I met Alejandro Jodorowsky when El Topo was a hit, playing midnights at New York's Elgin Theater. I think I was the first American to review it—under the title "Midnight Mass at the Elgin"—for the Village Voice. It's hard to believe that El Topo, the greatest midnight movie of all time, has never been released on tape or DVD. Same for the others. The reason? A disagreement between Jodorowsky and Allen Klein—the man who managed the Stones and the Beatles, and who controlled the rights.

So there was Jodorowsky, sitting in Klein's chair in a corner office on the 41st floor. His smile and peaceful manner helped my hangover, and we had a good talk in front of the cameras. The interview was taped as an extra for the DVDs that will now appear, thanks to Alejandro and Allen hugging and making up after about thirty years of disagreement.

Jodorowsky looks wonderful. I guess you should if you're in the healing business, and that's what he does these days. He's into what he calls "psychomagic." But he didn't put a spell on Klein. I think Klein's kids did. They are fans of the Chilean surrealist's films, which are extraordinary and fabulously eccentric. Sort of Fellini meets Clint Eastwood with a little Bunuel, Dali, and Golden Dawn Society thrown in. I think these films will find a whole new generation ready to blow their minds on them. But Jodorowsky doesn't recommend blowing minds on other things. He's against drugs because illegal drugs support criminals and violent behavior. He's anti-violence, and the one thing he doesn't like about his old films today is that some animals were injured in their making. I told him that last night I was showing my wife The Holy Mountain and, when it came to the scene where a lot of frogs on a Mexican pyramid seem to get sacrificed, I said, "Don't worry, dear. No frogs were harmed in the making of this picture." But then when the pyramid blew up it was pretty clear I was wrong.

The man has definitely mellowed. He says the old Jodorowsky was an idealist, and that today he's a realist. But he's a funky realist who reads tarot cards for the President of Chile. She's the only politician he likes. He considers the rest of today's leaders idiots. He also expressed his dislike for actors, who are "idiots and monsters." He made his last film with Peter O'Toole, and that seems to have put him off actors permanently.

Jodorowsky is planning on making a new film next spring. He'll be eighty then, but he's still going strong. But this time he's not doing it with actors and he doesn't want to do it for money. He wants to show it for free. To heal the world.