Many of you know that Alejandro Jodorowsky was an amazing film director. You may have seen Holy Mountain or El Topo recently, as they both have been finally released on high quality DVD. What you may not know, and what may bring you some insight into his works, is that Alejandro is also one of the foremost knowledgeable individuals on tarot and making tarot readings. While this staff of humemes is unsure of the veracity of any of Jodorowsky’s claims of synchronicity and psychic readings having profound effects on his movie-making abilities, the inclusion of the mythos of such happenings certainly can have an effect on the way one watches his movies.
As you can see, the aesthetic link is obvious, but to Jodorowsky, this connection means so much more. He has integrated this ancient process, among others, into his art and the outcome is something that is so surreal and so other-worldly that the uninitiated are often left confused. The “deep psychological search” that Jodorowsky speaks of in this video is, we believe, the precise value of such spiritual practices as tarot. It forces one to look into a mirror of their personality and figure out what lays before them, behind them, and with them right there.
In a cameo in the 1965 film “Pierrot le fou” directed by Jean-Luc Godard, American filmmaker and writer Samuel Fuller, acting as himself, gives a candid appraisal of what makes a movie, a movie: