Movie Reviews : An ‘Alice’ That’s Not for Kiddies

Although it’s based on one of the most beloved children’s stories, “Alice,” a combination animation/live action adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland” by Czech film maker Jan Svankmajer (at the Nuart Theatre through Tuesday) is definitely not for kids.

Lewis Carroll’s “golden afternoon” has given way to a haunted midnight: “Autumn frosts have slain July.” Instead of the elegant figures in Sir John Tenniel’s classic illustrations, Svankmajer offers a clutch of stop-motion monsters that might have emerged from the paintings of Heironymus Bosch.

Svankmajer retains most of the episodes from the original story, but transforms them into weird scenarios that may alarm Carroll fans. He turns the mouse from the Caucus Race into a rat in a sailor suit, whom Alice later finds dead in a trap. The Mad Tea Party becomes a sort of Petit Guignol encounter with two grotesque puppets: When the Mad Hatter drinks from his tea cup, the liquid flows out through the joints in his wooden body. The Queen of Hearts commands “Off with their heads,” and cut-out figures decapitate each other with shears.

As the only human in this haunted Wonderland, Alice, played by child actress Kristyna Kohoutova, does little more than project forlorn vulnerability. When she shrinks, she is replaced on screen by a small doll, but when she grows after eating a tiny cake, she remains trapped inside a doll mask and costume. Her frightened eyes, staring out of the vacantly smiling porcelain face, constitute the most chilling image in the film.

While purists may object to this Freudian gloss on Lewis Carroll, Svankmajer’s “Alice” is obviously the work of an artist of talent and vision that no student of surreal or fantastic cinema should miss. But leave the kids at home.