Endless Poetry
Endless Poetry (Spanish: Poesía sin fin) is a 2016 Chilean-French-Japanese surrealist autobiographical drama film written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.[1] It serves as the second chapter in Jodorowsky's planned five-part cinematic memoir, following The Dance of Reality (2013) and focusing on his early adulthood in 1940s Santiago, Chile, where he rebels against familial expectations to embrace poetry and artistic freedom.[2] Starring Adan Jodorowsky as the young Alejandro, alongside Pamela Flores as his mother Sara and Brontis Jodorowsky as his father Jaime, the film runs for 128 minutes and blends fantasy, biography, and psychological elements to explore themes of self-discovery and creative liberation.[1] Premiering in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, it received widespread acclaim for its vibrant visuals and surreal narrative, earning a 94% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews.[3][4] The story follows the protagonist "Alejandrito" as he departs his disciplinarian father's home in Tocopilla for the bohemian circles of Santiago, vowing to become a poet against his family's wishes.[5] There, he immerses himself in avant-garde experimentation, forms bonds with fellow artists and surrealists like Enrique Lihn and Stella Díaz Varín, and navigates romantic and existential challenges that shape his artistic identity.[1] Jodorowsky's direction employs his signature style of dreamlike sequences, bold colors, and symbolic imagery to recount these events, drawing directly from his own life experiences in post-war Chile.[6] Produced by Jodorowsky alongside Moisés Cosio and Pablo Falcó, the film was shot primarily in Chile and features contributions from Jodorowsky's family members in key roles, emphasizing its personal nature.[1] It won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2017 Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and garnered nominations at events like the San Francisco International Film Festival.[7][8] Critically, it has been praised as one of Jodorowsky's most accessible yet uncompromising works, extending his legacy of midnight movies into a reflective autobiographical vein.[3] With a limited U.S. theatrical release in July 2017 and a gross of $153,440 domestically, Endless Poetry underscores Jodorowsky's enduring influence on surrealist cinema at age 87 during production.[9]Background and Development
Autobiographical Origins
Endless Poetry serves as the second installment in Alejandro Jodorowsky's planned five-film autobiographical series, following The Dance of Reality (2013), which depicted his childhood in Tocopilla, Chile.[10] The series aims to chronicle Jodorowsky's life through a surreal lens, blending personal history with artistic invention to explore his evolution as an artist.[11] The film draws directly from Jodorowsky's experiences in 1940s and 1950s Santiago, where, as a young man working in his father's store, he faced pressure from his Jewish family to pursue medical school but instead rejected conventional paths to embrace poetry.[12] This decision led him into Santiago's bohemian circles, including encounters with prominent Chilean poets such as Nicanor Parra and Enrique Lihn, whose influences shaped his early artistic development.[11] These real-life interactions, set against the vibrant yet tumultuous literary scene of the era, form the core inspirations for the film's portrayal of youthful rebellion and creative awakening.[6] Jodorowsky's eventual departure from Chile to Paris in 1953, driven by a desire to immerse himself in the surrealist movement, marks a pivotal transition reflected in the film's narrative arc.[13] At age 87 during the film's writing and production in 2016, Jodorowsky infused Endless Poetry with a deeply reflective tone, emphasizing themes of nostalgia, self-discovery, and the enduring pursuit of inner truth amid life's chaos.[11] This late-career perspective lends the work an emotional maturity, transforming personal memoir into a universal meditation on artistic becoming.[14] As a semi-fictionalized memoir, it connects these biographical roots to broader explorations of poetry's transformative power.[6]Pre-production
The pre-production of Endless Poetry (2016), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, centered on adapting his autobiographical experiences into a surrealist narrative, building on the personal reflections explored in his earlier film The Dance of Reality (2013). Jodorowsky penned the screenplay himself, drawing from his youth as an aspiring poet in 1940s Santiago, Chile, to craft a story emphasizing artistic liberation and bohemian life without external interference from producers.[15] Family members played key roles in integrating creative elements, with Jodorowsky's son Adán Jodorowsky composing and performing 15 of the 19 tracks on the film's original soundtrack, contributing to its psychedelic and emotional tone.[16] This collaboration extended the familial dynamic from the prior film, blending personal history with multimedia artistry. To fund the independent project, Jodorowsky launched a Kickstarter campaign on February 15, 2015, seeking $350,000 to support post-production needs for this autobiographical sequel. The effort exceeded its goal, raising $442,313 from 3,518 backers, enabling completion of the low-budget endeavor amid its emphasis on poetic consciousness and inner truth.[17][18] Casting prioritized authenticity in portraying Jodorowsky's bohemian circle, with family members taking central roles: Adán Jodorowsky as the teenage Alejandro, and eldest son Brontis Jodorowsky reprising his role as the authoritarian father Jaime from The Dance of Reality. This approach underscored the film's intimate, ensemble depiction of artistic rebellion and familial tensions.[19][15] The production operated on a modest budget estimated at $3-5 million, financed through a pioneering co-production between France's Satori Films, Chile's Le Soleil Films, and Japan's Uplink Co., reflecting Jodorowsky's return to Chile after decades abroad.[20][18] Pre-production logistics, including casting and set preparations, spanned two months, training local Chilean crew to align with Jodorowsky's vision of uncompromised surrealism.[15]Production
Filming Locations and Process
Principal photography for Endless Poetry began on July 1, 2015, in Santiago, Chile, capturing the city's vibrant urban landscape to evoke the director's youthful experiences in the bohemian scene of the 1940s and 1950s.[21] The production primarily utilized real locations from Alejandro Jodorowsky's past, including streets in the Matucana neighborhood, where modern facades were overlaid with life-sized printed images of period-appropriate buildings to recreate the era's aesthetic.[22] This approach allowed for an authentic grounding in historical sites while accommodating the film's surreal elements, though it presented logistical hurdles in coordinating street closures and set modifications amid Santiago's contemporary environment.[23] Principal photography lasted approximately eight weeks, during which the crew navigated the integration of elaborate custom sets for key surreal sequences, such as puppet theaters and a dramatic burning house scene, to blend reality with Jodorowsky's psychomagic vision.[24][11] These challenges were compounded by the need to film in protected historical areas, requiring permissions and temporary alterations that preserved the locations' integrity. Post-production wrapped in early 2016, refining the footage for its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival that May.[25] At 86 years old during much of the shoot and turning 87 by completion, Jodorowsky directed with hands-on vigor, emphasizing improvisational techniques to infuse spontaneity and drawing on family members alongside select non-professional performers for heightened emotional authenticity.[26] This personal involvement extended the process but ensured the film's intimate reflection of his life, with pre-production funding from reunions with longtime collaborators enabling the extended Chile-based production.[27]Technical Crew and Design
The film's cinematography was handled by Christopher Doyle, renowned for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai, who employed a vibrant, color-saturated palette and dreamlike lighting to evoke the surreal transitions between reality and Jodorowsky's imaginative world.[25] This approach heightened the film's episodic, hallucinatory quality, with Doyle's expressive visuals capturing the bohemian energy of 1940s-1950s Santiago through fluid camera movements and luminous night scenes that blend the mundane with the fantastical.[14][28] Editing duties fell to Maryline Monthieux, who skillfully interwove the film's linear autobiographical narrative with its more abstract, hallucinatory sequences, maintaining a rhythmic flow that mirrors the protagonist's poetic awakening.[25] Her cuts emphasize thematic contrasts, such as the shift from familial constraints to artistic liberation, using montage to fuse chronological events with symbolic dream interludes without disrupting the overall cohesion.[22] Alejandro Jodorowsky himself served as production designer, overseeing the recreation of 1950s Santiago's bohemian locales to immerse viewers in the director's youth.[25] This included custom-built sets and props that enhanced artistic vignettes, such as oversized poetry reading installations and circus-inspired elements that amplified the film's surreal theatricality, drawing on period facades superimposed on actual locations for authenticity.[22][29] The original score was composed by Adán Jodorowsky, the director's son, who blended folk-inspired Chilean motifs with experimental electronic textures and integrated poetic recitations to underscore the film's introspective tone.[16] This eclectic soundtrack, featuring 15 original tracks performed by Adán, evokes the cultural vibrancy of mid-20th-century Santiago while incorporating avant-garde dissonance to reflect moments of inner turmoil and creative ecstasy.[30]Plot
Endless Poetry continues the autobiographical story from The Dance of Reality, focusing on Alejandro Jodorowsky's youth in 1940s Chile. The narrative follows the teenage Alejandrito (played by Jeremias Herskovits) as his family relocates from Tocopilla to Santiago amid personal and societal turmoil. Rebelling against his authoritarian father Jaime's (Brontis Jodorowsky) expectations for him to pursue a medical career, young Alejandro (Adan Jodorowsky) chops down a family tree in defiance and vows to become a poet.[31] In Santiago, Alejandro immerses himself in the bohemian art scene, joining an avant-garde collective of poets and artists. He befriends figures like the poet Enrique Lihn (Leandro Taub) and forms a passionate relationship with the surrealist poet Stella Díaz Varín (Pamela Flores), who becomes his muse. Through dreamlike sequences, symbolic imagery, and theatrical performances—including body painting, puppetry, and absurdist acts—the film depicts his artistic experiments, romantic entanglements, and existential struggles for self-discovery and creative liberation. The older Jodorowsky appears intermittently, interacting with his younger self to reflect on these formative experiences.[32][11]Cast and Characters
The film stars members of the Jodorowsky family in key roles, emphasizing its autobiographical nature.| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Adan Jodorowsky | Alejandro Jodorowsky (teenager) |
| Brontis Jodorowsky | Jaime Jodorowsky |
| Pamela Flores | Sara Jodorowsky / Stella Díaz Varín |
| Leandro Taub | Enrique Lihn |
| Alejandro Jodorowsky | Alejandro Jodorowsky (adult) |
| Jeremias Herskovits | Alejandro Jodorowsky (child) |
| Julia Díaz | Doña Adela |
| Antonio "El Potro" Núñez | Don Federico |