Panic Movement

Panic Movement (Mouvement panique) was a collective formed by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roland Topor in Paris, France in 1962. Inspired by and named after the god Pan, and influenced by Luis Buñuel and Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, the group concentrated on chaotic performance art and surreal imagery.

The Panic Movement performed theatrical events designed to be shocking, as a response to surrealism becoming petite bourgeoisie and to release destructive energies in search of peace and beauty. One four-hour performance known as Sacramental Melodrama was staged in May 1965 at the Paris Festival of Free Expression. The "happening" starred Jodorowsky dressed in motorcyclist leather and featured him slitting the throats of two geese, taping two snakes to his chest and having himself stripped and whipped. Other scenes included a staged murder of a rabbi, a crucified chicken, a giant vagina giving birth to Jodorowsky, naked women covered in honey and the throwing of live turtles into the audience.

Arrabal and Jodorowsky later started to work also on film. Arrabal is well-known for his 1971 film Viva la muerte and 1973 film I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse. Jodorowsky achieved even greater popularity and a cult status with Fando y Lis, El Topo and The Holy Mountain.

Jodorowsky dissolved the Panic Movement in 1973, after the release of Arrabal's book Le panique.

References

• NY Times: Alejandro Jodorowsky
• Paris Voice: Theatre as therapy
• Cinema panique