Jan Švankmajer
Alice
Něco z Alenky
CS, CH, GB, FRG
1988, 86', cs
Age 12+

 

Down, down, down. Bored, Alice and her sister toss stones into the river. Suddenly, there's a cup of black tea in front of her, with the very same stones pouring in. Uninvited, the White Rabbit arrives to tempt her to climb into a desk drawer. She agrees. Down, down, down they go... As they arrive in Wonderland, a dreamy odyssey unfolds – she meets a sock with prosthetics, experiences a flood in a tiny room, and journeys towards the court of the Queen and King of Hearts. Dolls, strings, keys, tin cans, stuffed animals, and glass eyes. Scenes more vigorous than life itself. 

A surrealist bedtime story with a touch of gothic horror for grown-up children. The idea to interpret Lewis Carroll’s Alice never really left Švankmajer. After his short films in the 70s and 80s, where he fleshed out his idiosyncratic world, he decided to return to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). He considered it to be the greatest literary masterpiece in the history of our civilization. Contrary to the typical fairy tale genre, this Annecy Film Festival’s Best Feature prize winner is a radical dream on screen – its irrational lyricism will shake anyone out of the slumber of the real world.