La Cravate (The Severed Heads) (1957)

This 20-minute short is surprisingly cute and innocuous, considering director Alejandro Jodorowsky's later work. Presumably, he discovered acid (and peyote, and...) sometime in the years between this film and "Fando y Lis." Jodorowsky himself plays the lead role as a naive lad who tries to improve his courtship success by swapping heads through a local merchant. The petite dealer removes her customers' heads as easily as unscrewing the top of a bottle. The illusion is primitively created through closeups and shared costumes, but has a lo-fi charm. There is no dialogue, and the story is wholly based in traditional pantomime (Jodorowsky was once part of Marcel Marceau's mime troupe). The ambience is very, very French, but foreshadows Jodorowsky's more extreme brand of surrealism to come. And the colors are wonderfully vivid, besides. It's interesting how the original title reflects the film's tone much better than the macabre American version.