Given his wild reputation, Alejandro Jodorowsky is — to use the lingo of the 1960s era that fostered him — a pretty mellow cat. This, after all, is the guy who once claimed: “Most directors make films with their eyes. I make films with my cojones.” Now 77, the Chilean émigré has a vibe that is more avuncular than the imperious aura of the macho shaman he portrayed in the classic cult movies El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973).
Visiting this fall for the New York Film Festival’s revival …

December 7, 2007
“Industrial Light and Magic” takes on a whole other level of meaning in David Lynch’s 1977 debut feature. “Eraserhead” was ushered into an unsuspecting world during the same season as “Star Wars” and, in its infinitely perverse manner, was just as much a mythic fable destined to infiltrate pop culture and generate a cult audience of repeat viewers.
Part of the appeal was the film’s disturbing Freudian imagery and deadpan bleak mise-en-scène: It was like watching Todd Browning’s “Freaks” directed by Samuel Beckett, a bad acid …