The BFI’s long-awaited dual-format edition of Jan Švankmajer’s Alice finally hits the streets today amid much anticipation and excitement: reviews so far have been mostly frothing raves. I’m credited as co-producer (though in truth my role was more of a consultant: Upekha Bandaranayake and technical supervisor James White deserve far more credit for the physical product) and also wrote several of the pieces in the booklet.
The full specs:
- Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
- Original Czech and alternative English-language audio;
- Alice in Wonderland (1903, 9 mins): the first screen adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic;
- Elsie and the Brown Bunny (1921, 8 mins, DVD only): early advertising film for Cadbury Bros. Ltd;
- Alice in Label Land (1974, 12 mins): animated COI film explaining the 1973 food labelling laws;
- Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992, 3 mins): the Quay Brothers’ Alice-inspired music film;
- Stille Nacht IV: Can’t Go Wrong Without You (1993, 4 mins): the white rabbit returns in the second of the Quay Brothers’ music films for His Name is Alive;
- 34-page illustrated booklet with essays, film notes, biographies and credits.
Although I’d been treated to glimpses of the new high-definition transfer during the production, it wasn’t until my own copy arrived a fortnight or so ago that I could appreciate the radical transformation. It’s not just the extra detail (though this makes a substantial difference in itself: Švankmajer has always been obsessed with texture and tactility) but the eye-poppingly punchy colours. Although it probably looked pretty similar back in 1988, when I first saw the film in 35mm, successive video editions have contrived to make it look as drab and battered as Švankmajer’s much-abused puppets. No longer.
Being in the original Czech for what I think is the first time in an English-speaking country also makes a huge difference. Not so much for the language itself (both Czech and English soundtracks are pitched at children’s vocabulary level – my Czech is laughable, but I can follow much of it easily) as for the elimination of that jarring dislocation between the English soundtrack and the gigantic close-ups of Alice’s lip movements. In fact, since the girl in the closeups wasn’t even lead actress Krystyna Kohoutová (who lost a front tooth at a crucial moment), I can only assume that financial issues prevented splicing in clips of an English girl as an alternative, as that would have been far more aesthetically effective. Still, despite an obvious preference for the Czech, the BFI was absolutely right to retain the English soundtrack, and not just for nostalgia purposes – my six-year-old daughter loves the film, and there’s no way I’d have got her to sit through anything in subtitled Czech.
My only real regret about such a superlative package is that it’s spoilt me to the extent that I now want to see Švankmajer’s entire output in Blu-ray in similarly peerless transfers sourced from the best possible 35mm materials (the BFI had access to the camera negative and original 35mm interpositive – in other words the mother lode). But I fear that this may take some considerable time, if it ever comes close to happening at all.
Reviews
- The Arts Desk (Fisun Güner);
- Blu-rayDefinition.com (Brandon DuHamel);
- Cathode Ray Tube (Frank Collins);
- Daily Telegraph (Philip Horne);
- The Digital Fix (Anthony Nield);
- DVD Beaver (Gary Tooze)
- DVD Outsider (Slarek);
- Electric Sheep (Peter Hames);
- Eye for Film (Anton Bitel);
- Horrorview (Black Gloves);
- Infini-Tropolis;
- Mondo Digital (Nathaniel Thompson);
- Movie Muser (Mike Martin);
- New Statesman (Ryan Gilbey);
- The Oxford Times (David Parkinson);
- The Quietus (David Moats);
- Rhythm Circus (Andy Wilson);
- Rock! Shock! Pop! (Alison Jane)
- Twitch (J. Hurtado).