I still don't really 'get' the sexual symbolism though.
Me neither. People have been trying to pin sexual themes on the story ever since the original Lewis Carroll book. And from the sound of this thread, that's what they're teaching in film school.
Now someone like Kubrick who had an open fixation with phallic symbols can definitely be interpreted with a ton of sexual symbolism. But Jan Svankmajer?
Lewis Carroll? I really don't think so. Obviously, anything can be sexual if you choose to look at it that way, and the modern perspective is generally drenched in sexuality. But I wish people would give it a rest once in a while. As Freud himself allegedly said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
So if anyone out there can convince me why this film is so sexual (note: I said
convince me, not just argue), please speak up.
With that said, I think it's a crime to try to find all sorts of supercilious symbolism in a film like this, which begins by saying, "this is a film for children; you must close your eyes or you won't see anything." Just like Cocteau's
Beauty and the Beast (another surrealistic fairytale which begins with a prologue telling us NOT to overanalyze it), I think people would enjoy this film much more if they just have fun with it. That was the original context of Lewis Carroll's work, and I believe that's the spirit of this visual presentation. It sounds like most of the people who hate this film hate it because they were forced to learn it in film class. If so, hell yeah, I'd hate it too. But in my case, I just watched it on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and I thought it was a lot of fun.
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mtchbvn
16 years ago
Yeah good point, Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and on that note sometimes a doorknob is just a doorknob...
But this is NOT a movie for children, the rabbit is creepy as hell, and is constantly loosing his stuffing (children may interpret this as a slow death by loosing your innards, or symbolically we may perceive him loosing himself, and Alice following his lead...?)
The only point that I want to make is the lips...
What is the problem with the lips...?
Yes they don't sync. There are whole countries out there whose primary language isn't English. Some of these countries make movies. When they make movies the actors normally stick with their fist language. When these movies are exported to an international market they are overdubbed or subtitled.
The nature of this particular piece of cinema is such that there are many closely cropped mouth shots spoken in Czech then dubbed into English. I can see how this could be annoying, but what do you suggest...?
Next time the 10 year old girl should go into training in a remarkable case of method acting to learn to speak proper English like her Victorian era namesake...
Anything less and I'm going to write a really angry post!
Is it too much to overlook it and enjoy the stop motion animation on display, for some, clearly yes, for me, I dig it like a fat man's grave...
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