In these odd times, I've decided to do a small recommendation blog. Each week I'll recommend a short carrollian -esque short film for you to watch online.
This week, Alena Lodkina's there is no Such thing as a Jellyfish from 2014...
There is no Such thing as a Jellyfish is available to watch on Vimeo
Director's statement can be read here.
(Image via Leah Popple)
THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Alena Lodkina's eerie short film sees a young woman, Hannah, become trapped in a strange house after a tarot card reading.
Alena Lodkina co curated ACMI's Alice is Everywhere film strand in 2018 (where this was included) and despite having no obvious Carroll inspired references, There is no such thing as a Jellyfish curates a sense of carrollian wonder as well as a eerie sense of atmosphere.
The sense of wonder here comes with Hannah's wide eyed sense of exploration, from the pastries in town to the weird and unusual figures the Tarot reader houses in his home.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
As with Carroll's Alice, Hannah is driven by an unshakable sense of curiosity and this tends to lead her into ever stranger situations. After Hannah decides to explore the house it is suddenly night and the house seemingly labyrinthine, signifying that she has entered another place entirely.
At night time the house takes on a whole other personality, and as Hannah goes through more doors and places, there is a resounding sense that she is going into somewhere she shouldn't be. A particularly memorable section sees Hannah come across a maybe mirror image version of herself (or maybe her aunt?) who recites the film's opening monologue (or rather whispers)
After witnessing a seeming robbery, Hannah finds herself again back in the city. Her boyfriend finally arrives, and they walk away. Its unclear if Hannah's experiences were entirely imagined, or if the tarot had something to do with it.
Curiouser and curiouser!
Sometimes the internet can be actually quite useful.
For example, when trying to find theatre on streaming due to the current circumstances I stumbled across a dance multimedia archive, which lead me to an 8 minute clip of an avant garde theatre dance version of Alice, made by German theatre collective MS Schrittmacher.
Also it might be a critique on capitalism and money??? Maybe?
Digging further I found the full 1 hour 38 minutes on vimeo.
Very much a modern adaptation, MS Schrittmacher's Alice goes hurtling into a shopping centre after a rabbit. Wonderland is a land of disgruntled employees who all seem familiar. As far as I can tell from the credits, it does seem to be a book adaptation, just with dialogue modernized.
There's a nice physicality to the piece as well as some great comic timing. Despite being much older than other incarnations of the character, Antje Rose's Alice still carries a sense of her 7 and a half year old book self!
As I like site specific theatre, this gets a big plus from me.
Sadly the performance is in German only, but there is a press release in English and a decent review by Irish times.
Any help translating would be much appreciated!
(Pomona, Cameron, via Met Museum)
I said I'd review it so...
Overall the segment on secrets of the museum from V and A was quite good. They decided to focus more on Alice Liddell than Lewis Carroll as the curator wanted a good photograph for a section of the Alice exhibit which will focus on Alice Liddell.
The V and A archive features a lot of Dodgson's photography as well as Julia Margaret Cameron, a contemporary of Dodgson who also photographed Alice Liddell. They even did the same types of studies (not mentioned in this sadly)
I would also have liked to have known if the V and A are using photography from Edward Wakeling's collection. Wakeling and other experts are sadly not mentioned.
Charles Dodgson is relegated to a brief overview. Its fairly decent. There is a section on Dodgson's photography, the curator picks out "the dream" as it has nice parallels with the Alice stories. I quite agree!
(
The Dream, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, via SFMOMA)
I don't understand at all why the narrator says this though "Recently Carroll's relationship with Alice liddell has come under much scrutiny" It hasn't?? At least not in any scholarly circles!
Vanessa Tait is tasked with picking out a photograph of Alice Liddell for the exhibition. Tait tries to explain some of the differences the Victorian era had to the current time. I would have liked a Carroll expert (say Wakeling) to go over this as it is vital for understanding photography from that time.
Vanessa Tait places much emphasis on Liddell's role in creating the fictional Alice, saying she was "the one". In actuality many scholars agree that Liddell was only a namesake.
Tait chooses Julia Margaret Cameron's Pomona photograph, showing Alice Liddell as a young woman.
`All right,’ said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
Due to unforeseen circumstances the list of theatre events and events will disappear for a bit.
Please know that as soon as normal service resumes so will these pages.
Many thanks,
Chloe :)
So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been. But her sister sat still just as she left her, leaning her head on her hand, watching the setting sun, and thinking of little Alice and all her wonderful Adventures.
Art source: moniquecorrales via day-and-moonlight-dreaming
Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter’s tea party. Art by shughesillustration
Tonight BBC will air an episode of the documentary series Secrets of the Museum which will feature Alice Liddell.
The museum’s enormous stores contain many extraordinary collections, but one of its most prized is a treasure trove of early photographs. Curator Kate is interested in photographs taken by Lewis Carroll for a new exhibition about Alice in Wonderland. The Alice of the book was based on a real person, and now Kate has invited in her great granddaughter, Vanessa Tait, to help her chose photographs of her great-grandmother for the exhibition.
I will hopefully give my thoughts on this in the next few days.
Today booking has opened for the V and A Alice exhibition in London in June, which is an extension of ACMI's Wonderland exhibition (with more added)
