Director Day: An Odyssey Through Film: January 2019

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Host: Chris

Freddy's Take: A very roller coaster day. I wasn't familiar with Jodorowsky so I had no idea what to expect. What I found, was that his films were funny, heavy handed, abstract, confusing, visually striking, and thought provoking. The best movie of the three we saw, as far as being a technically sound endeavor was Santa Sangre. The narrative was fairly easy to follow and it was much more of a cohesive piece of work than the other two films, but for some reason I enjoyed it the least. It was an engaging movie, but El Topo and The Holy Mountain were far more interesting to me. They beg to be watched multiple times. The Holy Mountain may well become a "psychedelic" staple for me. I could probably write 1,000 words on those films, but to keep it short, I will say that they expressed ideas about commerce, sexuality, religion, power structures, politics, and human interactions that were complex enough to keep me thinking beyond one scene and into the next. I borrowed the movies from Chris and will be watching them again with the director commentary on to find a better idea of what was trying to be expressed. As with any good art, you should be able to revisit it and gain more understanding and I feel like that's what will happen with this set of movies. Chris brings another challenging, yet very enjoyable director to our attention! Bravo.

Santa Sangre

El Topo

The Holy Mountain

2002 Interview

William Friedkin

William Friedkin

Host: Freddy

Freddy's Take: Friedkin has long been a favorite of mine. It was tough to choose the 3 films I wanted to show Tanner and Chris, but since it was around Halloween when we were doing this, I went with his horror classic and two of his more bizarre films. Yes, it was difficult to not include The French Connection, Sorcerer (very underrated movie from 1977), or To Live & Die in L.A., but what are you gonna do? I count The Exorcist as one of my favorite movies of all-time and watching it with other people is a treat for me. It's aged very well and even though it's so obviously a 1970's movie, it doesn't feel irrelevant or dated. I think that not having CGI and still holding up is a testament to how much work went into its' production. Bug and Killer Joe are both films that weren't quite made for mass consumption. They end on down notes and highlight the worst side of human nature and mental illness. I have had Friedkin in my pocket since we started doing Director Days years ago and finally had to put him out there. I believe that Chris and Tanner also enjoyed the day and if they didn't, I couldn't tell it or they didn't say it. All in all, Friedkin can be an acquired taste simply because of his eclectic nature and how he doesn't always give the audience a satisfying ending and tends to pull out the most raw and even negative aspects of human nature. That's probably part of why I'm intrigued so much by the work that he has done.

The Exorcist