Jodo says Avant-garde director Alejandro Jodorowski has not made many films in his life, but almost every film is an event. “Mole”, “Holy Mountain”, “Holy Blood” – all of them are rich in bright memorable images that give unlimited flight for thought, they attract with their form and stunning content, and the viewer has nothing to do but play the role of a fly caught in a deadly trap for a spider and at the same time satisfied with this circumstance. It is impossible to get out of Jodorowski’s web films: either unconditional recognition of genius or ... death. Not physical, not even spiritual, but the death invented by Jodorowski himself, the sister of death in dreams. Stop. Why is it so hard? The surreal fantasies of the Chilean avant-garde in any case amaze the audience in both positive and negative ways, to put it simply. So Signor Alejandro once decided to create something simple and understandable to everyone, if not much simplified and chewed.
Hodo's Tales are a series of miniature Jodorowski parable stories put together. They all follow the same principle: first, some introduction, which tells what the story will be about, then the story itself, and at the end, the author explains to us why he is now so diligently telling it. As a rule, the meaning of the parable is much simpler than it seemed. Thus, the perception of any story by the viewer is greatly distorted. Every morality even repels and illustrates the famous words of Tyutchev “Thought spoken is a lie.” And with every thought Jodorowski uttered after history, every other thought that had previously had the possibility of existence is leveled. It is very simplistic, especially when you consider how much space there was in Hodo’s best films, despite the fact that the director clearly knew where it was going to come from. If you do not know from the very beginning who this charismatic gray-haired man is in the prime of life, then you do not immediately recognize in him the creator of esoteric films that are difficult to understand.
The accusation of simplicity is the stupidest and most unfounded claim that can be made against Hodo's Tales. If you look closely, between the previous main creations of Jodorowski and his “Fairy Tales” there are not so many differences, among which timekeeping and the lack of a bright emphasis on the surrealism of what is happening. The rest is the same Alejandro Jodorowski. In addition, if you look closely, you can notice the similarity with his main creations without makeup images and fairy tales. Similarly, any work by Jodorowski, if the audience were not so blinded by the brightness of the auxiliary symbols, could be interpreted and explained morality in one line. Isn't it? In addition, Jodorowski does not impose his opinion even when he says directly what to do and how to be. “I showed you a parable, explained the meaning, and you decide whether to agree or not.” In most cases, it is difficult to disagree, since much applies to real life.
If you can argue about how deep or simple these stories are, Alejandro Jodorowski, then there is no doubt about how skillfully executed they are visually. Black silhouettes on yellow, orange, red and other backgrounds of all colors of the rainbow. It is this feature that gives “Hodo Tales” a unique charm and positively distinguishes from this kind of mini-transmissions on the Zagas cable channel “Bible TV”.
By the way, Jodorowski consciously or not, but managed to draw a parallel with similar stories from the Bible. And not only did he draw a parallel, but he also arranged some competition. This is not the first time a director has done this with scripture. Each of his works, in one way or another, contains some rethinking of the biblical covenants and the provision of new, perhaps more perfect and urgent.
Moral: As you can see, a person tends to perceive the same circumstances of the same case from both the negative and the positive side. Because of this duality of human nature, many of us find it so hard to figure out what we like. To a large extent, this indiscriminateness haunts us in everything related to art. Double standards are not as scary and unscrupulous as they may seem. Evaluate everything as you want, no matter what others say about it.
Remember, never, never end a story about something that has nothing to do with it.