How long have you been living in Paris? Eternity.
Then you must like it there? I don't live in France, I live in myself.
Was it intentional when you released El Topo to receive cult adoration, or was it accidental? I read an Indian book which said "think of the work not of the product of the work." I don't think of whether or not it will have success. It's not my thing. I don't work for money, this you need to know. It's very important when you see my pictures. Because you're American, maybe you won't understand this? I don't believe in my pictures, I believe in making art. I believe in soul expression. I believe in humor, but other pictures don't believe in this.
After Holy Mountain you began production on an adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune. Unfortunately the film was never made. How do you feel about this? For me it was fantastic. I made the script and about 3000 drawings. When the picture didn't happen, I continued Dune in Heavy Metal Comics. You know, I started making it before Star Wars. In Hollywood at the time, they didn't believe in making a big show of Science Fiction. I discovered and worked with H. R. Giger and Dan O'Bannon, who later worked on Alien.
After Dune , you made the film Tusk in India. The film was a bit of a disaster and never got released in America. Don't see Tusk. I bury that film. In India they paint an elephant. You see you've an elephant between the legs, and the scrotum, and your balls. I wanted to be sitting on the neck of an elephant, in order to know why they were painting it.
Did you really eat elephant food for 4 months, too? No, but I drank milk of elephant. It's incredible! They brought me milk of a mother elephant, and I never had a mother as an elephant. My mother was not similar to an elephant, she was similar to a whale.
You've got a different perception of mothers, especially in your film Santa Sangre. Is the mother in the film autobiographical of your own mother? Everything is autobiographical (laughs)!
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