Alice is a 1988 surrealist daker fantasy film written and directed by Jan Svankmajer. The film is an adaptation of Lewis Carrolls Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland about a girl who chases a white rabbit into a bizarre fantasy land. Alice is the greatest and most unique adaption of Alice in Wonderland I’ve ever seen it is a weird and unique film with amazing stop motion effects and a grimy style that helps to exemplify the otherworldly nightmare elements of wonderland.
The direction of the film is great. Everything is very weird surreal and disgusting in a very Czechoslovakian way and if you have watched any Czech films, you will not what I mean. I really like the way the characters within the film are depicted as crazy individuals which makes perfect sense as due to the fact this is wonderland everything would be nuts. The film is filled with fantastic unique direction such as the sped-up footage when allice runs form her world into wonderland which is seemliness.
The film is full of fantastic direction such as her transition into Wonderland were the shot transitioning between the floorboards between her room and wonderland which is perfect seamless editing. The shot where Alice runs and climbs into the draw is like the toilet scene in Trainspotting then falling through a bucket into different areas like a lift is interesting and that type of imagery is often throughout the film. Again, certain imagery in the film such as Alice’s tears turning into a flooded room is great surrealist imagery complement with an unusual segment were a sailor mouse cooks food on her head. This version of Alice in Wonderland has Alice towing brick at the white rabbit and the white rabbit throwing plates at her I love the raw nature of wonderland presented in this film.
Other direction later that is great is the mad matter and the march hair hiding the white rabbit, I love the fact that in this version of Alice in Wonderland everyone is a dick. During the climax of the film the queen gets angry when she deviates from her script at the trail. This scene could very much be taken two ways. On one hand it exposes the corruption of wonderland however, Alice already knows she did something wrong and is lying, further indicated by her tampering with the evidence by eating one of the cakes.
The film ends on a genuinely disturbing note with the rabbit about to slice of her head however, she wakes up with elements of wonderland all around her in the form of toys indicating that it is all a dream. That is until she sees the smashed glass the rabbit broke out off. Alice brandishing a pair of scissors saying the rabbit is late and she will cut of her head is unsettling as we don’t on whether she has giving into the madness of wonderland and has decided to kill its inhabitants or whether she is just purely mad herself.
The acting is a hard topic the judge as the film is effectively a one woman show. Kristyna Kohoutova does a good job despite her young age and her performance being a one woman show. The way she acts at the beginning of the film is weird were she throws rocks into tea, but it helps to establish the tone. Despite only interacting with non-human acts, she does a good such as the scene with the baby inside the tiny house or laying croquet with the queen using a flamingo and pin cushion, she does a good job despite only being with imamate objects. She also does strange stuff throughout the film such as when she eats wood to make a house grow bigger and looks after a baby which is a sort of aristocratic animal.
The writing in the film is good. There is a genuine love of Alice in Wonderland permeating throughout the film as the film really does feel like a fairy tale. The scenes where Alice is talking directly to the camera really help to sell the weird nature of the film. Another thing I really like about this adaptation is that Alice is kind of a dick. She throws bricks and the white. Rabbit only for the white rabbit to throw bricks back showing there is not real good guy in this story. The red queen acts like a stereotype saying off with their heads. This dark twisted version of wonderland is further indicated by the character of the rabbit who acts like a villain being the executioner for the queen cutting the mad hatters and march hairs heads off only for them to reattach the wrong heads.
The cinematography in the film is good. The film is filled with weird close ups and still shots highlighting the grim nature of the film. The film has a dirty gritty look that works well as everything in the film looks disgusting. There are some brilliant POV shots and close ups of the rabbit’s face as he runs. Other shots that are great are the scenes in the lift where she descends downwards and when she falls from the flooded area to a patch of grass in a seamless editing transition.
The special effects in the film are honestly amazing and the best part of the film. The stop motion of the rabbit is brilliant, with him breaking out of his box, putting his uniform on, and patching himself is brilliant. There is a great scene were the rabbit eats sawdust to help patch himself up which is a nice detail. The film has him costly losing sawdust to get his pocket watch out and him solving the problem with a safety pin is a nice detail. There’s great stop motion throughout the film such as her failing thought the bucket. Another stop motion part that is great is when Alice falls though the celling and the hole repairing itself and well as leaves going back into the draw via reverse footage all of which looks amazing. When Alice drinks the potion that makes her smaller, she turns into a stop motion doll which is a unique way of showcasing the shrinking in the film and showcases great animation, also the animation used as she reverts to normal form which is great to as well as the stop motion of her swimming and transitioning back to a normal person is also great.
Little details like the way that sawdust is used to treat medical wounds is a nice touch. The stop motion skeletal remains of the animals are fantastic imagery and then the mad hatter pelting rocks and Alice only for her to turn back to normal is great animation. There is lots of cleaver little details such as the sawdust being spooned back into one of the creatures via a funnel or the rabbit axing his way through the door to get after Alice like a scene from The Shining.
There is also a great use of special effects when Alice is lured into a vat of milk. After this she grows normal size but still in the doll form on the outside imprisoning her. She is them dragged away and locked up before she rips the prison open.
The film is filled with amazing stop motion imagery such as skulls hatching from eggs and nails appearing from bread all of which giving of a true nightmare vibe. The scene in which sentient socks as wood worms come in and out of the floorboards is again another amazing nightmare image. This animation gets even more insane when the sock turns into a caterpillar with eyes and a mouth. Another unique scene is when the trees grow and shrink with the pieces of wood and allows her to turn into a doll. There is so much great animation such as the mad hatter being an old wooden puppet and the march hair being wound up and using a wheelchair with them repeating the same movements repeatedly. Also, the stop motion cut outs of the two playing cards having a sword fight and the playing card animals turning real again showcasing amazing unique animation.
Alice is one of my favourite films of all time. It is a brilliant unique surrealist trip through wonderland being of the most disturbing but imaginative and unique films ever made.