The Nightmarish World of Jan Svankmajer




I remember when I was in grade 4 - I had a teacher who REALLY skirted the curriculum. She would teach us about the gorier parts of the French revolution, and would occasionally screen art house films. One day, this teacher screened a nightmarish stopmotion feature called 'Alice' - based on Lewis Carrol's story. I never forgot it. Really haunting imagery - and, ok fine, let's face it - to a grade 4 student the entire thing was a huge 'wtf' anyway.

Years later I went looking for it again, and mistakenly thought it was a Brothers Quay production. Today I found that Alice is the work of Jan Svankmajer - a Czech surrealist artist who was really influential on American filmmakers like the Brothers Quay and Tim Burton.

See a clip of Alice by clicking.. uhm..

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HERE!