Jodorowsky Meets Kanye

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Jodo and Kanye
Alejandro Jodorowsky (PeekYou profile here) may be a name unfamiliar to some of you, but with over one million fans on Facebook, and nearly a million followers on Twitter, it would be difficult to describe him as properly obscure.

The ethnically Ukrainian-Jewish, Chilean born Jodo (as many call him), is best known as a filmmaker; but he’s also a a philosopher, a shaman, an actor, a comics writer, a playwright, and too many other things — many too esoteric — to list here. At 85-years old, he’s as spry, sharp, and overwhelmingly charismatic as any you could imagine.

While his filmography is rather small, and mostly excellent, two films in particular — 1970’s mystical western El Topo, and 1973’s simply indescribable and breathtaking The Holy Mountain — have cemented his legacy forever in the hearts of all cinéastes with a taste for daring, eccentric, challenging, visually rich, at times patently ludicrous, and always genuinely inventive film

A certain multi-platinum rapper/producer/visionary-of-a-sort — a Mr. Yeezus Kardashian, if you will (or perhaps Kanye West, as we should; PeekYou profile) — has taken to occasionally name-checking Jodo in recent years. While on stage at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center this past fall, he memorably compared himself to Jodo, as well as Nikolai Tesla (as you can see below).

Jodo and Kanye 2
Apparently Jodorowky’s work, specifically The Holy Mountain, proved a major influence on Kanye in the creation of the Yeezus tour stage show. And it seems that on Wednesday morning, the strange and fairly wonderful twosome finally met face-to-face.

As Jodorowsky tweeted:

Jodo Tweet
When asked on Twitter what he thought of Kanye, Alejandro responded (translated from Spanish): “I was surprised at the purity of West and his deep desire to create a work that develops the consciousness of young people.”

We’re not surprised that the two hit it off, but we certainly get a kick out of it.

Two Jodorowsky related films are currently playing in select theaters, and will soon be available in one streaming format or another, as well as Blu-Ray, DVD, and so forth. The first is Jodorowsky’s new directorial effort, The Dance of Reality; which is a genuine masterpiece. The other, a simply excellent documentary regarding Jodo’s failed attempt to make a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science-fiction novel, Dune. Both are highly recommended, by PeekYou and Kanye (we’re guessing on the second part).

Here, Kanye gives Jodo (and Tesla) a shout-out from the stage:

 

 

Here’s the trailer for The Dance of Reality:

 

 

And here’s the trailer for Jodorowsky’s Dune: