One of the trademark signs of surrealistic filmmaking is the use of ghosts, apparitions, or otherworldly figures as a means of allegorical symbolism. Now, this isn't the same as, say, the haunting seen in Lewis Allen's The Uninvited or Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist. These ghosts, or rather "ghosts", are purely there for symbolic and internal reasons as opposed to malicious beings. Oftentimes, they act as reflections of past people or societies, or spiritual connections to those lost. However, just as often, they are used as direct looks into the main characters' psyches and minds.
Alejandro Jodorowsky uses this in many of his works, as one of the world's most renowned surrealists. Beginning his work as a circus clown followed by a stint as a theater director with a penchant for mime, Jodorowsky was always a fan of surrealistic movements and situations. In his first film, the short titled La Cravate, he uses the art of mime to tell an oddly proto-science fiction tale of body switching and the sale of severed heads. Starring, writing, and directing this first short, Jodorowsky uses overacted movements and unique framing to convey a seemingly hidden narrative. To be completely honest, La Cravate is an outlier in the grand scheme of Jodo's work, but it did establish Jodorowsky's love of the surreal.
Now, back to the ghosts: While La Cravate showed the beginning of his surrealistic inclinations, his first feature film Fando Y Lis takes them to another level. The film uses small vignettes to tell the story of Fando and Lis, as they journey together to find a lost city. The first of these vignettes immediately uses this ghostly theme in the form of a seemingly unchanged society. A group of people stand all over a post-apocalyptic wasteland of crumbled buildings and structures, including men in suits idly passing time, dancers dancing in the street, and a jazz band playing unfettered on a flaming piano. This sort of reflectionary apparition goes to demonstrate the disconnection with society by Fando and Lis, but also adds a few ancillary notes. For one, the burning (then destroyed) piano could arguably symbolize society's reckless descent into obliteration, which is surprisingly fitting in today's political climate. However, this sequence ends with a statement: "End of the first chant, and Tar was inside his head." This brings these strange happenings to a more internal, instead of external state. That said, none of these people are truly ghosts - they're real beings, a misogynistic and perverted bunch. However, that's what sets apart Jodorowsky and other surrealistic directors apart from simple horror directors.
Yet, Jodorowsky didn't stay away from using actual ghosts in his stories as well. One of the most prominent, and poignant, uses appears in the graphic novel Son of the Gun. The ghosts here are actual spirits, and they don't appear until the beginning of the third act, but they are still eminently Jodo-esque. The first of these is the main character Juan's sister, who he unknowingly kills earlier in the book. After meeting and sleeping with his mother, and then the full realization of what had occured, the two leave to head south and bring along the ghost of Juan's sister. Here, the ghosts are not ever-present. In fact, aside from in a few choice scenes, the ghost is rarely seen. It is used here to show the attachment past mistakes have on Juan and the movement of his story. Appearing later in the book, more ghosts appear including his mother and some of the fatalities brought on by Juan's younger brother, used to the same effect. A for the last ghost, that's Juan himself. After sacrificing his life to bring rain to religious people, he returns as an apparition to talk to his brother. Again, Jodorowsky fuses the supernatural with the natural to convey themes of familial regret and remorse. Jodorowsky's work, be it a comic about a gunslinger or a feature length head trip, always turns to be an analysis of the characters themselves - unflinching and brutally twisted visions of humanity's plight.
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