At 96 years old, Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is a true renaissance man, having lived what he estimates to be 100 different lives. From director and actor to poet, puppeteer, psychotherapist and tarot card reader, Jodorowsky’s multifaceted career has earned him the title of “king of the midnight movie” for his surreal, psychedelic works like “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain.”
Jodorowsky recently completed a two-volume Taschen monograph, “Art Sin Fin,” which serves as an archive of his counter-cultural creations, from riotous stage shows to outlandish comic book panels. The accompanying prose is quintessentially Jodorowsky, mixing metaphors and similes with a devil-may-care panache.
“People say that I’m the world’s last crazy artist. But I am not mad. I am only trying to save my soul,” the 96-year-old says. His work, often provocative and shocking, has always carried an undercurrent of sheer silliness, geared towards themes of sex and death.
Born in the small port town of Tocopilla, Chile, Jodorowsky’s early life was defined by a constant yearning to escape. He went on to study mime with Marcel Marceau in Paris and directed Maurice Chevalier in music halls before making his feature film debut with the surrealistic “Fando y Lis” in 1967, which sparked a riot at its Acapulco premiere.
Jodorowsky’s multihyphenate career is bound to the principles of “psychomagic,” a therapeutic practice that combines Freudian theory with shamanism and the tarot. For years, he hosted free psychomagic sessions around Paris, treating the afflicted, and still counsels patients via Zoom today.
“Soon I will die. And I will go with a great orgasm,” the artist says. “But listen, I will tell you, I have always been this way. Life for me is an adventure. We live in an eternal present. Life is action, action, orgasm, and we experience it all the time.”
As Jodorowsky prepares for the end, his boundless creativity continues to inspire and captivate. With the release of “Art Sin Fin,” a new generation will bear witness to the many lives of this truly singular artist.
