is a magical practice.
759
01:26:22,699 --> 01:26:28,538
I was in an Argentinean restaurant
in Mexico called El Rincón Argentino,
760
01:26:28,663 --> 01:26:31,207
where the only thing you can get
is huge steaks and wine.
761
01:26:31,958 --> 01:26:35,128
I was sitting there
and Castañeda showed up.
762
01:26:35,253 --> 01:26:38,923
I said, "Can we have a chat?"
He said he had seen El Topo twice
763
01:26:39,048 --> 01:26:45,430
and was interested in talking to me.
I said, "Where should we meet?
764
01:26:45,555 --> 01:26:49,434
"Should I go to your hotel?" He said,
"No, I'll come to yours." And he did.
765
01:26:49,559 --> 01:26:53,396
It was the Camino Real Hotel.
We had a chat.
766
01:26:55,857 --> 01:27:02,029
I told him, "I'm not sure whether you're
a genius, a charlatan, or a madman.
767
01:27:02,155 --> 01:27:04,824
"What can we do together?
Why are we together?"
768
01:27:04,949 --> 01:27:09,787
He said, "I've got an offer to make
The Teachings of Don Juan into a film,
769
01:27:09,912 --> 01:27:14,584
"but I don't want to do it
with some Hollywood star."
770
01:27:14,709 --> 01:27:21,382
I said, "Be careful they don't do
a big action, special effects movie.
771
01:27:21,507 --> 01:27:26,179
"One should go to the real location
and shoot it with the real Don Juan."
772
01:27:26,304 --> 01:27:29,015
"Well..." he said,
but he couldn't carry on,
773
01:27:29,140 --> 01:27:33,978
because his got a terrible stomach pain
and his diarrhea started.
774
01:27:34,729 --> 01:27:37,315
He said, "I drank water in the mountains
and never got sick,
775
01:27:37,440 --> 01:27:40,860
"and now I drink water here in Mexico
and I'm shitting myself."
776
01:27:40,985 --> 01:27:45,031
I said, "I'll take you to your hotel."
He said, "Yes, please."
777
01:27:45,156 --> 01:27:50,453
I took him to his hotel in a taxi
and that was the last time I saw him.
778
01:28:02,256 --> 01:28:06,260
This legend of The Missing Person
is a classic Chinese story.
779
01:28:10,181 --> 01:28:13,518
They have evolved
and forgotten about themselves
780
01:28:13,643 --> 01:28:16,395
to the point that they no longer
recognize their own image.
781
01:28:18,481 --> 01:28:22,610
They think they're seeing someone else.
They've forgotten about themselves.
782
01:28:24,445 --> 01:28:28,241
They think somebody has drowned.
It's a Chinese story.
783
01:29:06,946 --> 01:29:11,367
I taught the monkey to do a mudra,
a Zen position.
784
01:29:11,492 --> 01:29:15,955
It took me hours to get the monkey
to place its hands like a Zen monk.
785
01:29:19,458 --> 01:29:24,672
This is miles away from the previous place.
It's a Mayan pyramid.
786
01:29:24,797 --> 01:29:28,134
I visited the Mexican pyramids.
787
01:29:34,181 --> 01:29:36,225
The actors were so engrossed
in the experience,
788
01:29:36,350 --> 01:29:40,313
that they were actually crying
over their own death.
789
01:29:40,438 --> 01:29:43,774
They are not acting,
they are real people crying.
790
01:29:48,070 --> 01:29:50,823
I wanted the last part
to be a documentary.
791
01:29:50,948 --> 01:29:55,369
I wanted to go from a fictional film
to a documentary.
792
01:29:56,787 --> 01:30:01,751
I filmed it chronologically,
so that the actors could feel the change.
793
01:30:33,407 --> 01:30:35,576
During the two months of shooting,
794
01:30:35,701 --> 01:30:38,454
every time we started filming,
it stopped raining.
795
01:30:38,579 --> 01:30:42,041
We finished shooting,
and it started raining again.
796
01:30:44,251 --> 01:30:49,924
Each day was a miracle.
You can see the sky is cloudy.
797
01:31:24,000 --> 01:31:28,379
We had to pay the guard
so that he allowed us to get up there.
798
01:31:42,852 --> 01:31:44,895
I filmed 35 hours' worth of material,
799
01:31:46,188 --> 01:31:49,567
but much of it got damaged,
so I couldn't use it.
800
01:31:49,692 --> 01:31:53,738
I had to make do with this,
which is all that was left.
801
01:32:03,289 --> 01:32:08,836
The shooting lasted six months
because they stopped us for six weeks.
802
01:32:08,961 --> 01:32:12,423
We traveled all over Mexico.
803
01:32:13,966 --> 01:32:19,764
During post-production, Allen Klein
rented out an apartment in New York
804
01:32:19,889 --> 01:32:26,395
for me and for the editor,
an old man who had edited El Topo.
805
01:32:26,520 --> 01:32:32,318
His name was Federico Landeros.
He'd worked on about 2,000 Mexican films.
806
01:32:32,443 --> 01:32:39,658
He spent about three months
in New York working on this film.
807
01:32:39,784 --> 01:32:43,704
We also recorded
the sound in a New York studio
808
01:32:43,829 --> 01:32:48,000
and I brought in a Mexican
sound effects specialist, Gavira.
809
01:32:48,125 --> 01:32:53,506
He'd make noises by punching his
stomach, playing with little gadgets...
810
01:32:53,631 --> 01:32:56,050
Everything was improvised.
It was fantastic.
811
01:32:56,175 --> 01:33:01,222
Friedkin saw him and asked,
"Please, give him to me."
812
01:33:01,347 --> 01:33:06,685
So my Gavira made the sound effects
for The Exorcist and won an Oscar.
813
01:33:19,198 --> 01:33:22,701
This was a shrimp boat
in the middle of...
814
01:33:22,827 --> 01:33:26,997
What's its name?
815
01:33:27,123 --> 01:33:29,166
The Caribbean Sea.
816
01:33:30,251 --> 01:33:36,465
There was a scene I couldn't shoot.
I wanted us all to jump into the sea,
817
01:33:36,590 --> 01:33:41,178
to get in the infinite waters.
818
01:33:41,929 --> 01:33:44,807
We jumped into the sea
and started to drown.
819
01:33:44,932 --> 01:33:48,727
The crew was so busy
throwing ropes and so on to save us,
820
01:33:48,853 --> 01:33:50,604
that they didn't shoot us.
821
01:33:50,729 --> 01:33:53,190
That scene in the water got lost.
822
01:33:53,315 --> 01:33:59,738
We all jumped in without thinking that this
was open water and there were sharks.
823
01:34:00,531 --> 01:34:03,576
We were living out a mystical adventure.
824
01:34:19,967 --> 01:34:25,639
When I made The Holy Mountain,
I wanted to break the rules of film-making.
825
01:34:25,764 --> 01:34:29,852
First of all, I broke the "story" rule.
826
01:34:29,977 --> 01:34:36,442
Cinema as we know it, which comes
mainly from America, consists of a first act,
827
01:34:36,567 --> 01:34:41,530
where the hero is reluctant to be part
of some action he is confronted with.
828
01:34:41,655 --> 01:34:44,783
Then something happens
and the hero gets involved.
829
01:34:44,909 --> 01:34:47,953
There's a second act,
where he's got enemies and allies,
830
01:34:48,078 --> 01:34:52,708
and a third act,
where everything gets solved.
831
01:34:52,833 --> 01:34:57,046
In The Holy Mountain I broke that structure.
I didn't want to tell a story.
832
01:34:57,171 --> 01:35:02,968
I wanted to present characters
and express myself differently.
833
01:35:15,856 --> 01:35:18,776
The ego suffers deviations.
834
01:35:18,901 --> 01:35:24,490
We have paranoid deviations,
schizophrenic deviations,
835
01:35:25,282 --> 01:35:28,327
exhibitionism and narcissism.
836
01:35:28,452 --> 01:35:30,829
The ego suffers all kinds of deviations.
837
01:35:30,955 --> 01:35:36,252
The thief gets rid of his deviations
when he throws the other one into the sea.
838
01:35:36,377 --> 01:35:38,837
He gets rid of his monstrosity.
839
01:35:38,963 --> 01:35:42,549
A deviated ego is defined
in terms of what one has.
840
01:35:42,675 --> 01:35:44,927
"I am what I have got."
841
01:35:45,886 --> 01:35:51,058
When your ego is what you want it to be,
and not what others want it to be,
842
01:35:51,183 --> 01:35:56,355
you have succeeded in molding it
and now it is at the service of your essence.
843
01:35:58,774 --> 01:36:04,363
They are on dry land
and now another part of the film begins.
844
01:36:04,488 --> 01:36:07,491
Everybody cut their hair for real.
845
01:36:36,478 --> 01:36:43,027
This is Iztaccíhuatl,
a famous mountain near Mexico City.
846
01:36:49,992 --> 01:36:55,914
This is the Rodan statue, "The Thinker",
symbolizing the flaws of intellectualism.
847
01:37:02,338 --> 01:37:06,633
Here are those who almost achieved
complete enlightenment,
848
01:37:06,759 --> 01:37:13,557
but they stopped short
at the social level, at fame, at success.
849
01:37:15,351 --> 01:37:19,271
It's a success-oriented world,
as if success were the only goal.
850
01:37:19,396 --> 01:37:23,067
I read a book that marked me profoundly
called the Bhagavad-Gita.
851
01:37:23,650 --> 01:37:27,196
It is a Hindu sacred book
whose first precept is,
852
01:37:27,321 --> 01:37:31,450
"Think of the work,
not about the result."
853
01:37:31,575 --> 01:37:35,204
Second, "Let your work express
your inner god."
854
01:37:36,163 --> 01:37:40,167
And third, "Approach your work
as you would a sacred sacrifice."
855
01:37:40,292 --> 01:37:45,297
My artistic ambition grew -
I wanted to make Dune,
856
01:37:45,422 --> 01:37:49,009
and I got involved in a project so big
that it was not feasible.
857
01:37:49,134 --> 01:37:53,514
I thought, "It's OK." I didn't make the film,
but failure doesn't mean anything,
858
01:37:53,639 --> 01:37:55,849
it just means changing paths.
859
01:37:56,767 --> 01:38:02,272
This character is inspired
by the poet Allen Ginsberg.
860
01:38:05,651 --> 01:38:10,531
I was trying to say you couldn't reach
enlightenment with this kind of poetry.
861
01:38:10,656 --> 01:38:13,200
It is merely a step on the road to it.
862
01:38:28,507 --> 01:38:32,678
This is an attack on Timothy Leary
and his drugs.
863
01:38:35,472 --> 01:38:37,599
I poke fun at him.
864
01:38:37,724 --> 01:38:42,980
My point is that you will not achieve
enlightenment through LSD either.
865
01:38:44,273 --> 01:38:47,151
It is important to know that if you drink,
866
01:38:47,276 --> 01:38:51,738
have drugs and smoke,
867
01:38:51,864 --> 01:38:56,702
your life is more intense,
but it is also shorter.
868
01:38:56,827 --> 01:39:00,873
An artist's struggle is very long.
869
01:39:00,998 --> 01:39:07,838
You must be very patient
and persevering. You can't give up.
870
01:39:07,963 --> 01:39:12,926
It takes years to get what you want,
so you need to live a very long life.
871
01:39:13,051 --> 01:39:17,347
At my 75 years of age,
I am just a beginner.
872
01:39:25,564 --> 01:39:31,737
This man represents those who seek
fulfillment by making great efforts.
873
01:40:17,824 --> 01:40:21,411
They have left the mundane behind,
they leave history,
874
01:40:21,537 --> 01:40:25,499
in order to seek
anonymous enlightenment.
875
01:40:28,752 --> 01:40:32,422
And this is when we actually started
climbing up this mountain.
876
01:40:32,548 --> 01:40:38,720
Two months earlier, seventeen people
had died here in a storm.
877
01:40:40,097 --> 01:40:44,810
For a mountain-climbing scene,
film-makers tend to use tricks.
878
01:40:44,935 --> 01:40:48,105
I decided we had to climb it.
879
01:40:48,230 --> 01:40:52,901
But we got exhausted with every step
because of the altitude.
880
01:40:53,026 --> 01:40:58,490
We couldn't film for long
because we got tired.
881
01:41:17,426 --> 01:41:22,431
The disciples are getting in touch
with nature, externally and internally.
882
01:41:22,556 --> 01:41:29,187
When they climb up the mountain,
they confront the telluric forces,
883
01:41:29,313 --> 01:41:33,400
and their internal forces,
their inner demons,
884
01:41:33,525 --> 01:41:34,818
and they get over them.
885
01:41:34,943 --> 01:41:39,156
Just like they get over the cold,
they get over their inner demons.
886
01:41:41,617 --> 01:41:44,494
Another mountain, and another one,
and another one...
887
01:41:44,620 --> 01:41:51,918
You must never stop, because
the world is a permanent impermanence.
888
01:41:52,044 --> 01:41:57,633
You must go toward the impermanence
with perseverance,
889
01:41:57,758 --> 01:42:00,886
with dedication and faith.
890
01:42:35,253 --> 01:42:42,678
It took us one, two, three... four days
to climb the mountain.
891
01:42:42,803 --> 01:42:48,642
When we reached the top, we could
finally breathe and no longer felt tired.
892
01:42:49,226 --> 01:42:54,314
I am not sure why,
but the exhaustion disappeared.
893
01:42:54,439 --> 01:42:56,566
It's like a finished effort.
894
01:43:22,968 --> 01:43:28,181
We had a tiger and a monkey.
It started getting cold.
895
01:43:28,306 --> 01:43:32,060
A storm was coming,
but I kept filming.
896
01:43:39,151 --> 01:43:42,195
I wanted the horses
to be buried deeper in the ground,
897
01:43:42,320 --> 01:43:46,575
but the soil was too hard.
898
01:44:07,262 --> 01:44:11,391
In this sequence, I interpret
every character's dreams.
899
01:44:11,516 --> 01:44:15,228
I asked them,
"What is your greatest fear?"
900
01:44:15,353 --> 01:44:19,232
And they told me about their obsessions.
901
01:44:24,821 --> 01:44:28,283
These are real fighting dogs.
902
01:44:46,843 --> 01:44:52,682
They all confront their own hell.
Not only the story's hell, but their own.
903
01:44:52,808 --> 01:44:58,063
They all went crazy in this sequence,
because they saw their own hell.
904
01:45:13,245 --> 01:45:17,833
This man was very scared of castration.
905
01:45:17,958 --> 01:45:22,629
He's being castrated by his mother.
The tree is covered in castrated chickens.
906
01:45:54,661 --> 01:45:59,291
This man was very scared of spiders,
and not because he was a homosexual.
907
01:45:59,416 --> 01:46:04,796
Spiders are sexual symbols.
These are tarantulas.
908
01:46:04,921 --> 01:46:07,132
I am terrified of tarantulas.
909
01:46:07,257 --> 01:46:11,428
But this was the last shot of the day,
so I grabbed them with my hands.
910
01:46:37,537 --> 01:46:43,877
This one feared the androgynous,
because he played Venus.
911
01:46:44,002 --> 01:46:50,008
He was the narcissistic one
in the film and feared the androgynous.
912
01:46:52,802 --> 01:46:56,848
This person is half man, half woman.
Look at the face.
913
01:47:04,564 --> 01:47:08,443
The breasts become wild animals.
914
01:47:08,568 --> 01:47:11,988
It's very simple, but surreal.
915
01:47:22,666 --> 01:47:27,504
We're near the end.
We're about to destroy the last illusion.
916
01:47:27,629 --> 01:47:34,302
The whole film is a constant destruction
of illusions, in order to get to reality.
917
01:47:55,865 --> 01:48:00,704
The Holy Mountain
is related to El Topo.
918
01:48:00,829 --> 01:48:05,125
It isn't a continuation of the story
in a linear sense,
919
01:48:05,250 --> 01:48:07,961
but it reflects
my evolutionary process.
920
01:48:08,086 --> 01:48:10,922
El Topo is a self-portrait of my soul.
921
01:48:11,047 --> 01:48:17,220
And in The Holy Mountain you can see
that there is a greater awareness.
922
01:48:21,349 --> 01:48:24,060
Something incredible
happened in this scene.
923
01:48:24,185 --> 01:48:28,064
The actor, who had lost it a bit,
gave me the blow for real,
924
01:48:28,189 --> 01:48:32,736
and I still have a scar on my neck.
I can show it to you. He nearly killed me.
925
01:48:34,863 --> 01:48:37,657
Luckily, it wasn't a real sword.
926
01:48:37,782 --> 01:48:41,119
Otherwise... I'd have been decapitated.
927
01:48:47,876 --> 01:48:49,586
This is like the story of Isaac,
928
01:48:49,711 --> 01:48:54,424
when Abraham is going to sacrifice his son
at God's request
929
01:48:54,549 --> 01:48:57,844
and God replaces his son with a lamb.
930
01:49:06,936 --> 01:49:13,651
The thief can't follow the others.
He is sent back to the real world.
931
01:49:13,777 --> 01:49:17,864
"Get married, have children,
be happy in the real world.
932
01:49:17,989 --> 01:49:22,077
"Don't look for other things.
Die peacefully,"
933
01:49:22,202 --> 01:49:25,914
because there is a part of us
that will never reach the Holy Mountain.
934
01:49:26,039 --> 01:49:30,794
We seek perfection,
but even the Buddha has a body.
935
01:49:30,919 --> 01:49:34,005
And Christ, despite being God,
has a human body.
936
01:49:34,130 --> 01:49:36,049
The human body is mortal.
937
01:49:36,174 --> 01:49:42,597
We must accept that part of ourselves
and set it free in the real world.
938
01:49:42,722 --> 01:49:47,560
That part must go back to the world.
939
01:49:47,685 --> 01:49:54,067
The spiritual, enlightened being,
must succeed in the world.
940
01:49:54,192 --> 01:49:57,695
He is not a victim
and must learn to succeed in the world.
941
01:50:10,959 --> 01:50:14,379
The master played a trick on them
to keep them going.
942
01:50:14,504 --> 01:50:20,009
It's like taunting a donkey
with a carrot to make it walk.
943
01:50:20,135 --> 01:50:24,139
He tells them, "You will not find immortality,
but you'll find reality."
944
01:50:39,154 --> 01:50:41,114
I didn't intend to end the film this way.
945
01:50:41,990 --> 01:50:45,869
My initial idea was that they would float
in the air and become immortal.
946
01:50:45,994 --> 01:50:51,249
But I fell down the mountain during a storm
and thought we were going to die,
947
01:50:51,374 --> 01:50:56,546
so I hammered my axe into a rock and
said, "I can't die. I must finish this film."
948
01:50:56,671 --> 01:51:01,176
And I decided to end it in the real world.
949
01:51:01,301 --> 01:51:04,345
We're mortal and cinema is an illusion.
950
01:51:05,889 --> 01:51:08,391
I am not giving the viewers
what they are hoping for.
951
01:51:08,516 --> 01:51:13,605
They expect the characters
to levitate and perform a miracle.
952
01:51:13,730 --> 01:51:16,441
I'm not doing that,
953
01:51:16,566 --> 01:51:19,319
I'm not telling fairytales.
954
01:51:38,421 --> 01:51:44,260
This ending caused a great controversy.
It enraged many people.
955
01:51:44,385 --> 01:51:47,639
Some people liked it. Of course!
956
01:51:47,764 --> 01:51:53,686
You expect them to become immortal,
and, all of a sudden, you see it's just a film.
957
01:51:53,811 --> 01:51:59,776
And what's the enneagram for?
I throw it out. Enough of this!
958
01:51:59,901 --> 01:52:01,903
Enough of symbols!
959
01:52:07,242 --> 01:52:09,869
It was a surprise for the actors.
960
01:52:09,994 --> 01:52:13,456
They refused to talk to me
for a long time. They hated me.
961
01:52:17,627 --> 01:52:22,048
Now it fades and we see
what cinema really is: a pure light.
962
01:52:26,177 --> 01:52:28,763
Allen Klein was very enthusiastic
about my work.
963
01:52:28,888 --> 01:52:33,434
He gave me a million dollars
to do whatever I wanted.
964
01:52:33,559 --> 01:52:37,855
And then he brought me to America
so I could work on the soundtrack,
965
01:52:37,981 --> 01:52:40,233
because I had received
death threats in Mexico.
966
01:52:40,358 --> 01:52:43,903
He wanted me to make
The Story of O.
967
01:52:44,028 --> 01:52:46,197
It was an erotic film.
968
01:52:46,322 --> 01:52:48,908
He was very excited because...
969
01:52:49,033 --> 01:52:52,495
We were going to make
a huge commercial success.
970
01:52:52,620 --> 01:52:56,165
But I decided
I didn't want to make an erotic film.
971
01:52:56,291 --> 01:53:00,962
I remember we were in England.
Allen Klein talked to some producers
972
01:53:01,087 --> 01:53:06,092
and he had given me $200,000
to make the film.
973
01:53:06,217 --> 01:53:10,096
I suddenly ran off.
I just vanished.
974
01:53:10,221 --> 01:53:14,434
I left everything in their hands
and went to make Dune.
975
01:53:14,559 --> 01:53:17,812
He told me, "You'll never make that film.
It's too big a project.
976
01:53:17,937 --> 01:53:21,733
"And nobody will ever see your films."
He was very angry.
977
01:53:21,858 --> 01:53:25,653
From that moment on,
my films were not shown.
978
01:53:25,778 --> 01:53:30,992
He had good reasons to be angry
and I had my reasons to do as I pleased.
979
01:53:31,117 --> 01:53:33,578
30 years went by,