Alejandro Jodorowsky’s legendary cult opus was given a limited re-release in Japan last year and this is the poster promoting it. There’s not much point in talking about the film itself other than to say you’re in for a treat if you haven’t seen it. To say it’s a unique experience would be an understatement and, although it’s certainly not for everyone, it’s a film that all self-respecting film fan should add to their ‘to watch’ pile. This bit of trivia on Wikipedia gives you an inkling of what you’re in for:

The Beatles member George Harrison was intended to play the main character but he withdrew when read in the script he had to wash his anus in front of the camera.

Both this and Jodorowsky’s El Topo were released on blu-ray earlier this year. Here’s the original US trailer.

A striking design features on this US one sheet for the little-seen 1977 film Short Eyes, which is based on the Miguel Piñero play of the same name and was directed by Robert M. Young. The lead is played by Bruce Davison, one of the all-time classic ‘that guy’ character actors. The film sounds like a pretty tough watch if its Wikipedia description is anything to go by:

‘Short Eyes is set in an unnamed House of Detention in New York City, the prisoners of which are predominantly black or Puerto Rican. One day, a new prisoner is brought in: Clark Davis, a young, middle-class white man accused of raping a young girl. His fellow prisoners immediately turn on him —pedophiles are considered the lowest form of prison life — except for Juan, one of the institution’s older prisoners, who treats him with dignity. While Davis insists he doesn’t remember raping the girl, he admits that he has molested several other children.’

Despite the subject matter it was reviewed well on release and was praised for its realistic depiction of prison life. The film was recently released on blu-ray should you wish to check it out.

The poster design is credited to LSC&P Design Group Inc about whom I’ve been unable to discover much. There’s this page of some of their work on the AIGA website. It also appears to have been a company that was originally founded by the famous designer Herb Lubalin.

Legendary director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo (literally ‘The Mole’) is a true cult classic and one that has influenced countless film and TV shows since its release forty two years ago. The film tells the story of the eponymous black-clad cowboy (played by the director himself) who rides through the dessert with his six-year-old son (Brontis Jodorowsky) and arrives at a village where a massacre has recently occurred. El Topo seeks revenge on the bandits responsible and, after leaving his son with monks, he rides off into the desert with the woman who the bandit leader had kept as a slave.

The first part of the film sees the cowboy on a quest to kill four gun masters in order to become the greatest gunman in the land but, after El Topo is betrayed and left for dead, the second half takes place years later as he wakes in a sealed-up cave to find he is being treated as a god-like figure by a group of deformed outcasts. El Topo agrees to help the group escape the cave but must deal with a depraved gang of cultists in a local town and the arrival of his estranged son. The first part is likened to a Western, whilst the second is a love story of redemption and rebirth.

The film features scenes of surreal and religious imagery, coupled with brutal violence, disturbing sexuality and a host of bizarre characters, and El Topo was very controversial at the time of its release. It’s cult status was sealed after Ben Barenholtz, the owner of the infamous New York cinema The Elgin, saw a print of the film at the Museum of Modern Art and convinced the producer of the film to allow him to show El Topo as the first Midnight Movie. It ended up screening at The Elgin seven days a week for over six months. John Lennon was an avowed fan of the film and was instrumental in persuading Allen Klein, manager of The Beatles, to assist in giving the film a wider release across the USA. Klein would later go on to fund Jodorowsky’s next film, The Holy Mountain.

This Japanese poster features the same image seen on the American one sheet and is for the 2010 re-release of the film. I also have the 2010 re-release poster for The Holy Mountain.

The excellent trailer for the film is on YouTube.