Santa SangreThe best sort of parents train their children to be independent and free; the worst condition them to be nothing more than simulacra of their personalities, slaves to their own values, indifferent to the person they have created. Santa Sangre is the story of a boy named Fenix (Adan Jodorowsky) who witnesses the savage death of his father, Orgo (Guy Stockwell), following his brutal dismemberment of Fenix's mother, Concha (Blanca Guerra). As a young man, Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky) is committed to an asylum, but breaks out to serve as the embodiment of his mother's arms, sacrificing himself on the altar of her desires.
|
|
There are few filmmakers who consistently and boldly produce films which are so hallucinatory and psychedelic as Alejandro Jodorowsky, director of Santa Sangre. His films are riddled with enigmatic metaphors, and defy traditional logic. They are as if a fevered nightmare given celluloid flesh, and Santa Sangre is no exception. The film is vivid and colorful, benefiting immensely from high definition; the bold reds are vibrant, and the crisp remaster adds to the surreal composition. Young Fenix works in a dingy circus with his mother and father, although his mother also devotes her time to preaching the gospel of an "unofficial" saint, who as a young girl had her arms cut off and was violated, her "holy blood" (thus the title) leaving the site of her martyrdom eternally wet with her sacrifice. But as the building is preparing to be torn down, a Roman Catholic priest inspects the site, and declares it an act of heresy, and the so-called blood to be nothing but paint. Fenix's father is a blustering drunkard in a gaudy sequin cowboy outfit, who flirts shamelessly with a heavily tattooed woman (Thelma Tixou), and hypnotizes her with his daggers. Both of Fenix's parents deal in illusion and mind control, qualities which have already begun to reveal their dominance over his subconscious as an illusionist in the circus. The idea that Fenix has illusion in his blood is important, particularly after his escape from the asylum. From this point, he participates in performances on behalf of his mother, acting as her arms, while she performs on stage. So natural is his rhythm for her behavior that short of his protruding body pressed against her back, one might think they were her arms returned. But as he fulfills his mother's cruel desires, having abandoned the agency of his hands in favor of her, Fenix's mind begins to deteriorate, and he is frequently assaulted by hallucinations and visions born from his feelings of repressed sexuality and sin, such as snakes and more.
In his youth, Fenix befriended a young, deaf newcomer named Alma--played by Faviola Elenka Tapia in her youth, and Sabrina Dennison when she is older--who wore white paint over her face and acted as his magician's assistant. Following the harrowing incident which left him institutionalized, Alma returned to the custody of her mother, the illustrated woman, and Alma has haunted Fenix ever since. When Fenix was younger, his father Orgo forced a tattoo of an eagle onto his chest--the same that he had--in order to "make him a man". It is Orgo's way of effectively branding his son as his own, leaving his "imprint" on Fenix, which resurfaces later when the older Fenix finds himself aroused by a fellow stage performer who is attracted to him as well, when Fenix dons the clothes of his father and recreates the erotic knife-throwing his father used to seduce the tattooed woman. When Fenix is forced to bury the bodies of those who have fallen to his mother's condemnations, Fenix paints the corpses in white paint--like Alma's face paint--and he envisions them transforming into swans. The idea that paint can be a kind of transmutation recalls the "paint", the holy blood from the church, a eucharist of illusion which Fenix identifies as a way to work magic to change his reality, consciously or not. Santa Sangre is largely about transformation, be it the rituals which turn paint into blood (or birds), tattoo ink which serves to mark one as an "adult" and gives license to sin, or even the appropriation of one's limbs, disembodied or otherwise. Essentially, Orgo and Concha--like many parents--seek to mold Fenix in their respective images to leave a legacy of themselves behind when they are dead; only for Fenix, the process leaves his own identity in shreds, deprived of any real sense of self.
To describe Santa Sangre as a weird movie would be an understatement, but it is thought provoking. The death of the elephant is perhaps the hallmark moment of this strange display of unreal events barely held together by the semblance of sanity. It's bloody end is both tragic and overwhelmingly absurd, gushing blood from its snout, fallen deathly ill by some unknown force. The elephant is placed in a titanic coffin for a somber--but not too somber--funereal service through the streets in Mexico, where it's corpse is jettisoned into a canyon filled with garbage by a flatbed truck. Moments later, peasants rush the landfill, smash apart the coffin, and rip chunks from the elephant's carcass like scavenging vermin. (Should one desire a sardonic commentary on human nature, look no further.) Fenix later envisions himself dying under the same circumstances, and it becomes clear that Fenix is like the elephant, torn apart inside by his conflict of emotions and his shattered psyche. When Concha has finally had enough of Orgo's philandering, she assaults him by flinging acid at his genitals, to which he responds by slicing off her arms before taking his life, the last detail fully in Fenix's view. The savagery and violence Fenix is exposed to profoundly damages the youth, a meditation on how easy it is to influence the minds of the young, and how careful guardians must be in how they cultivate a child's mind.
Fenix spends virtually all of Santa Sangre struggling with his identity, often in different costumes, wearing his hair differently, even speaking differently to others, his motivations hard to pin down. Fenix's magician's regalia makes him look a bit like Jack the Ripper, or even Dracula, with respect to the vermilion-lined cape, more ironic as the women who have sexually affected Fenix suddenly start meeting gruesome ends. Fenix unquestionably has an Oedipus complex, so overly devoted is he to his mother's satisfaction that he is willing to destroy himself, and feels conflicted when he faces his unresolved puberty. (Interestingly, in his youth, he wore a fake mustache to appear more mature, even though he was but a boy.) Fenix's idol is "The Invisible Man", from the film of the same name (who also happens to share the name of a mythical bird, "Griffin"). Fenix wishes to make himself invisible in an effort to appease his mother, making his hands hers completely, essentially becoming her. Fenix's relationship with his mother is similar to that of Norman Bates' to his mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, since Concha acts through Fenix. Concha is the looming force in Santa Sangre, always taking control of the situation for Fenix when her concept of his purity is threatened. In effect, this represents Fenix's own fear and anxiety at taking control of his own life, at addressing the unknowns of adulthood deprived to him by being removed from his parents at such a crucial time in his development, and the corresponding psychological damage that followed.
Recommended for: Fans of a genuinely bizarre and vivid horror movie, one which is best understood when approached from a metaphorical level. The abstraction of the message and imagery gives Santa Sangre a thoroughly unique vibe.
In his youth, Fenix befriended a young, deaf newcomer named Alma--played by Faviola Elenka Tapia in her youth, and Sabrina Dennison when she is older--who wore white paint over her face and acted as his magician's assistant. Following the harrowing incident which left him institutionalized, Alma returned to the custody of her mother, the illustrated woman, and Alma has haunted Fenix ever since. When Fenix was younger, his father Orgo forced a tattoo of an eagle onto his chest--the same that he had--in order to "make him a man". It is Orgo's way of effectively branding his son as his own, leaving his "imprint" on Fenix, which resurfaces later when the older Fenix finds himself aroused by a fellow stage performer who is attracted to him as well, when Fenix dons the clothes of his father and recreates the erotic knife-throwing his father used to seduce the tattooed woman. When Fenix is forced to bury the bodies of those who have fallen to his mother's condemnations, Fenix paints the corpses in white paint--like Alma's face paint--and he envisions them transforming into swans. The idea that paint can be a kind of transmutation recalls the "paint", the holy blood from the church, a eucharist of illusion which Fenix identifies as a way to work magic to change his reality, consciously or not. Santa Sangre is largely about transformation, be it the rituals which turn paint into blood (or birds), tattoo ink which serves to mark one as an "adult" and gives license to sin, or even the appropriation of one's limbs, disembodied or otherwise. Essentially, Orgo and Concha--like many parents--seek to mold Fenix in their respective images to leave a legacy of themselves behind when they are dead; only for Fenix, the process leaves his own identity in shreds, deprived of any real sense of self.
To describe Santa Sangre as a weird movie would be an understatement, but it is thought provoking. The death of the elephant is perhaps the hallmark moment of this strange display of unreal events barely held together by the semblance of sanity. It's bloody end is both tragic and overwhelmingly absurd, gushing blood from its snout, fallen deathly ill by some unknown force. The elephant is placed in a titanic coffin for a somber--but not too somber--funereal service through the streets in Mexico, where it's corpse is jettisoned into a canyon filled with garbage by a flatbed truck. Moments later, peasants rush the landfill, smash apart the coffin, and rip chunks from the elephant's carcass like scavenging vermin. (Should one desire a sardonic commentary on human nature, look no further.) Fenix later envisions himself dying under the same circumstances, and it becomes clear that Fenix is like the elephant, torn apart inside by his conflict of emotions and his shattered psyche. When Concha has finally had enough of Orgo's philandering, she assaults him by flinging acid at his genitals, to which he responds by slicing off her arms before taking his life, the last detail fully in Fenix's view. The savagery and violence Fenix is exposed to profoundly damages the youth, a meditation on how easy it is to influence the minds of the young, and how careful guardians must be in how they cultivate a child's mind.
Fenix spends virtually all of Santa Sangre struggling with his identity, often in different costumes, wearing his hair differently, even speaking differently to others, his motivations hard to pin down. Fenix's magician's regalia makes him look a bit like Jack the Ripper, or even Dracula, with respect to the vermilion-lined cape, more ironic as the women who have sexually affected Fenix suddenly start meeting gruesome ends. Fenix unquestionably has an Oedipus complex, so overly devoted is he to his mother's satisfaction that he is willing to destroy himself, and feels conflicted when he faces his unresolved puberty. (Interestingly, in his youth, he wore a fake mustache to appear more mature, even though he was but a boy.) Fenix's idol is "The Invisible Man", from the film of the same name (who also happens to share the name of a mythical bird, "Griffin"). Fenix wishes to make himself invisible in an effort to appease his mother, making his hands hers completely, essentially becoming her. Fenix's relationship with his mother is similar to that of Norman Bates' to his mother in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, since Concha acts through Fenix. Concha is the looming force in Santa Sangre, always taking control of the situation for Fenix when her concept of his purity is threatened. In effect, this represents Fenix's own fear and anxiety at taking control of his own life, at addressing the unknowns of adulthood deprived to him by being removed from his parents at such a crucial time in his development, and the corresponding psychological damage that followed.
Recommended for: Fans of a genuinely bizarre and vivid horror movie, one which is best understood when approached from a metaphorical level. The abstraction of the message and imagery gives Santa Sangre a thoroughly unique vibe.