Giulia Grandinetti's Alice and the land that wonders (2020) comes to us via an 2011 experimental theatre adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice. For this crowdfunded film, the basic concept Grandinetti had for adaptation is expanded and filled out in 2 hours. Whereas the stage version had an Alice enter a clinic-as-Wonderland due to being perceived as too normal, here Alice descends "down the rabbit hole" due to the pressures of her 18th birthday party.
The decision is also made to split Alice into 3 characters. Veronica Baleani plays Alice at the party, Maria Vittoria Argenti is Alice in Wonderland/Clinic and Lucia Batassa is Alice at a therapists office . All three of these timelines intersect and jump around in a non linear fashion. The audience gradually pieces together why Alice's health has taken a nosedive, and how the party fits in with the Wonderland clinic set pieces.
Grandinetti adapts Carroll's text in a disparate way, lines and scenes repurposed in varying ways. The Queen of Hearts's conversation with the Cheshire Cat from the book is here between the clinic owner and inmate Cat, who won't come down from a bed.
Similarly, Wonderland as clinic ends with a cocktail of the 2 Carroll trial chapters, and parts of the Queen Alice chapter from through the looking glass, re-framed as a confrontation Alice has with Queen about going home from the clinic.
Other innovations include a well which functions almost like a rabbit hole that the Alice in the Clinic finds in a bathroom, and the night that the Alice at the Party endures getting more nonsensical and fraught. In a sense this jumping around of timelines, along with some woozy camerawork fairly accurately portrays a health crisis. Here, the expected ending comes as a relief, and a confirmation that all we have seen prior to it have been the thoughts of an adrift 18 year old.
The cast is excellent, Ilenia Sbarufatti providing an exvellent "Gatto" (Cheshire Cat) Salvatore Lanza, providing a more sinister than usual Hatter. Sabrina Paravicini is an interesting mix of Red Queen, Duchess, and Queen of Hearts folded into a clinic owner. Maria Vittoria Argenti, Martina Badiluzzi and Lucia Batassa are wonderful as each side of Alice's confused, vulnerable personality.
This is MUCH darker than previous adaptations of Carroll's work, but the darkness is very much earned here, little is for shock for shock's sake.
Interesting, if somewhat flawed.
Points of reference: Whilst this project is wholly unique when it comes to adaptations of Carroll, similarly artsy Alices are "Neco Z Alenky" (Dir: Jan Svankmajer 1988) and Alice in Wonderland (Dir: Jonathan Miller, 1966) For a similar adolescent experience of confusion and mental health: "Girl Asleep (dir: Rosemary Myers, 2015) has a very similar feel to the party scenes in this film.
The decision is also made to split Alice into 3 characters. Veronica Baleani plays Alice at the party, Maria Vittoria Argenti is Alice in Wonderland/Clinic and Lucia Batassa is Alice at a therapists office . All three of these timelines intersect and jump around in a non linear fashion. The audience gradually pieces together why Alice's health has taken a nosedive, and how the party fits in with the Wonderland clinic set pieces.
Grandinetti adapts Carroll's text in a disparate way, lines and scenes repurposed in varying ways. The Queen of Hearts's conversation with the Cheshire Cat from the book is here between the clinic owner and inmate Cat, who won't come down from a bed.
Similarly, Wonderland as clinic ends with a cocktail of the 2 Carroll trial chapters, and parts of the Queen Alice chapter from through the looking glass, re-framed as a confrontation Alice has with Queen about going home from the clinic.
Other innovations include a well which functions almost like a rabbit hole that the Alice in the Clinic finds in a bathroom, and the night that the Alice at the Party endures getting more nonsensical and fraught. In a sense this jumping around of timelines, along with some woozy camerawork fairly accurately portrays a health crisis. Here, the expected ending comes as a relief, and a confirmation that all we have seen prior to it have been the thoughts of an adrift 18 year old.
The cast is excellent, Ilenia Sbarufatti providing an exvellent "Gatto" (Cheshire Cat) Salvatore Lanza, providing a more sinister than usual Hatter. Sabrina Paravicini is an interesting mix of Red Queen, Duchess, and Queen of Hearts folded into a clinic owner. Maria Vittoria Argenti, Martina Badiluzzi and Lucia Batassa are wonderful as each side of Alice's confused, vulnerable personality.
This is MUCH darker than previous adaptations of Carroll's work, but the darkness is very much earned here, little is for shock for shock's sake.
Interesting, if somewhat flawed.
Points of reference: Whilst this project is wholly unique when it comes to adaptations of Carroll, similarly artsy Alices are "Neco Z Alenky" (Dir: Jan Svankmajer 1988) and Alice in Wonderland (Dir: Jonathan Miller, 1966) For a similar adolescent experience of confusion and mental health: "Girl Asleep (dir: Rosemary Myers, 2015) has a very similar feel to the party scenes in this film.
