Before the great cataclysm, there were many cities which flourished, but since the disaster only one remains, and that is the city of Tar. Two lovers, Fando (Sergio Kleiner) and Lis (Diana Mariscal) have determined to reach that place, but they will find true hardship as they do so, for the lands they must cross are desolate and inhospitable and to make matters worse, Lis is paralysed from the waist down, which means Fando must either carry her on his back or pull her along in a cart which also carries his gramophone and his drum. That's not to mention the people they will meet along the way...
After a short film back in the fifties, surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky made his feature debut as director with this controversial in its day item, which provoked riots at its initial screenings and made him one of the most famous filmmakers in Mexico, even if not many were admitting to liking his works much. It was clear he had started as he meant to go on, provocatively and without regard to whether the audience were going along with him or not, with the result that many will find it hard to make any sense of this even if it does come across as containing its own logic, as if Jodorowsky was not simply messing about with his camera and ideas.
Nevertheless, Fando y Lis is not the easiest of watches, even for this director, as there was little real plot, more a series of bizarre vignettes built around Jodorowsky's usual obsessions with sex and death, so there is more than one funeral here, indeed such ceremonies seem to have been preoccupying him to the point of distraction. There's a bit late on in this where Lis observes wearily to her boyfriend that they don't seem to have made any progress and might as well have stayed in the same place for all the difference it has made, and the less hardy viewer may find themselves sympathising with her, if they've actually reached that far in the film.
Unlike his other movies, Jodorowsky shot this one in black and white, which renders it looking ever bleaker than it already is, but for some that stark imagery will be an attraction. This was all based around memories of a surrealist play he had directed some time before, so don't expect anything conventional as at times it appears as if they were barely filming with any kind of script, simply assembling the cast for that day in a patch of wasteland and rolling the cameras. Even then, this doesn't quite feel wholly improvised, as if there was a philosophy behind what was ostensibly a collection of baffling sequences, as an integrity of thought emerges early on.
Not that prevents this from veering into the ridiculous at various stages, but what can you expect from a movie which one minute will have a group of extras taking a mass mudbath (resembling the later desert scenes of Zabriskie Point - was Michelangelo Antonioni a fan?), the next will have poker playing old ladies feeding their stakes - tinned apricots - to a half naked bloke sporting a moustache? If you like films that show you visuals you will have never seen anything like before, then Fando y Lis may well be ideal for you, but be warned patience is required as the tone is that of abject misery throughout, as if there was a post-apocalyptic theme going on to complement the relgious (some would say sacreligious) notions that are conjured up. Not that this is done too coherently, but you do get the general idea after a while; everyone had to start somewhere, and for fans of this creative talent, this will provide plenty of interest.
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