NotArrogant.com - Jan Svankmajer's Alice (Neco z Alenky)

Jan Svankmajer's Alice (Neco z Alenky)

Written by John Rozewicki

Monday, 26 June 2006

Not Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Neco z Alenky is a very thick, heavy, worked-over version of Alice in Wonderland. It is heavily adapted from the original text, pieces are missing, pieces have been added, and themes have been changed.

Visuals

The film was produced in 1988 and uses a mixture of stop-motion and live-action techniques to create the world from the children's story. The imagery is visceral and will elicit an immediate reaction from all but the most jaded of viewers. Sadly, some viewers might not be able to get on board with this movie for technical reasons. The plainness of the backgrounds and the startling pieces used to tell the story give it a timeless dreary quality, but ultimately the movie dates itself in the smoothness of the animation. Scene from Neco z Alenky

At first the jerky style is slightly jarring, but as more of the world is brought to life through stop-motion you become used to it and view it as another suspension of reality in a story that is filled with nothing but suspension after suspension of reality. I loved it. Smooth animation was not something the director seemed to be intending. Attempts at smoother animation might have lead to a more cartoon-like presentation. The very creepiness of the movie lies in odd portrayals of painful realism. At times real slabs of meat are animated as creatures in a way that seems altogether too natural. Animals stuffed with sawdust become beings that actually seem to care about their own self-preservation in odd ways and many creatures are portrayed by only their skeletons; as in the picture shown to the left.

Sound

The sound in the movie is quiet but rather remarkable that way. The sounds you do hear are important. You know this because they're there and repeated heavily. Neco z Alenky tends to use sound to establish just how barren and simple this world is. The deprivation of sound in this movie goes a long way in creating the proper mood. Most sounds are very pronounced versions of their real world counterparts. Things like doors creaking and keys turning are louder but slightly clipped in favor of the silence. Most people will pick up on the purpose of all this simplicity not long into the movie. I assure you it does have a purpose.

Different, But Not Bad

As I said before, as an adaptation, there are many liberties that have been taken with the source material. Changes to the source material are not altogether a bad thing. Changes mean that at the very least the audience will be surprised by this new work. When a person is making an adaptation or derivative work I feel there is a certain obligation to create something new for audiences. At the minimum the pieces of the of the puzzle should be rearranged slightly to keep the audience on their toes.

No Comparison

Purity is good when talking about the original work, but it must be clear as to which work we are talking about. We cannot view a derivative work through the same lens the original is viewed. Works of different formats are created for different purposes and through different means. Many film adaptations of books are so different as to be incomparable. Neco z Alenky is clearly not children's literature.

Not Boring

I love this movie for the reverse reason of why I've always hated going to stage productions of stories I already know. A contemporary example would be the stage production of Wicked. It is a derivative work set in the world of Oz. The stage production of this work was far more interesting to audiences than any strict purist stage retelling of The Wizard of Oz ever could be. Audiences were surprised and they loved it. They wanted something different.

Other Retellings

Alice in Wonderland is a story that has been retold in various forms an amazing number of times for a story that's only 140 years old. Most people today are most familiar with the surprisingly short 1951, Disney adaptation. It's a pretty decent telling of the story, but I do take issue with the toned down way in which the story is told. The children's book is appropriately scary at times, silly much of the time, depressing some of the time, but ultimately uplifting in the end. Disney's film is like a filed down version of a saw that once had teeth; you could probably use it to cut something, but why would you?

Irwin Allen from 1985

Interestingly, I never saw the Disney animated version of the movie as a child. We had a ton of Disney movies but for some reason this one was simply unavailable. Instead, I enjoyed a much edgier made-for-tv adaptation from 1985 that holds up pretty well today. It was aired a year before I was born, but was made a staple of my childhood through a home-made VHS copy that I still have today. I love this made-for-tv movie. Parts of it simply horrified me as a child, but I do not view that as a bad thing. Alice, herself, was very scared of the Jabberwocky. It only seems appropriate that the viewer be appropriately afraid of this monster. The ending, when I could make it past the intense Jabberwocky scenes, felt sweeter because of this. My childhood dream is finally coming true. On August 1st, I can retire my old VHS copy in favor of the Official DVD release. In the past, the only way to experience this was by tracking down the very rare 2-tape VHS release from the 90's or by buying a bootleg capture of it on DVD off eBay.

Conclusion

Neco z Alenky is a good movie. The visual style is compressed. There is a lot to look at. Its take on the story of Alice is constantly surprising and unexpected. This is a very odd movie. I'm sure that many people will not like this movie, but it is so unique that I feel it deserves attention still. Whether you like it or not, this movie is an interesting ride.