Santa Sangre (DVD)

This is an absolutely insane film and one which though I don't think I fully understand, is still one that I always remember. I don't really know about the director, so I will leave the background information to the other reviews. The film is about a circus child whose parents are both members of the circus (his dad is the boss). The child suffers a huge tragedy near the beginning, and the film then continues from here trying to demonstrate in part how he deals with this tragedy mentally. The film, as I have mentioned is absolutely crazy and deliberately so because it is trying to describe how this child's mind reacts to the tragedy. The main focus of this ...  Read the complete review

So, hands up who's heard of Alejandro Jodorowski. (No no, don't *actually* put your hand up, I?m not going to see it from here, am I? Tsk.) A strange Chilean director, he has a huge cult following. His most famous film, El Topo, appeared in 1970, a bizarre Western featuring amputees, dead animals, nudity, Eastern mysticism and sex with midgets. It went down very well with the counterculture types who saw it in New York. John Lennon, of all people, financed Jodorowski's next film, The Holy Mountain, which is like El Topo but even better. Jodorowski's career since then has been blighted by problems, and he's only managed to make three films since the early Seventies. Two I ...  Read the complete review

Your father is a knife throwing, drunken casanova who takes his delights with the painted lady. Your mother, a trapeze artist and a devout zealot of a Roman Catholic cult. Your best friend is a charming mute, and maybe a clown or an elephant or two. Welcome to the circus that is Santa Sangre. Before I begin, a question. Why is this film to be found in the horror section of most video clubs? What we have here is a fantastical ride (yeh, ok, sometimes horrific), into poetry, mysticism and psychoanalysis from the Italian school of film making. More specifically, from Alejandro Jodorowsky, a man better known for his bandes dessinees (graphic novels) L'Incal ...  Read the complete review