The Dance of Reality (2013)

Directed by: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Country: Chile / France

Movie Review: “The Dance of Reality” marks the so much awaited return of distinguished Chilean-French filmmaker, screenwriter and producer, Alejandro Jodorwosky, after a layoff of more than two decades. This autobiographical film showcases his turbulent childhood in Chile, where the traumatic episodes, most of them involving his Jewish-Ukranian parents, follow one another. The last part of the film left aside the young Alejandrito, happily living in his hometown Tocopilla with his melodious mother, to focus on Jaime Jodorowsky, a father whose arduous path in life transformed him from a tyrant atheist-communist to a God-devotee and zealous family man. All the elements that made the filmmaker famous in the past - surrealist scenes, bizarre characters, intelligent symbology, an imaginative yet aggressive way of exposing the facts, lyricism and poetry, politics and religion - are present to give its precious contribution to the artistic outcomes. The ingenious narrative was never unstable and in its own way, the film shocks us as much as seduces us, just like “The Holy Mountain”, “Santa Sangre” or “El Topo” did, yet without achieving the same impact as those ones. Alejandro’s son, Brontis, was fantastic in the skin of his own grandfather, whereas the score, cinematography, and remaining production values were first-rate. There’s no age to be creative and that’s why we want more from Mr. Jodorowsky!