Fando and Lis

1968 psychedelic love travelogue

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Fando and Lis, troubled lovers, attempt to travel to a mythical and magical town called Tar. Along the way, Fando faces temptation and doubts his love and Lis, dependent on her boyfriend to push her wheel-table for her, whines a lot. Mud people, transvestites, dolls, vampires, wasteland jazz bands, hide-and-seek fiends, a brutally unforgiving landscape, burning pianos, and bowling dominatrices get in the way.

This is very first-filmish and not as good as Jodorowsky's later El Topo or The Holy Mountain, but it's still a very entertaining hip thrust of surrealism with bizarre imagery galore with a story that is easy enough but not necessary to follow. Infantilely visionary, but there's a lot about this that reminded me of the whimsical and chaotic parts of Godard or the gloomier bits of Bunuel. Unhinged and nutsy, Fando and Lis sometimes crosses that line into territory that would disturb the average person. Money was definitely a factor, but Jodorowsky did a lot with what he had, creating a disturbingly desolate and rugged world and a texture that is unique. He certainly uses the landscape well here, using jagged rocks or tombstones to frame certain shots. One long shot in particular, where Fando is circling Lis while ascending from a little valley, is really cool.

The script for this was apparently only one page long.