State of Flux

Surrealist Dinner

When I was young – I had three things I loved – Film, food, and music…

Movies and documentaries shaped the majority of my childhood. As an adult – I lost track…

Once a loved past time, I would drive to the local college town, where they had a few independent film shops and record shops, here, I dug through tapes, cd’s, VHS tapes and DVDs, where many a gem from my excavations still give me comfort. This was also the time when Blockbuster video had random movies alongside their blockbusters, and that was where I found this one.

Jans Svankmajer has been a favorite of mine since I was a young teen. I first saw Alice, his dark and surreal take on the classic Lewis Carrol’s story Alice in Wonderland on a rainy night – I remember grabbing the VHS off the shelf and some microwaved popcorn and watched the movie probably 2-3 times.

For it being an already surreal cast of characters, his take was even more so. He created a sense of intrigue and wonder in me with stop motion, but also with the type of….off narration. Everything about his works is haunting and rightly so, they are so bizarre.

He stands to be one of my favorite and haunting storytellers, that has certainly shaped the way I think about film and storytelling.

Why have I never seen this? Also, I like the all Asian cast. Before his time and before Crazy Rich Asians – definitely no tokens here! Love that it’s normalized.

From the captions of this YouTube:

“AT LAST!! For you obscure media fans, here is one of legendary filmmaker Tim Burton’s early efforts in collaboration with The Disney Channel that aired only once on Halloween night in 1983.”