Fando y Lis
Encyclopedia
Fando y Lis is a film adaptation of a Fernando Arrabal
play by the same name, and it is Alejandro Jodorowsky
's first feature length film. Arrabal was working with Jodorowsky on performance art
at the time. The film was done in black and white on the weekends with a small budget.
ACT I
This first part begins with a flashback of young Fando hanging around with his father. The father says that when he dies, his skin would make a beautiful drum, and that, if ever Fando should ever feel lonely, he should go to the wonderful city of Tar. Fando and Lis begin their journey in a destroyed city (Fando drives Lis in a small wooden cart, which also carries Fando's drum and Lis' phonograph), where they meet a group of aristocrats having a ball in the midst of the destruction. Fando is lured away by a group of seductresses into a junkyard, where he is blinded and made to chase after them. In the end he is tricked into kissing a man and paid for amusing them. Meanwhile, Lis is surrounded by the arisocrats and a flashback
occurs, where we see young Lis being lured backstage by a puppeteer (played by Jodorowsky) and being harassed by the artists yonder. Fando throws the money away and goes back to get Lis and leave the city. They hang around in a cemetery: Lis sings "I shall die, and no-one shall remember me..." and Fando reassures her that he will remember her and will visit her grave bringing a flower and a dog. A musical sequence follows, "Qué bonito es un entierro" (how beautiful is a funeral), during which the couple play dead and cavort around the cemetery.
ACT II
Fando and Lis pull into what appears to be a dead end until they are guided out by the Pope, who also signals the road to Tar. He also advises them against the coming of the night, which is signaled by the beating of drums, "for those who are asleep become awake". Shortly afterwards the couple come across a marsh in which the bodies of men and women lie asleep. As they approach, they wake up and bathe in mud. Fando leaves Lis behind, planting her in the muddy swamp, much to her chagrin, but changes his mind and rescues her shortly after. Not long afterwards, however, he becomes tired of Lis and mistreats her, dragging her across the desert and abandoning her at the bottom of a spiraling canyon. Fando runs away and upon reaching a mountain top witnesses a card game between three old ladies, playing for the right to suck fruit pulp off a young man's mouth. Fando runs away from the scene and into an ambush composed of desert women armed with bowling balls and a scantily clad woman with a whip. The group chases Fando and sends him tumbling down a hill and right next to the grave of his father, who proceeds to come back to life and send his son into the tomb. Fando eventually goes back to Lis and the two leave. He promises never to hurt her again.
ACT III
A sequence of scantily-clothed Fando and Lis follows, painting each others' names in black in a room and proceeding to throw buckets of paint at the walls and at each other. Back in the desert, the couple come across an array of different characters: a man and his blind son begging for blood (which they extract from Lis but the father drinks and leaves nothing for his son), a party of transvestites (who cross-dress Fando and Lis) and an apparition of Fando's mother (who is then shown in a flashback along young Fando, in which we see her death and how she taunted Fando's father - her servants are the young women from Act II), now begging to be killed. Fando subsequently strangles her with her own hair and walks her to her grave.
ACT IV
Yet again, Fando becomes tired of Lis, and tearing her clothes apart, chains her up to the cart and hides nearby. He leaves her to the mercy of three men (the clowns from the circus flashback of Lis' childhood)) who slowly approach the scene. Fando reappears and encourages the men to look at her and feel her and kiss her. They do so, but shyly walk away after Fando proudly claims she is his girlfriend. The couple drifts some more but constantly reaches the same barren spot between the mountains. Lis points it out and a frustrated Fando charges against the hills, but to no avail. He then proceeds to handcuff Lis and torture her once more. In retaliation, she throws Fando's treasured drum away, breaking it. An enraged Fando beats Lis up, killing her. Lis is taken away by a mob, who puts her in a coffin and cannibalize parts of her skin. Fando interrupts the ceremony to retrieve Lis' body and eventually bury her.
In the film's last scene, Fando visits Lis' grave as promised with a flower and a dog. Calling her name, he lies down by the grave and is covered by crawling ivy. Then, we see a naked Lis rising from the grave, spotting an also naked Fando, and the couple running off into the woods. But we cut back to Fando, lying by Lis' grave, calling her name in dreams, wrapped in ivy.
Fando y Lis, with thirteen minutes cut from it, was released in New York to generally negative reviews, with many critics comparing it unfavorably to Satyricon
which had recently opened.
According to Jodorowsky's commentary on the DVD, the audience was enraged at the "corrupting content" of the film. Indeed, the director found himself fleeing for his life at the festival, finally to be whisked away in a limo, which was heavily bombarded by stones thrown by the angry mob. However, the film's controversy didn't stop there. In fact, the film was banned from Mexico by the government, and Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported for the madness the film had created. One of the scenes he points out as being especially disliked involves white-haired women gambling for the chance to suck fruit pits out of a man's mouth. The commentary also states that Sergio Klainer was spreading a rumor that Alejandro Jodorowsky was a vampire
, since he insisted that Mariscal's actual blood be used in a scene where a man drinks Lis' blood. At the film premiere, Diana Mariscal was noticed to be abnormally thin causing even more conjecture about vampirism. Jodorowsky claims she had become thin from an eating disorder
.
Fernando Arrabal
Fernando Arrabal Terán is a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, novelist and poet. He settled in France in 1955, he describes himself as “desterrado,” or “half-expatriate, half-exiled.”...
play by the same name, and it is Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky, known as Alejandro Jodorowsky, is a Chilean filmmaker, playwright, actor, author, comic book writer and spiritual guru...
's first feature length film. Arrabal was working with Jodorowsky on performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
at the time. The film was done in black and white on the weekends with a small budget.
Plot
The film follows Fando (Sergio Klainer) and his paraplegic girlfriend Lis (Diana Mariscal) through a barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland in search of the mythical city of Tar, where legend has it all wishes come true. The film is divided into four "acts":ACT I
This first part begins with a flashback of young Fando hanging around with his father. The father says that when he dies, his skin would make a beautiful drum, and that, if ever Fando should ever feel lonely, he should go to the wonderful city of Tar. Fando and Lis begin their journey in a destroyed city (Fando drives Lis in a small wooden cart, which also carries Fando's drum and Lis' phonograph), where they meet a group of aristocrats having a ball in the midst of the destruction. Fando is lured away by a group of seductresses into a junkyard, where he is blinded and made to chase after them. In the end he is tricked into kissing a man and paid for amusing them. Meanwhile, Lis is surrounded by the arisocrats and a flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
occurs, where we see young Lis being lured backstage by a puppeteer (played by Jodorowsky) and being harassed by the artists yonder. Fando throws the money away and goes back to get Lis and leave the city. They hang around in a cemetery: Lis sings "I shall die, and no-one shall remember me..." and Fando reassures her that he will remember her and will visit her grave bringing a flower and a dog. A musical sequence follows, "Qué bonito es un entierro" (how beautiful is a funeral), during which the couple play dead and cavort around the cemetery.
ACT II
Fando and Lis pull into what appears to be a dead end until they are guided out by the Pope, who also signals the road to Tar. He also advises them against the coming of the night, which is signaled by the beating of drums, "for those who are asleep become awake". Shortly afterwards the couple come across a marsh in which the bodies of men and women lie asleep. As they approach, they wake up and bathe in mud. Fando leaves Lis behind, planting her in the muddy swamp, much to her chagrin, but changes his mind and rescues her shortly after. Not long afterwards, however, he becomes tired of Lis and mistreats her, dragging her across the desert and abandoning her at the bottom of a spiraling canyon. Fando runs away and upon reaching a mountain top witnesses a card game between three old ladies, playing for the right to suck fruit pulp off a young man's mouth. Fando runs away from the scene and into an ambush composed of desert women armed with bowling balls and a scantily clad woman with a whip. The group chases Fando and sends him tumbling down a hill and right next to the grave of his father, who proceeds to come back to life and send his son into the tomb. Fando eventually goes back to Lis and the two leave. He promises never to hurt her again.
ACT III
A sequence of scantily-clothed Fando and Lis follows, painting each others' names in black in a room and proceeding to throw buckets of paint at the walls and at each other. Back in the desert, the couple come across an array of different characters: a man and his blind son begging for blood (which they extract from Lis but the father drinks and leaves nothing for his son), a party of transvestites (who cross-dress Fando and Lis) and an apparition of Fando's mother (who is then shown in a flashback along young Fando, in which we see her death and how she taunted Fando's father - her servants are the young women from Act II), now begging to be killed. Fando subsequently strangles her with her own hair and walks her to her grave.
ACT IV
Yet again, Fando becomes tired of Lis, and tearing her clothes apart, chains her up to the cart and hides nearby. He leaves her to the mercy of three men (the clowns from the circus flashback of Lis' childhood)) who slowly approach the scene. Fando reappears and encourages the men to look at her and feel her and kiss her. They do so, but shyly walk away after Fando proudly claims she is his girlfriend. The couple drifts some more but constantly reaches the same barren spot between the mountains. Lis points it out and a frustrated Fando charges against the hills, but to no avail. He then proceeds to handcuff Lis and torture her once more. In retaliation, she throws Fando's treasured drum away, breaking it. An enraged Fando beats Lis up, killing her. Lis is taken away by a mob, who puts her in a coffin and cannibalize parts of her skin. Fando interrupts the ceremony to retrieve Lis' body and eventually bury her.
In the film's last scene, Fando visits Lis' grave as promised with a flower and a dog. Calling her name, he lies down by the grave and is covered by crawling ivy. Then, we see a naked Lis rising from the grave, spotting an also naked Fando, and the couple running off into the woods. But we cut back to Fando, lying by Lis' grave, calling her name in dreams, wrapped in ivy.
Reaction
When the film premiered at the 1968 Acapulco film festival, a full scale riot broke out. The film was later banned in Mexico.Fando y Lis, with thirteen minutes cut from it, was released in New York to generally negative reviews, with many critics comparing it unfavorably to Satyricon
Satyricon (film)
Satyricon is a 1969 Italian fantasy drama film written and directed by Federico Fellini. It is loosely based on Petronius's work, Satyricon, a series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome.-Plot:The film opens on a graffiti-covered...
which had recently opened.
According to Jodorowsky's commentary on the DVD, the audience was enraged at the "corrupting content" of the film. Indeed, the director found himself fleeing for his life at the festival, finally to be whisked away in a limo, which was heavily bombarded by stones thrown by the angry mob. However, the film's controversy didn't stop there. In fact, the film was banned from Mexico by the government, and Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported for the madness the film had created. One of the scenes he points out as being especially disliked involves white-haired women gambling for the chance to suck fruit pits out of a man's mouth. The commentary also states that Sergio Klainer was spreading a rumor that Alejandro Jodorowsky was a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
, since he insisted that Mariscal's actual blood be used in a scene where a man drinks Lis' blood. At the film premiere, Diana Mariscal was noticed to be abnormally thin causing even more conjecture about vampirism. Jodorowsky claims she had become thin from an eating disorder
Eating disorder
Eating disorders refer to a group of conditions defined by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and mental health. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are the most common specific...
.