Alice (1988)
"Neco z Alenky" (original title)

A surrealist re-visioning of Alice in Wonderland.

Director:

Jan Svankmajer

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novel), Jan Svankmajer

Stars:

Kristýna Kohoutová, Camilla Power

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Kristýna Kohoutová	...	Alice

Storyline

A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll's novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', mixing one live actor (Alice) with a large variety of stop-motion animated creatures, ranging from the complex (the White Rabbit) to the incredibly simple (the Caterpillar, consisting of a sock, a couple of glass eyes and a pair of false teeth). The original story is followed reasonably faithfully, though those familiar with this director's other films won't be the least bit surprised by the numerous digressions into Svankmajer territory, living slabs of meat and all. As the opening narration says, it's a film made for children... perhaps?

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Plot Keywords:

alice in wonderland | rabbit | stop motion animation | castle | miniaturization | 

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

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Details

Country:

Czechoslovakia Switzerland UK West Germany

Language:

Czech

Release Date:

November 1990 (Czechoslovakia)

Also Known As:

Alice

Company Credits

Production Co:

Channel Four Films, Condor Films, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min 86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the outdoor scene when Alice cuts her finger, she is obviously missing a front tooth.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Alice: Alice thought to herself... Alice thought to herself 'Now you will see a film... made for children... perhaps... ' But, I nearly forgot... you must... close your eyes... otherwise... you won't see anything.

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Connections

Version of Alice in Wonderland (1982)

User Reviews

Close your Eyes

The Alice books are one of the two richest works of literature yet produced. Of the best literature, Alice lends itself to cinematic reinterpretation. And this filmmaker has vision.

But Alice is a coherent work, following the 'apprentice' novel and having kabbalistic structure. This film is episodic, each episode conceived as a different world, connected only by doors. The stories establish an abstract world, a world of logic so pure that the weaknesses of logic are apparent. That's only in part attempted here.

Though in Czech, there is some dainty wordplay: Alice is messing about in her drawers. Initially, these contain drawing equipment, later scissors. The filmmakers' signature 'large person in small room' image is used here in the episode where 'Maryanne' (Alice plus her 'house) is attempted entry by Bill the lizard, Dodgson's image of sperm. Bill is mirrored later in the frog-footman, heavily phallic as is an introduced sequence where the feet themselves become penile, then advisory.

Svenkmajer understands the cards as Tarot, a seldom understood insight and adds a vignette of the March Hare and Hatter playing cards (almost certainly a nod to 'Seventh Seal'). There's some very good visual handling of inside/outside ambiguities, and stage/reality shifting -- this alone makes this project worth sharing. But aside from that, it seems that the magic of Alice's world has yet to be tapped by a filmmaker.

Note: in Carroll's vision, innocence trumps all: logic is seen as manmade and fallible. In this world confabulated reasoning threatens but no one really loses their head. Not so in Svenkmajer's bleak world. Heads really are lost. Innocence is at least dumbfounded and possibly unreal (those socks). Many heads are already decayed with only the skull remaining. Some beings are composed of empty skulls alone or with some ambulatory object. This is not a happy man, nor a world with any sunshine. I would not give these images to any child.