Alejandro Jodorowsky, the 96-year-old Chilean filmmaker known for psychedelic cult classics such as El Topo and The Holy Mountain, has completed a new two-volume monograph titled Art Sin Fin. The work, published by Taschen, spans his eclectic career as a director, actor, poet, puppeteer, psychotherapist, tarot-card reader, and author.
Jodorowsky selected the images for the book alongside editor Donatien Grau of the Musée du Louvre. The accompanying prose mixes metaphors with abandon, describing his brain as “like a canary growling like a whale”. The retrospective covers his 1970s reign as the “king of the midnight movie” and includes abandoned projects, such as his long-cherished adaptation of Dune.
Reflecting on his life, Jodorowsky said he has lived 100 different lives and embodied 100 different Jodorowskys. “I died a lot of times but then I’m reborn,” he added. He shares a portion of Art Sin Fin with his second wife, Pascale Montandon, with whom he paints under the joint pseudonym PascALEjandro.
Speaking about his age, Jodorowsky acknowledged his mortality: “Soon I will die, that is the law of this planet.” His wife, Montandon, aged 50, countered: “You’re not dead yet. And I might die before you. People don’t know anything.”
Jodorowsky was raised in Tocopilla, a small port town in northern Chile, the son of a Ukrainian-Jewish shopkeeper. He later studied mime with Marcel Marceau in Paris and directed Maurice Chevalier in music hall. His 1967 debut feature Fando y Lis sparked a riot at the Acapulco film festival.
