Saturday, May 21, 2016

Alice au pays des merveilles (1970)


French television director Jean-Christophe Averty enjoyed surrealist and psychedelic motifs in his works, and 20 years into his career, he put those skills to work in his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  Unlike many filmed versions before it, this Wonderland attempt to adapt the entire book as closely as possible.  To accomplish this, given how wordy the book can be, Averty chose to emphasize visual effects throughout the entire story.

Alice and the other characters act against a blue screen with animated sets, shapes, and images filling in the background.  Thus, many of the conversations are given visual representations in the fore-and-background (making the whole proceeding feel like an extended Sesame Street segment).  For example, as Alice is falling down the rabbit hole and thinks about her cat Dinah, images of her cat appear around her, joined by bats when she wonders if any are around underground.

The film runs just over two-hours, making it a nearly completely intact version of the story.  Chapter titles are even presented when appropriate.  Common omitted moments and conversations are found in this version.  Most of the drastic changes are due to the English-to-French translation which changes many of the puns and language centric moments of the story, but that's to be expected so I won't make note of every instance.


Original Source Breakdown

Alices' Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I: Down the Rabbit Hole - INTACT
Chapter II: The Pool of Tears - INTACT
(Because Alice is already speaking in French, she attempts to communicate with the Mouse in English.)

Chapter III: The Caucus-Race and a Long Tale - INTACT

Chapter IV: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill - MOSTLY INTACT
The first of two noticeable omissions finds the giant Puppy encounter removed.

Chapter V: Advice from a Caterpillar - MOSTLY INTACT
The second omission removes the Pigeon encounter (Alice still grows a serpentine neck, but only as she tries to settle at the right size).

Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper - INTACT/ALTERED
Director Averty had a controversial signature image of a baby being fed into a grinder.  So, of course, the Duchess's lullaby was the perfect time to include that sequence.

Chapter VII: A Mad Tea Party - INTACT

Chapter VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground - INTACT
The Court's procession takes a long time as Alice announces every card that comes through.

Chapter IX: The Mock Turtle's Story - INTACT

Chapter X: The Lobster-Quadrille - INTACT

Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? - INTACT

Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence - MOSTLY INTACT
Even this very true and complete version still cuts out the ending of the book where the perspective shifts to Alice's sister as she imagines the dream as Alice recounts it to her.

Through the Looking-Glass - NOT INCLUDED
Review:
This version is a complete 180 from yersterday's "true to the text" adaptation.  While Jonathan Miller went for quiet subtlety and realism, Averty has a loud, colorful experiment that spells everything out for you.  Alice is in much better spirits as she laughs and giggles and narrates and takes joy in everything going on around her.  This is just a strange adventure through a cartoon, basically.


While I did appreciate the fact that I've finally seen a version that depicts so much of the book, I'm not sure this was the most fun way to experience the story.  There are cute moments, like when Alice takes a pause during "You Are Old, Father William" to explain to the audience what certain words mean.  And the "water" in the Pool of Tears has the chemical formula for salt and water written on it.  These are fun touches, but for two hours, the high energy can be a bit exhausting.


None of the characters particularly stuck out to me as the best version of that character.  Everyone blended together into a general din of shouting which, to the story's credit, is how most of the characters are depicted.  But no one was really fun.  The White Rabbit was your typical skittish White Rabbit, your Hatter was your typical goofy Hatter, and your Queen of Hearts was your typical hot-tempered Queen of Hearts.  With the style and images removed, all of these performances yould come off as very bland.


This Alice (played by 10-year-old Marie Veronique Maurin) was the closest in age to the 7-year-old Alice of the book, so seeing the story presented with an actual child rather than a teenage girl acting like a child was unique (at this juncture in the chronology of adaptations).  She did a fine job holding a two-hour film by herself, but we sure do hear a lot of her thoughts.


My final verdict is that, as an experiment, this was interesting in theory.  There isn't much I would actually change about it because it's doing what it is setting out to do.  It's just kind of there for posterity's sake.  It's good to know that a two-hour surrealist and faithful version of Alice in Wonderland exists, but you don't need to go out of your way to watch the whole thing.  You know what you're getting in the first five minutes.

3 out of 5 Blue Screens

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