Inspirational Film – The Holy Mountain

A few weeks I had the pleasure of a visit to Kino – a regular film night in Elevator Gallery in Hackney Wick. It’s a great venue for a cinema club really cheap entry – I think it was £3 – and cheap beers too which is always a bonus. I seriously need to get out and do more cultural escapades. Being stuck in the studio really limits your creativity.

I went to see The Holy Mountain, a cult film directed by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. It reminded me of Dante’s Divina Commedia which I studied for my degree in Italian. I watched the film with no context in which to place it but strong religious allegories run throughout  and the inherent symbolism is the visual imagery was unavoidable. The characters in the film are on a similar journey of self-discovery to Dante as they climb the Holy Mountain to reach the Divine. It’s the kind of film you need to watch, study, then watch again which I will be doing once I’ve studied up and contextualised. I’m not going to go into great detail on the plot – Wikipedia that one yourself but it’s worth mentioning that Marilyn Manson, Santigold and MGMT have all shot videos inspired by scenes from The Holy Mountain.

Back to fashion…..so many religious, cult references – not to mention nudity – around at the moment. This film provides a seventies slant on the looks we’ve seen which are more about the dark arts. Seventies is trending strong already in commercial fashion with bell bottoms and stacked heels making their way back.

All in all, it’s a fantastically surreal film, simulatneously beautiful and arresting, wouldn’t advise watching it on a full stomach. There’s so much inspiration for graphics and fashion.

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