After a number of delays Anchor Bay UK finally released their DVD of Alejandro Jodorowsky's SANTA SANGRE two weeks ago.
I just finished watching the film for the first time ... It was the last and only Jodorowsky film I hadn't seen. I even got my hands of his much hated (but not all that bad) TUSK before this one. Which may have been a good thing because that way I saved the best for last. SANTA SANGRE is probably Jodorowsky's most accessible film as it has a great story to tell in addition to Jodorowsky's usual quirks. It's doesn't run rampant with symbolism like EL TOPO, HOLY MOUNTAIN and FANDO & LIS that I personally found fascinating but nearly impossible to understand.
SANTA SANGRE is a lot more commercial in a way but it never sells out or compromises it's vision. It's really quite fascinating how this film, which was produced by Dario Argento's brother Claudio Argento, blends Argento's style with Jodorowsky's obsessions. There still are your average dwarves, fat whores, cripples, retards etc. that no Jodorowsky film can do without but there's also Argento's typical use of colored lighting and even the story deals with a serial killer who's tortured by visions of his dead mother who urges him to kill again and again.
I don't want to give much more away about the story but I can see how the film had problems with the MPAA and had to be cut for an R rating ... There's one extremely gory murder in SANTA SANGE that reminded me a lot of the one at the end of TENEBRE which is surely more than just a coincidence.
Anchor Bay have done their ususal bang-up job with the film which now looks as if it had been made last year and not 15 years ago. The print is absolutely flawless! They also did a 5.1 remix of the audio that I can't comment on but for purists the original 2.0 audio is included as well. There's an audio commentary with Jodorowsky and some incredibly annoying "genre scholar" called Alan Jones but even that idiot cannot fuck up El Jodo's hilarious and fascinating stories. There's also a deleted scene which is great to have and while I can see why it would not have worked in the film it still provides some additional insight into the story. The biggest extra is a feature length documentary on Jodorowsky called CONSTELLATION JODOROWSKY but most US fans will already be familiar with it as it was also included on the US DVD of FANDO & LIS.
What more can I say? If you're fan of either Jodorowsky or Argento and can play Region 2 PAL DVDs you owe it to yourself to pick this great 2 DVD set as soon as possible. And I don't hesitate to recommend SANTA SANGRE (which is Spanish for "Holy Blood" by the way) even to those who think Jodorowsky is nothing but a pretentious bore. SANTA SANGRE is beautiful, weird, suspensful, gory and poetic all at once.
I just finished watching the film for the first time ... It was the last and only Jodorowsky film I hadn't seen. I even got my hands of his much hated (but not all that bad) TUSK before this one. Which may have been a good thing because that way I saved the best for last. SANTA SANGRE is probably Jodorowsky's most accessible film as it has a great story to tell in addition to Jodorowsky's usual quirks. It's doesn't run rampant with symbolism like EL TOPO, HOLY MOUNTAIN and FANDO & LIS that I personally found fascinating but nearly impossible to understand.
SANTA SANGRE is a lot more commercial in a way but it never sells out or compromises it's vision. It's really quite fascinating how this film, which was produced by Dario Argento's brother Claudio Argento, blends Argento's style with Jodorowsky's obsessions. There still are your average dwarves, fat whores, cripples, retards etc. that no Jodorowsky film can do without but there's also Argento's typical use of colored lighting and even the story deals with a serial killer who's tortured by visions of his dead mother who urges him to kill again and again.
I don't want to give much more away about the story but I can see how the film had problems with the MPAA and had to be cut for an R rating ... There's one extremely gory murder in SANTA SANGE that reminded me a lot of the one at the end of TENEBRE which is surely more than just a coincidence.
Anchor Bay have done their ususal bang-up job with the film which now looks as if it had been made last year and not 15 years ago. The print is absolutely flawless! They also did a 5.1 remix of the audio that I can't comment on but for purists the original 2.0 audio is included as well. There's an audio commentary with Jodorowsky and some incredibly annoying "genre scholar" called Alan Jones but even that idiot cannot fuck up El Jodo's hilarious and fascinating stories. There's also a deleted scene which is great to have and while I can see why it would not have worked in the film it still provides some additional insight into the story. The biggest extra is a feature length documentary on Jodorowsky called CONSTELLATION JODOROWSKY but most US fans will already be familiar with it as it was also included on the US DVD of FANDO & LIS.
What more can I say? If you're fan of either Jodorowsky or Argento and can play Region 2 PAL DVDs you owe it to yourself to pick this great 2 DVD set as soon as possible. And I don't hesitate to recommend SANTA SANGRE (which is Spanish for "Holy Blood" by the way) even to those who think Jodorowsky is nothing but a pretentious bore. SANTA SANGRE is beautiful, weird, suspensful, gory and poetic all at once.
