“Having broken away from my illusory self, I was desperately seeking a path and a meaning to life.” This phrase perfectly sums up Alejandro Jodorowsky’s biographical project: reconstituting the incredible adventure of his life. Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in 1929 in Tocopilla, a coastal town on edge of the Chilean desert, where this film was shot. It was there where he discovered the fundamentals of reality, as he underwent an unhappy and alienated childhood as part of an uprooted family.
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Best movie of this year hands down!
Awesome Movie
Absolutely Fantastic
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Actually, "Dance Of Reality" is the first Jodorowsky film that i watched and i am speechless or i should say absorbed completely by his mesmerizing cinema. I don't know why but i was teary during some scenes even though they had no resemblance to my life. The metaphors he used, the symbolism or allegoric substances he portrayed throughout his film are phenomenal and top notch. This director is insane but amazing, every scene sings a new song and has multiple interpretations. Its not a film that i would recommend to anyone but for those who have a taste for good but weird cinema, give it a try you will not be disappointed. Direction is perfect, background score is superb. Performances are breathtaking. However some video effects were not that good but since it's a art film, one could neglect that aspect.Watch it, understand it, feel it. After all its Jodorowsky's Cinema. Brutal, surreal, funny and satirical. 10 out of 10
Alejandro Jodorowsky is back! Could there be a better time? Cinema needs daring filmmakers like this who ground the truly absurd in reality. Like EL TOPO and HOLY MOUNTAIN, THE DANCE OF REALITY is far from perfect. The film is at least 30 minutes too long with sequences that come out of left field with no impact. But the central statement, an examination of dogma-- religious, social, and political--the easy bending of our minds that impact us all, is an important topic to explore and Jodorowsky does it winningly. Yes, the message is clear and loud. We are hit on the head with it. Maybe sometimes we need to be hit?
Jodorowsky's works have been a part of my life since I first started venturing into the grown up section of my local public library (here in Denmark) in the early 1980s and discovered the "Incal" comics he was doing with Moebius at that time. I gotta admit I'm not always convinced. "The Incal" is a wonderful comics classic, but some of his later (serialised) books seem to fizzle out to nothing after they've taken years to complete. They've given me quite a bit of frustration - and the reviewers in the comics press often seem equally frustrated.I bought his return to movie making "Santa Sangre" when it was first released on VHS back around 1990. And I love this movie! It's in my opinion completely coherent and satisfying, and I've seen it many times.The long awaited DVD box-set of his older 1970s work was a bit of a disappointment. Some good scenes in the movies, but also a lot of semi- amateurish wannabe-spiritual 1970s-style hippie-rambling. The best part of the box was the very enjoyable documentary "La constellation Jodorowsky", which you might be able to find on you-tube with a bit of luck.But as for his new movie: It's good. VERY good. Possibly even better than "Santa Sangre". In some ways it seems like a remake of "El Topo", except without the western-trappings and based more closely on his own childhood. The main character (Jodorowsky's father) undergoes much the same transformation as El Topo, but the narrative is much more coherent and gripping. I was lucky enough to attend a screening with Jodo's son (who played El Topo's son, and plays Jodo's father in this movie), and while I was mesmerized by the movie even before listening to Brontis Jodorowsky - who is a funny, cool and sensible down-to-earth guy - the information he gave me made me appreciate it even more.Basically the first part of the movie is a magical realist version of Jodo's childhood. But then the 'psycho magic' therapy that Jodo practices (in his second career as a kind of Tarot-card - or whatever - therapist) starts to play a part, and the movie becomes a kind of exorcism of the hard asshole'ish macho-part of his dictatorial father - the movie gives the father-character the journey of learning he never had in real life, making him a better wiser man that real-life Jodorowsky is able to make (symbolic) peace with. Anyway, this may sound like a lot of nonsense, but it made a lot of sense when Brontis Jodorowsky talked about it, and it makes for a compelling movie, even without the background information. It's as good as any Fellini-meets-Latin- American-Magical-Realism-movie could ever hope to be.Basically I'm just happy that Jodo has now made two movies and one graphic novel ("The Incal") that I'm able to embrace and enjoy 100%.
In 1962 at the Cine Diana in Mexico City, Jodorowsky performed an efimero titled "Poema Dinámico Para Un Inmóvil De Hierro" to introduce an iron mural made of metal leftovers called "Mural De Hierro" sculpted by Manuel Felgueréz.51 years later at this same place La Danza De La Realidad was screened.The film is based upon Jodorowsky's childhood in Tocopilla, his hometown before he moved to Santiago and described on 3 of his own literary works: El Niño Del Jueves Negro 80%, Donde Mejor Canta Un Pájaro 10% y La Danza De La Realidad 10%.Seems that Jodorowsky needed to clear an spiritual debt with his origins, and as a result we have this very well done film but nothing compared to his previous works. It happens to me that when i read the book before the film even exists, I very often prefer my own imaginative perspective rather than the one from the director of the film, in this case for La Danza De La Realidad, Jodorowsky's vision was very far away and less creative from what, from previous films (even the ones he does not like:The Rainbow Thief) used to amaze me. The purple ship sailing and commanded by the Death towards the infinite of the sea is an scene that confirms that before he died he needed to meet his past and "forgive" it to be able to rest in peace. A living requiem.To end this review, i can't' stop comparing this film with Fernando Arrabal's Viva La Muerte and noticed that Arrabal dealt with his own childhood traumas on his very first film.El Mural De Hierro was not there anymore.