Endless Poetry Review | VIFF 2016

<p>Known as one of the world&&num;8217&semi;s pre-eminent surrealists&comma; Alejandro Jodorowsky has shown time and time again that he can tell a complete story with jumbled pieces&period; After a 23 year absence from the director&&num;8217&semi;s chair&comma; he returned with his autobiographical film&comma; <em>The Dance of Reality&period; <&sol;em>Well&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s about as accurate to reality as someone like Jodorowsky would get&period; With magical realism&comma; dream logic&comma; and moments of transcendence&comma; Jodorowsky painted a portrait of his younger years in Tocopilla&comma; Chile under the same roof with his strict Communist father&comma; Jaime &lpar;played by son Brontis&rpar;&period; <em>Endless Poetry <&sol;em>begins right where the last one ends&period; On a purple boat&comma; Alejandro and his family embark on a new journey&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adan Jodorowsky&comma; Alejandro&&num;8217&semi;s youngest son&comma; plays him from his late teen years to early adulthood&period; After running away from the tyranny of his father &lpar;Brontis&rpar; and repressed mother &lpar;Pamela Flores&rpar;&comma; Alejandro moves in with an artist collective to grow as a poet&period; Of course&comma; things get surreal really quickly and the movie proves to be incredibly funny&period; Jodorowsky is known for absurdism&comma; but his use of it here breathes a reality and extension of the truth&period; The jokes are funny&comma; but you can tell there&&num;8217&semi;s an emotional realism in the moments of surreality that is rare to see&period; Moments with the art collective are highly visual while moments around his family are condensed&comma; yet striking&period; <em>Endless Poetry<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s title is almost accurate&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just unfortunate it has to end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114803" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114803" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114803 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;30030946&sol;MV5BODY5NjJhOTktYTMwYy00OTNiLWJlYmYtOTgwYjczOWI3YTViXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxMDQ0ODk&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Endless Poetry&comma; Funfilm Distribution&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"750" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114803" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Endless Poetry<&sol;em>&comma; Funfilm Distribution&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Endless Poetry <&sol;em>is many things at once&period; Jodorowsky takes everything he learned with the film medium and takes the story of his life to form it into a commentary on how he wished he&&num;8217&semi;d made different choices and reflecting on the past and its pain&period; Without feeling like a lecture&comma; Jodo manages to pop into the movie as himself to talk to his younger self about his decisions&period; Moments like these add an intimacy that&&num;8217&semi;s rarely seen these days and it&&num;8217&semi;s surprising that we don&&num;8217&semi;t see something like that more often&period; It only goes to show how bold Jodo is when it comes to narrative storytelling&period; And that boldness goes into the narrative as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It can be difficult to determine what is real and what is exaggerated&period; The director has stated that everything is real in interviews and it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to argue&period; To a man like Jodo&comma; the physical aspect of life and time aren&&num;8217&semi;t the only things that exist in the plane of reality&period; Every bit of emotion is put on the screen in the physical form&period; There is no emotional subtlety here&comma; he has no interest in tiptoe-ing around the issues in his life&period; Everything he felt&comma; everything he saw&comma; is on the screen&period; Whether other people could see it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s letting you see what he saw now&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s up to you to decide if his reality can be yours&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114804" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114804" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114804 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;30031109&sol;MV5BOWIzZjBmNDUtNDJiOC00MmY4LTkzMGQtZjUwMzRhMTE4ZjBmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAxMDQ0ODk&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SY1000&lowbar;CR0015821000&lowbar;AL&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Endless Poetry&comma; Funfilm Distribution&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"632" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114804" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Endless Poetry<&sol;em>&comma; Funfilm Distribution&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I find it almost trivial to pick at performances and pacing in a film like this when I know that&&num;8217&semi;s not the first thing on the mind of the director&period; <em>Endless Poetry <&sol;em>is a two hour long poem about a time in his life where he must let it out in the form of a movie&period; This film almost reads as a memoir or a journal entry to a life fully thought through&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a sense of closure to this era by the time the movie ends&period; He begins the movie where it ends&comma; on the purple boat with a man in a skeleton costume&period; You can take the film at face value or you can take it for all the storytelling in the background&period; Either way&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a story that needs to be told&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;