8 Arthouse Filmmakers You Didn’t Notice Released Films In 2016

Nicolas Winding Refn dedicated Drive to him, the Chilean-French theatre director, screenwriter, playwright, actor, writer, comic books writer, musician, poet, “psychomagician” and spiritual guru who once in a while makes films too. Perhaps the world is very much accustomed to hallucinogenic drugs at this point of history, but there were a couple of decades when a short, simple bicycle trip made some years before unleashed the most acidic revolution ever, helping Jodorowsky to become a midnight movie sensation.

He’s now far from those days when his psychedelic western El Topo bemused John Lennon, or when he almost shunted Star Wars aside with his thwarted attempt at filming the trippiest sci-fi flick of all time, but, although he swore he’d never film again after the failed The Rainbow Thief, he returned in 2013, 23 years later, with the first part of an autobiographical drama based on one of his books, The Dance of Reality.

In 2016 he released its sequel, Endless Poetry, screened during the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes. Yes, it drew even less attention to its veteran creator. For the moment, both entries just seem too crammed with surreal mumbo-jumbo, naïve treatment and not fully ripe ideas ("unadulterated Jodorowsky"), but they have the potential to grow into classics for fans; it’s just a matter of time.