Fando and Lis

Original title: Fando y Lis

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

6.4K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:22

1 Video

57 Photos

Adventure Fantasy

Fando and his partially-paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.Fando and his partially-paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.Fando and his partially-paralyzed lover Lis search for the mythical city of Tar. Based on Jodorowsky's memories of a play by surrealist Fernando Arrabal.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

6.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
When the film premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the first screening erupted into a riot. Director Alejandro Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine. When the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks. The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but fights broke out in the audiences and the film was banned by the Mexican government. Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the scandal provided a lot of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.

Quotes
Fando's Father: Let's play. Okay, I'm a famous pianist.
Young Fando: If you're a famous pianist, and I cut off your arm... then what will you do?
Fando's Father: I'll become a famous painter.
Young Fando: And if I cut off the other one, what will you do?
Fando's Father: I'll become a famous dancer.
Young Fando: And if I cut off your legs, then what?
Fando's Father: Then I'll become a famous singer.
Young Fando: And if I cut off your head, then what?
Fando's Father: Once dead, my skin will become a beautiful drum.
Young Fando: What if I burn the drum?
Fando's Father: I will become a cloud and take on any shape.
Young Fando: And if the cloud dissolves, what then?
Fando's Father: I will become rain and produce a harvest of wars!
Young Fando: You win. I'm going to miss you when you're gone.
Fando's Father: If you ever feel too lonely... search for the magical city of Tar.

Alternate versions
Shortly after Federico Fellini's Satyricon (1969) was released to appreciative audiences in the USA, an English dubbed version was hurriedly released that was re-edited to appear more "Felliniesque" and was 13 minutes shorter than the original edit. It was a critical and financial flop.

Connections
Featured in La constellation Jodorowsky (1994)

User reviews38

Review

Featured review

10/10

Compares favorably to Fellini

I think Fando and Lis is a masterpiece, and one of the least pretentious films I've seen. As it's 2 am and I've just watched it, I am not in a position to be articulate, but I'll sum up my reasons in the following, then come back in a few days and further the commentary.

1. I was never once bored. 2. How the hell did the director get this made, and have all the actors and extras participate in what to them must have seemed embarrassing and weird sacrilege? 3. It was epic poetic fantasy, using creative theatrical games, fresh play of props and brilliant mise en scene - tapping into all kinds of primal emotions, fears and desires. 4. He makes good the limits of the medium. Even the high contrast black-and- white served its purpose; when Fando tries to convince Lis there are flowers, the surrounding many stones and bric-a-brac suggest flowers to the viewer. Where faded acoustics must have reigned given the budget and desert landscape, he fills the soundtrack with compelling auditory images. 5. It's a combination of Fellini's 81/2 (the bewildered director as lover) and La Strada, but even more personal; with more guts; rawer, fresher. 6. Who could deny the plaintively lovely Lis? The forlorn fawning seductress? And wasn't Fando a charming and silly chap, full of fondness for living when he wasn't cast in the role of the brute? And wasn't their chemistry palpable?

Above all, I was moved. I recognized it both as a simple love story toting the truism that love has no road map, and a cry from the wilderness. It was authentic scream of a soul to FEEL the experience of living, good and bad. Watch this film when you're lost - when your heart aches with unfulfilled desires - you want your dead parents back or the lover you mistreated. Watch it then. You'll know what the hell it's about.