The Holy Mountain (La montaña sagrada)

First, a set decorated without furniture. It's clean, like a hospital,

with crosses on the wall to convey a sense of mysticism.

There are only essential objects, like a sacred ceremony.

The master's outfit conceals his face. He hides his face, like Mohammed.

He is an essential being, without ego.

These are the actual movements of a Japanese tea ceremony.

All the movements are conscious.

Alejandro Jodorowsky. That is still my name.

I have lost pieces of it.

My full name was Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky.

Prullansky was the name of my mother, but it was too long.

It's too bad, I have lost the name of my mother.

Only my father's name has prevailed.

I'm very happy to record these commentaries

because The Holy Mountain was a great adventure for me.

I shot this film in a different life.

I am not the same man anymore.

In these commentaries, I'll try to resurrect an Alejandro that no longer exists.

I will make a concerted effort to bring him back to the present,

because I like the young man that I once was.

He was trying with all his soul to make a sacred film.

He wanted to change mankind with his films.

He thought that cinema was better than LSD.

He thought his film would be a source of enlightenment for the audience.

I am the first actor who painted his fingernails black.

Many people in rock later copied it.

These two girls weren't actresses. They wanted to have a spiritual experience.

They were searching for their own truth, their naked truth.

The inner God that opens in circles

toward a greater consciousness.

A heart that opens toward a greater consciousness.

The target that the arrow must hit.

The eye of Buddha.

The pearl, the soul that must be polished.

When the door is opened, a key is found to the trilogy.

Now, descend into the world of the dead,

to the world of dreamless dreams.

Descending...

Butterfly wings symbolize metamorphosis.

Back up through the serpent, Kundalini...

...the pearls of Eros,

until it arrives at a geometric figure, which is the interior consciousness.

He's "The Fool" of the tarot, lying on the ground.

His face is covered with flies, symbolizing useless thoughts.

He is urinating on himself.

He's lost and drunk.

This is the card that defines him, the tarot's Fool card.

The Fool is always represented by an animal that is his ego.

The frog is the ego.

This character is the divine aspect of The Fool.

These boys have their genitals painted green.

He pulls out the flower that grows on his hand like a root

and forms the wound of Christ.

The boys take him over a crumbling Egyptian pyramid,

symbolizing an ancient civilization.

With a donkey's leg, he traces a line, a limit.

They throw stones to wake Christ, who is on a cross,

on a "T", the "T" of tarot.

He finally wakes up to begin the long initiation

that will give him wisdom.

He shoos away his childhood, his primitivism.

He uncovers his rage, his basic instincts.

He wants to attack this being that has woken him.

But he is placated through vice - "Smoke a little joint with me."

And that's how he tames him.

Every character in this film has an astrological symbol.

The man with no arms has a moon in his ear.

The sleeping man begins to understand human emotions.

He finds friendship with himself - with his monstrous side.

They carry on taking their drugs, happy and drunk, celebrating.

But we're in a dictatorship, where students are killed

and hundreds are crucified, while the rich speak of religion

and feel good about themselves.

I borrowed these carcasses from a restaurant.

When I returned them later, the customers ate them.

The man who plays the American tourist is David Kapralik,

the agent for Sly & The Family Stone, a famous American singer.

This American doesn't worry about the political situation.

They're raping his wife, which he finds very amusing.

It's very entertaining. He films it.

This refers to the American spirit, oblivious to what's going on overseas.

Even today, Americans don't know what they have done abroad.

Non-Americans are not beings, they're aspects of tourism.

He gives him a dollar for having let him film it.

Our character is learning the value of money.

Now he works in the "Toad and Chameleon" circus,

which refers to the conquest of America.

They hire the character to advertise their circus.

He likes money now.

He's become an accomplice to money.

He announces this show made with toads and chameleons,

which were so hard to dress!

Their urine was like acid.

When I put on their armor, they'd fill up with air,

then they would blow it out and try to escape.

The chameleons were dressed in Aztec outfits.

All the symbols are Aztec symbols.

We had to wait ages until a chameleon stuck out its tongue or moved its eyes.

They wouldn't move.

Every move they make is a treasure, I swear.

Look, here it's going to move.

I'd say, "Move! Move! Move!" There he moved, see?

This headdress is a copy of Montezuma's, the great Emperor.

Here Christopher Columbus's three ships arrive.

The first person off the ship is a priest who would convert everyone.

And then come the Nazis, the Germans. I used a song by Wagner.

I chose toads because they were soft...

...and chameleons because they were so immobile, so perfect.

And here comes the drama.

The bloodbath begins. The slaughter, the genocide,

under the pretext that the law must be imposed.

It's a law that is alien to these people.

It's like imposing democracy on the Aztecs.

What use is it to them?

I filmed this on the street, among astounded passers-by.

Our character was driven by money. Here's the other one, counting money.

He starts to suffer, because he feels like one of the toads.

The public is satisfied with the show, but he cries.

He realizes he has been destroyed.

Here Christ is for sale. Religion has become a business.

Here I start making references to various films.

Italian films, for instance,

those huge productions that explored biblical themes.

The tourists still don't understand.

She wears the Sacred Heart on her genitals.

He buys a cross. It's very heavy, so they give him some help.

I find those three soldiers and the fat guy dressed as the Virgin Mary very funny.

They seduce him because he looks like Christ.

They want to reproduce Christ's image. That's what this scene is about.

He leaves his friend, he ends up betraying him.

In other words, he betrays a part of himself.

The grease of the pig symbolizes the ego. They cover him with it.

How much better is reality, compared to an optical effect?

Here he is breathing through two tubes, so he's alright.

This is my own version of Michelangelo's La Pietà,

Michelangelo's famous sculpture in which the Virgin holds the dead Christ.

Tequila Cuervo. Cuervo means "raven", which is the primary matter in alchemy.

The merchants of the temple are asleep, and he wakes up.

He will have another moment of enlightenment.

He realizes he's been used to play the role of Christ.

This is his most profound moment of insight.

I dubbed the thief's voice. It was me who was screaming.

This is a metaphor for Christ chasing the merchants out of the temple.

It's a biblical image. He destroys his fake egos.

"This isn't me! This isn't me!"

And then he finds a sculpture that really looks like him.

"This is what I want to be.

"This is what I want to be. This is the Christ I want to be."

The prostitutes in the church.

One of them has a monkey - her hairy ego.

I didn't want to work with actors.

I wanted to work with real people playing characters similar to themselves,

because the first thing I wanted to do was to help the actors evolve.

In order to change the world I had to change the actors in the film.

I thought, "I will work with real people and enlighten them."

I didn't give the actors any directions. I just told them, "Move around."

I asked them to move, but I didn't give them directions

because they were playing themselves.

The scene we are about to see symbolizes perversion,

the pedophilic perversion of this world.

This poor little girl is selling herself.

The character has gained dignity. He is searching for himself.

He finds his apostles, who are whores and apostles at the same time.

This one sees the Christ within him and falls in love.

She doesn't fall in love with a human being, but with a spiritual one.

She sees his spirituality.

She heals his wounds, which are also her wounds.

She is compassionate.

She reveres him and takes him as her master.

They arrive at a dance where men are dancing with men.

We see soldiers dancing with civilians.

I already knew back then that civilians get killed in wars.

So, I joined soldiers and civilians together in a dance of love.

A civilian is a soldier without a uniform.

A soldier is a civilian wearing a uniform. They're equals.

In this scene, a crazy charro stuck a gun into my chest and said,

"Stop filming or I'll kill you."

I went insane and insulted him. And I said, "If you kill me, I'll kill you."

I yelled at him, he got scared and left.

But I risked my life in this scene.

That Mexican could have killed me.

The place where I was threatened the most was Mexico.

During the shoot they wanted me dead, the Church published a book against me.

The Minister of the Interior called me and said,

"The President really likes you,

"but we've had a lot of complaints. Don't put uniforms in the film.

"No priests, no soldiers, no firefighters. Take all that out

"because the Government is being good to you, but it could become dangerous."

It was almost a direct threat to my life.

The next day I left Mexico with all the footage and came to New York.

I finished The Holy Mountain here.

Mexico is a fascinating country because they like black heroes.

They attack their heroes, but if you stand your ground,

later they admire and love you.

The priest yells at him in a made-up language.

"This isn't true, this naked Christ! Get him away from here."

He realizes that in that church they have lost the true meaning of Christianity.

And he holds communion by eating the face.

"The image is me."

This is another step forward in his evolution.