SANTA SANGRE
The movie then flashes back to Fenix as a child. His mother and father operate a circus. They have fled to Mexico because his father, Orgo, murdered a woman in the United States. Fenix has an innocent freindship with a deaf mute girl, Alma, who is being abused by her mother who is the circus' tatooed lady. His mother, Concha, is a religous fanatic who is the acolyte of a temple devoted to a saint that has not yet been recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, St. Lirio. The devotees of this sect (who incidently are all, or maybe mostly, women) wear a red robe with two white x's on the chest. This is a pretty blatant symbol for the double x chromosome which determines female sexuality genetically. We meet Concha with her congregation as they are defending the temple which honors Saint Lirio from the police who are trying to drive them away so a developer can bulldoze their church. A bishop arrives to mediate the situation. The congregation take him inside the the church.
The inside of the church looks like a cross between a Mexican Roman Catholic Church and a Roman Temple. The most prominent feature of the church is a large rectangular pool of red liquid which takes up most of the space within the church. Fenix's mother then explains the history of Saint Lirio to the bishop. The saint was a young girl who two thugs tried to rape in the alley where this church now stands. She resisted them so they cut off her arms and raped her anyway. A miracle occurred, though. She bled and bled; and the blood never dried as a testament to the wrongs done to her. The bishop then sticks his hand in the pool of blood and declares that it is paint. The congregation try to shout him down with declarations that this is holy blood. One young woman goes so far as to jump into the pool of blood. The bishop grabs a teenaged boy that came in with him and drags him out saying that he hopes that this heresy has not ruined his young mind.
It is hard to ignore the connection of this "holy blood" to that of menstrual blood. This is a temple of the feminine and within it the feminine is considered sacred. As the bishop runs out of the church he tells the police and the developer to bulldoze this sacrilege to the ground. As the bulldozer rolls forward the congregation scream and run out of the church. Only Concha stays. Ever the devout believer she rushes to the statue of the violated saint and holds it with ferocious devotion as the stone church comes crashing down around her. This entire scene could be interpreted as a rape scene. We have the representatives of masculine society (the police representing the government, the developer representing business, and the bishop representing masculine dominated religion) destroying the last sanctuary of the feminine. This is symbolic of woman's loss of power in our male dominated world. It also foreshadows the rest of the film.
Remember that this is also witnessed by Fenix as a child. After he witnesses this, he and his mother return to the circus where they catch his father cavorting with the tatooed lady. Words cannot adequately describe this scene. While the tatooed lady does not touch him or undress she does move her body in an extremely unconventional manner which may be describe as lewd, but would better be described as perverted and raunchy. Most viewers will find themselves more disgusted and disturbed than aroused. At on point she grasps her ankles and moves her posterior as if it was an elephant. This is important because Jodorowsky seems to use elephants as a symbol of male sexuality throughout this film. After being caught by his wife this leads to a huge confrontation which ends with Orgo seducing his wife by removing his clothes. I would like to mention at this point that Fenix's father is played by Guy Stockwell and one may find oneself screaming, "NO!!! PUT IT BACK ON!!!" at the screen. It is also important to note that Orgo seems to hypnotize his wife with a knife. It is symbolic of the hold he has over her.
Orgo and Concha retire to a private location but Fenix sneaks a peak of them having sex (his mother is still wearing the red robe of her sect, or is it sex?). After seeing this, he visits a very sick and dying elephant. The elephant spits blood up through it's trunk and moans woefully. "Please! Don't Die!", Fenix begs the elephant. This is symbolic of the death of something within Fenix which will become clearer as the movie progresses. A very strange funeral is held for the elephant. The circus holds a funeral procession through town in which the performers dress in black mourning versions of their performance clothing; except for Fenix who is dressed in the robes of his mother's sect. The casket of the elephant is hauled to a garbage dump on the back of a flat bed truck. They dump the casket over a cliff into the dump where inhabitants of a nearby shanty town rip it open and pull out huge chunks of elephant meat while cheering (I realize what you are thinking; but a lot of this stuff just has to be seen to be believed).
Fenix witnessing all of this is in tears. His father berates him handles him roughly and calls him a woman. He then tells Fenix to come with him so that he can make a man out of Fenix. He brings Fenix to a house where he rips the top of the robe off of Fenix's chest and ties Fenix's hands to a chair. Orgo then proceeds to tatoo Fenix's chest with the exact same tatoo which is on his own chest. The theme of the passage into manhood is very prominent here. In extremely masculine dominated cultures little boys are often seen as feminine and must go through rites to pass into manhood. After giving Fenix the tatoo his father dresses Fenix in a child sized outfit of his own clothes. After Fenix leaves the house he runs into the deaf mute girl who is his freind. She is curious about his new tatoo and clothing; but she does not understand. Fenix has changed; his innocense died with the elephant.
During a performance one night Orgo sneaks off with the tatooed lady. Concha sees this and follows them. Fenix tries to follow his mother but she locks him in a trailer where he cannot act but can see everything. It is a strong representation of the powerlessness of his childhood. Concha catches Orgo right before he is about to have sex with the tatooed lady, and throws acid on his crotch. Concha then laughs in his face and Orgo cuts off his wife's arms which land amongst a bunch of chickens which peck at them. Keep in mind that young Fenix is witnessing all of this. Orgo stumbles away grasping the ruin of his crotch. The union between himself and his wife has led to their castration of each other. He gazes at the circus tent where his circus is performing inside, oblivious to the carnage outside. And slits his throat in front of Alma and some clowns. The tatooed lady runs outside throws Alma into the back of her VW van and takes off. Fenix has seen his entire world destroyed in the course of a few minutes. This is why he is in a mental institution as a man.
This ends the first half of the film (the film is only about two hours long). In the second half of the film (which I will not go to far into because I don't want to give away any spoilers) Fenix's mother, Concha, comes to get him out of the mental institution. Fenix now acts as her arms, literally. She wears clothes with arm holes that Fenix sticks his hands through so that she can use them as her arms. Concha uses Fenix's arms to take revenge and kill her sons lovers. there is an interesting take on the virgin/whore theme in this part of the movie. Also Concha makes an interesting figure. Having no arms she is the loss of power of women embodied; but she also is similar to an ancient Greek or Roman statue that has lost it's arms due to the ruins of time.
