Santa Sangre
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VHS Movie Reviews of Santa Sangre
Movie Review: Surreal, scabrous, but seemingly moving
Summary: 5 Stars
After a long abscence Jodorowsky returned with this surreal, but more accessible offering than his earlier work; focusing on a circus, and starring Jodorowsky's son and grandson as Fenix, a young boy who witnesses his father cut off the arms of his mother before commiting suicide. Then we see Fenix grown up and finding his mother again, and she uses him as her slave, using his hands for her various needs and also to commit murder. There are the trademark Jodorowsky images in parts, with deformed people on a trip out from an asylum, and powerful scenes like an elephant being savaged for food; but it somehow has a more warmer and humble feel to it than his previous work.
Movie Review: Surreal and Intense
Summary: 5 Stars
Santa Sangre's introduction seems somewhat overlong, initially, but it really sets up the second part of the film beautifully, in retrospect. The movie is simply fascinating, though the plot can be summed up as "Jodorowsky's Psycho." Always more than a little on the surreal side, Santa Sangre seems as good an introduction to Jodorowsky as you can get.The imagery alone is what you watch a film by Alexandro Jodorowsky for. Not the characters (handled well with little dialogue; Axel Jodorowsky does excellent acting as Fenix) nor the plot (great angle on "Psycho"). The funeral for an elephant, particularly, and the various characters of the circus are must sees...Jodorowsky is clearly an expert in creating scenes that disturb, that evoke emotion without saying a thing.
The film is one that would've seemed uninspired in the hands of a lesser filmmaker. Jodorowsky turns it around and makes it into a wonderful picture. Ah, if he'd done Dune instead of David Lynch.
Movie Review: A rare occurence with a movie
Summary: 5 Stars
The first time I watched this film I was completely taken aback by something that has never happened to me before while watching a movie: at the midpoint of the film I could not guess what was going to happen next! In every other film I had seen to that point I could always make a good guess on where the plot was going, and what could be expected of the main charater(s). Not in this movie! And that alone to me made the movie that much more worthwhile and enjoyable. I am a great fan of what little work of Jodorowsky's that I've seen and read, he has an insight on humanity that would frighten many, but the truth will do that.Movie Review: A visionary and haunting film.
Summary: 5 Stars
Alejandro Jodorowosky has been making films since the 1960s.Though he has made only a handful of films(7 in all),given the quality of "Santa Sangre",a visionary and haunting work,one wishes he was more prolific.It is not possible to describe "Santa Sangre" with due justice within such a small review;the only succinct way of describing it:it as if Pedro Calderon had written "Psycho",or that Alfred Hitchcock had directed "La Vida es Sueno".Influenced by Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis,the mordant satire and wit of Luis Bunuel and the beautiful baroque pageantry of Fellini,"Santa Sangre" tells the story of a reluctant serial killer(!) controlled by his dominating and insane mother and details his struggle to be liberated from her.The mother worships an imaginary saint,whose hagiography and devotion entails repression,guilt and false self-sacrifice.The son's attempt to attain romantic and sexual normalcy achieves(surprisingly,given the subject matter)much pathos.The ending is transcendent and the film contains many memorable images.Despite the criticisms leveled against the film's violence,"Santa Sangre" is not gory-it artfully suggests rather than explicates.However,if your idea of cinematic excellence are movies like:"The Towering Inferno","Terms of Endearment" or "Ghost"-then probably this film is not for you.However,if films like:"The Exterminating Angel",Satyricon",The Devils" and "Wild at Heart" are for you compelling and important works of art,then "Santa Sangre" is definitely to be experienced.Movie Review: yes, uglyness can be beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
Jodorowsky is able to show the most terrible side of human beings in the most poetical way. In Santa Sangre, the grotesque and the sublime, the profane and the sacred, coexist in the same dimension. The images are so powerful, that strike you in an emotional level, and yet, at the same time, affect you in a deep psychological and spiritual level. This author's vision taught me what compassion meant, in the most profound sense of the word.