ALICE IN WONDERLAND

ALICE IN WONDERLAND has been adapted into so many different films, it’s hard to keep track of which version makes her a prostitute and which one makes the mad hatter a black woman. But no matter how many times people re-imagine the story to make it unnecessarily hip, the dream logic and peculiarity of the source material always gives it something to latch on to. This early silent film is no different. For a good fifteen hallucinatory minutes, Alice wanders through Wonderland and meets a few of the classic characters. What makes this adaptation so special is the ingenuity involved in using turn-of-the-century technology to create fantastical creatures.

Take the White Rabbit, for example. Hes a guy in a suit, not unlike the Donnie Darko rabbit, or that serial killer I dreamed about last Tuesday.

Then we have a scene where Alice changes sizes and finds a series of increasingly tiny doors that she will have to squeeze through. No computer technology here. Just a curtain.

And the magically disappearing, reappearing Cheshire Cat… hes a real cat sitting on a branch. Who disappears. They paid their animal starts a lot of money back then.

If the scene involves too many special effects, the filmmakers just use a title card. If only Lord of the Rings did that. The entire trilogy would have been twenty minutes long.

My favorite scene in the whole film is the end, when all of Wonderland goes insane and chases after Alice. As you can see, dozens of people are dressed like cards and chase Alice until she reawakens in a park. See? That’s all you need to make a good Alice in Wonderland. Take a note, Tim Burton.

FRANKENSTEIN

STATS

Frankenstein

1910

By Thomas Edison

Directed by J. Searle Dowley

SIGNIFICANCE:

This film is the beginning of horror movies. (And science fiction movies, arguably.) This ten-minute wonder is the first shaky footstep into modern genre filmmaking. Without this, we wouldn’t have E.T. or Hostel, Halloween or Spider-man.

PLOT:

Man creates a monster. Man flees because Monster is a total creeper. Man goes back to Wife and doesn’t talk about the months he spent playing with skeletons and stuff. Monster comes and freaks out Man and Wife. Monster disappears into a mirror. (What?)

This film is extremely short, but it’s also exhilarating, if for no other reason than the fact that you’re watching the birth of movies.

And the crazy-ripe sex appeal, of course.

That said, like any birth, this one isn’t always pretty.

Watch out. It’ll kill you with its big, floppy flipper hands.

The film attempts to melt the Frankenstein story into ten minutes of wild gestures and fainting.

Seriously. This scientist guy needs to take

some iron tablets or something.

Because of this, the novel’s questions about humanity and good vs. evil get seriously muddled. The title cards say that Frankenstein created a monster because of the evil in his heart, but we don’t really see him as evil.

He DOES hang out with a skeleton. They DO bond a lot.

And if he were evil, wouldn’t that make for a crappy ending for his new wife? Even worse, the monster himself isn’t exactly depicted as evil, just ugly and gesture-y.

Perhaps most frustrating, though, is the ending. Sure, it uses a nifty camera trick to make the monster disappear into a mirror.

Now you see him.

Now you don’t.

But what does that even mean? This is like an art film before art films existed. Sure, it’s one of the ten most important movies of all time, but… I just didn’t get it. Is that embarrassing?

OK. IS IT GAY?

The Frankenstein story is Gothic and wonderful (and way overwritten). It’s also a continually challenging story, which means that Frankenstein movies are often good and always interesting.

Like this one. Expect me to write a book on this guy.

Due to the nature of the story (outcasts and tragedy and love), Frankenstein movies tend to have an innate appeal to gay viewers. Bride of Frankenstein is pretty much the Holy Grail of gay-interest horror movies, as evidenced by Gods and Monsters… and by, well, the movie itself.

I loved this guy and his miniature people. Such a good character.

1910’s Frankenstein is much too primitive and brief to have much subtext of any kind, but it is important to start here when discussing gay horror. This isn’t exactly Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (What is?), but it directly resulted in so many wonderful horror stories about weirdos and outcasts.

If you have a chance, go on Youtube and check this out. It’ll be like homework, but important.