Saturday, 7 January 2012
Jonathan Miller's version of Alice in Wonderland may be difficult to
top, but I recently watched Czech filmaker Jan Švankmajer's Alice
(Something of Alice in the Czech) (1988) and would really recommend it.
It's a subversive and surreal take on the story which only loosely
follows the book rather than being a strict adaptation. That said, the
surreal and creepy, though also playful nature of the film seems close
to the book in spirit. As the essay in the DVD package says - Švankmajer
really captures the idea of adolescence as a time of trauma in this
hallucinatory film.
Alice is played by a real girl in the film most of the time, except when
she shrinks into a Vicorian bisque doll. The white rabbit is a
taxidermied animal come to life in stop motion animation - complete with
leaking sawdust stuffing. There is also a creepy selection of animals
created from skeletons, a pack of animated cards and some very uncanny
sock puppets.The narrator says "it's a story for children, maybe" at the
beginning and this is quite correct.
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