The Dance of Reality | |
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Directed by | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
Screenplay by | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
Based on | La Danza de la Realidad by Alejandro Jodorowsky |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Jean-Marie Dreujou |
Edited by | Maryline Monthieux |
Music by | Adán Jodorowsky |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Pathé |
Release dates |
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Running time | 133 minutes [1] |
Countries |
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Language | Spanish |
Budget | $3 million |
Box office | $558,636 [2] |
The Dance of Reality (Spanish : La danza de la realidad) is a 2013 Chilean-French semi- autobiographical musical fantasy drama film written, produced, and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, starring Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, and Jeremias Herskovits. [3] It is Alejandro Jodorowsky's first film in 23 years. [4] The film screened at Directors' Fortnight during the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. [3] The film is based on an earlier work by Jodorowsky first published in Spanish under the title La danza de la realidad: Psicomagia y psicochamanismo (2001). [5]
Young Alejandro (Jeremías Herskovits) lives with his Jewish-Ukrainian parents Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky) and Sara (Pamela Flores) in Tocopilla, Chile. Jaime is a communist who worships Stalin and raises his son with great severity. Sara sings rather than talks throughout the film, and believes Alejandro to be the reincarnation of her father because of his long blonde hair. Irritated by his wife's delusional views of their son and angered by Alejandro's behavior, which he views as cowardly and effeminate, Jaime cuts off Alejandro's hair (which is depicted as a wig in what appears to be magic realism), demands he repudiate the existence of God, and puts him through tests of self-control and bravery which include withstanding being tickled, slapped, and finally undergoing a dental operation without anesthetic. Satisfied with his son's bravery, Jaime acknowledges that he respects Alejandro and arranges for him to be made the mascot of the Tocopilla fire brigade.
Alejandro accompanies the fire brigade to the scene of a fire where one of the firemen becomes trapped in the house and burns to death. During the subsequent funeral procession, Alejandro imagines himself lying in the casket with the fireman’s corpse, and collapses from fright. Jaime takes him home, but burns the mascot's uniform in front of Alejandro when he wakes up, again calling his son a coward and claiming he is ashamed of him. In an attempt to prove his own bravery to the other firefighters, who he fears look down on him because of his son's cowardice and his Jewish heritage, Jaime attempts to distribute water to plague victims quarantined outside the town, but they kill and eat his donkeys and he himself is infected. He walks back to his shop, visibly infected, and a stand-off with the army ensues. As Jaime goes into convulsions and the army threaten to burn the shop to contain the infection, Sara prays for Jaime's recovery and urinates on him, curing him.
Energized by his miraculous recovery, Jaime plans to assassinate the right-wing president Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (Bastian Bodenhofer). He agrees to work with another communist to assassinate Ibáñez at a dog show, but the gun fails and Jaime passes himself off as a hero when he jumps between Ibáñez and the gunman. To get close to Ibáñez, Jaime asks for a job as groom to the president's beloved horse Bucephalus as payment for his heroism. Jaime then poisons Bucephalus as part of his plot to kill Ibáñez, but when Jaime has Ibáñez at gunpoint, his hands become paralysed.
The story returns to Alejandro and Sara, and Sara begins teaching Alejandro how not to be afraid of darkness and how to make sure people don't notice him. She tells him that she knows in her heart that Jaime is alive and loves both of them. They tie a stone to a balloon and release it in the belief it will find its way to him. The rock is then shown falling on the roof of a shack which Jaime is living in. Jaime awakes to discover that he has lost his memory, that he is living with a diminutive peasant woman, and that his arms have been painted the colors of the Chilean flag.
Jaime begins a long journey home, but is captured by Nazis and tortured. Rebels free Jaime and return him to his family in Tocopilla. Jaime's hands are healed when Sara tells him "You found in Ibáñez all you admired in Stalin. You are the same as they are! You have lived in the guise of a tyrant." Alejandro, Jaime, and Sara board a ship and leave Tocopilla.
After scouting for locations in Chile at his childhood village in early 2011, Alejandro Jodorowsky received permission from the local Chilean government to shoot in the coming spring. On August 22, 2011, he held a forum with the locals to discuss his vision with the film. [7]
Shooting began in June 2012 and concluded the following August.[ citation needed ] Most of the film was shot in Tocopilla. [8] Jodorowsky's wife, Pascale Montandon, was the costume designer for the film, and his three sons appeared in the film. [9]
In January 2013, Jodorowsky's son Brontis, a co-star of the film, stated that the film was in post-production and would be finished by March, saying the film is "very different from the other films that he made". [10]
The film blends Jodorowsky's personal history with metaphor, mythology and poetry, reflecting the director's view that reality is not objective but rather a "dance" created by our imaginations: "The story of my life is a constant effort to expand the imagination and its limitations, to capture its therapeutic and transformative potential... An active imagination is the key to such a wide vision: it looks at life from angles that are not our own, imagining other levels of consciousness superior to our own". [11]
Jodorowsky has expressed his ambivalence towards the film industry and its focus on making money and claimed he did not want to "make money but rather lose money" in the making of this film, asking for it to be funded purely through donations. [12]
The film screened in The Directors' Fortnight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on May 18, 2013. [3] It received a standing ovation. [13]
The trailer was released on May 18, 2013. Reviewers remarked on its similarity to Jodorowsky's previous work and the influence of Federico Fellini's films. [14]
Jodorowsky was planning for the film’s "international premiere" on June 7, 2013, to take place in the town of Tocopilla, where much of the film was set and shot. [15]
The film had its US debut at the South by Southwest festival in March 2014. [16]
The Dance of Reality received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes currently indicates that 94% of 63 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. The site's critical consensus says, "This long-overdue return from Alejandro Jodorowsky finds him just as overflowing with imagination -- and heart -- as fans have come to expect." [17] The film currently also holds a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 21 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [18]
Michael Atkinson of LA Weekly felt that "The Dance of Reality may be Alejandro Jodorowsky's best film". [19] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film an "arresting spectacle," that was "swathed in surreal mythology dream logic and instant day-glo legend, resembling Fellini, Tod Browning, Emir Kusturica, and many more." [20] Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune wrote, "At more than two hours, The Dance of Reality unquestionably has its longueurs, but on balance it is alive with enough images and ideas for several movies—as if Jodorowsky were afraid he might have to wait 20 more years before making another." [21]
Peter Sobczynski from RogerEbert.com awarded the film a full 4 stars out of 4, noting, "What is different this time around is that, for arguably the first time in his career, Jodorowsky has found the confidence to communicate his ideas to audiences in a direct and unapologetically emotional manner without falling back on his usual distancing techniques such as surreal imagery and extreme violence that made a film like El Topo so radical in its day (and which, to be frank, make it a little tiresome to endure nowadays)." [22] The film was described by Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post as "a surreal autobiography that blends fantastical characters, Chilean politics, religious insights and the painful reality of adolescence". [23] Eric Kohn of IndieWire gave it a "B+" rating, stating: "Sometimes it's gloriously entertaining, but at 130 minutes the loose surrealism occasionally grows tiresome". [24]
The DVD and Blu-ray release of the film was scheduled for 26 August 2014. The film was released in DVD for free in Chile on 30 April 2015, as a "gift" from himself and The Clinic newspaper together with that publication. [25]
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films El Topo and The Holy Mountain, Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation".
Santa Sangre is a 1989 avant-garde surrealistic psychological horror film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni. It stars Axel Jodorowsky, Adán Jodorowsky, Teo Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Thelma Tixou, and Guy Stockwell. An international co-production of Mexico and Italy, the film is set in Mexico, and tells the story of Fenix, a boy who grew up in a circus and his struggle with childhood trauma. It is included in Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
The Incal is a French graphic novel series written by Alejandro Jodorowsky and originally illustrated by Jean Giraud. The Incal, with first pages originally released as Une aventure de John Difool in Métal hurlant and published by Les Humanoïdes Associés, introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse", a fictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place. It is an epic space opera blending fantastical intergalactic voyage, science, technology, political intrigues, conspiracies, messianism, mysticism, poetry, debauchery, love stories, and satire. The Incal includes and expands the concepts and artwork from the abandoned film project Dune directed by Jodorowsky and designed by Giraud from the early 1970s.
El Topo is a 1970 Mexican acid Western film written, scored, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. Characterized by its bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Judeo-Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy, the film is about El Topo—a violent, black-clad gunfighter played by Jodorowsky—and his quest for enlightenment.
Tocopilla is a city and commune in the Antofagasta Region, in the north of Chile. It is the capital of the province that bears the same name.
The Holy Mountain is a 1973 Mexican surrealist film directed, written, produced, co-scored, co-edited by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also participated as a set designer and costume designer on the film. Following Jodorowsky's underground hit El Topo (1970), acclaimed by both John Lennon and George Harrison, the film was produced by the Beatles manager Allen Klein of ABKCO Music and Records. John Lennon and Yoko Ono put up production money. It was shown at various international film festivals in 1973, including Cannes, and limited screenings in New York and San Francisco.
Adán Jodorowsky or Adanowsky is a French-Mexican musician, director and actor.
Abel Cain, also known as Sons of El Topo or The Son of El Topo, is a stalled film project written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and the sequel to Jodorowsky's classic acid Western film El Topo (1970). It was to be produced and financed by Parallel Media. The original working-title, The Sons of El Topo, was changed sometime between 1996 and 2002 to Abel Cain. In a 2010 interview, Jodorowsky said that the film had "dragged a long time" and suggested that Abel Cain will not feature any "stars", adding that he would cast his son Axel Jodorowsky in the lead role just as he did in his 1989 cult classic film Santa Sangre.
The Golden Dream is a 2013 Mexican drama film directed by Spanish-born Mexican director Diego Quemada-Díez. It was premiered in the Un Certain Regard official selection at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where Quemada-Diez won the A Certain Talent award for his directing work and the ensemble cast. The film also won the Golden Ástor for Best Film at the 2013 Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
Magic Magic is a 2013 American-Chilean psychological thriller film written and directed by Sebastián Silva and starring Juno Temple, Emily Browning, Michael Cera, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
Guerrilla Zoo is a contemporary arts organisation formed in 2004 by founder and creative director James Elphick. The group produce a variety of creative events from experiential environments, live concerts, festivals, immersive theatre, art exhibitions, arts awards, parties and masquerade balls.
Jodorowsky's Dune is a 2013 American-French documentary film directed by Frank Pavich. The film explores cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unsuccessful attempt to adapt and film Frank Herbert's 1965 science fiction novel Dune in the mid-1970s.
Alma Jodorowsky is a French actress, fashion model and singer.
Brontis Jodorowsky is a Mexican-French actor and theatre director. He is the son of Chilean-French writer, director and actor Alejandro Jodorowsky and French actress Bernadette Landru.
The following lists events that happened during 1929 in Chile.
Hugo Tassara Olivares was a Chilean football manager.
Neruda is a 2016 internationally co-produced biographical drama film directed by Pablo Larraín. Mixing history and fiction, the film shows the dramatic events of the suppression of Communists in Chile in 1948 and how the poet, diplomat, politician and Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda had to go on the run, eventually escaping on horseback over the Andes.
Endless Poetry is a 2016 French-Chilean surrealist psychological autobiographical drama film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is a sequel and the second part of Jodorowsky's film autobiography, which began with The Dance of Reality (2013), which focused on Jodorowsky's childhood in Tocopilla. Endless Poetry, in turn, depicts the adolescence and youth of Jodorowsky in the bohemian Matucana neighborhood of Santiago, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Leandro Taub is an Argentine actor, author, and motivational speaker who was born on May 5, 1983, in Buenos Aires and raised in Bariloche. As an actor, he debuted as the poet Enrique Lihn in Alejandro Jodorowsky's film Endless Poetry. He wrote 5 books, and one of them is Sabiduría Casera.
Denise Brosseau was a Mexican-Canadian actress, also known as Denise Brossot, Denise Brousseau, Denise Sorel, Denise Jodorowsky and Denise Jodelle. She held a main role in La Cravate, the first movie of Alejandro Jodorowsky.