jan svankmajer "puppetry's dark poet" #1- Alice

"Svankmajer's film explores Alice in Wonderland's dark undercurrents: it unearths the fears that animate dreams and nightmares." -New York Times

"Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I — I hardly know, sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.'" ~ Alice in Wonderland

fragment #1
Alice meets the Caterpillar

fragment #2:
Down the rabbit hole we go...

"This is because the senses are interlinked. You can hear in colours; you can use one sense to stimulate another. Touch is important to me, because it's the least corrupted of all the senses. In modern life, hearing, seeing and taste have been perverted. Smell has been destroyed. The only pure, virginal sense that remains is touch. It's also the only one that hasn't been catered for by the arts. It hasn't been aestheticised. I see it as an unexplored plain; I believe there is buried treasure there."
Jan Svankmajer
(which is why Alice, in particular, is love. Alice's world is such a tactile one rich in textures, tastes and colours.)

The whole movie part i part ii

interview #1
interview #2
interview #3
Jan Svankmajer resources

"Whatever comes out of my subconscious I use it because I consider it to be the purest form, everything else in your conscious being has been influenced by reality, by art, by education and by your upbringing but the original experiences that exist within you are the least corrupted of all experiences... When the filming process actually starts, then for me I am with the topic 24 hours a day, when I sleep, when I eat and when I am dreaming and that's when things first start truly coming. "