Film Review
In the incredibly varied oeuvre of director Claude Chabrol
there are few films as bizarre as
Alice ou la dernière fugue,
a dark, hallucinatory fairytale in which reality and
fantasy become intertwined to chilling effect.
Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
was clearly the starting point for Chabrol's most oniric film, in which
an attractive young woman finds herself trapped in a quasi-Gothic
universe which fails to make the slightest concession to her
desires. That Alice is in some kind of dreamworld is evident
from the moment she wakes up to find her car mysteriously repaired, and
so the only question is: how did she get here? Was the dream
induced artificially by the seemingly benign Monsieur Vergennes or is
it a natural dream caused by her desire to escape from a husband she
has come to despise? Or is there a third, more fantastic,
explanation? Chabrol keeps us guessing right until the final shot
and has plenty of mischief along the way. The clue is in the title.
The 1970s is generally considered the lowpoint in Chabrol's career. The
first half of the decade was marked by some of the director's
least well regarded films -
La Décade prodigieuse (1971),
Docteur Popaul (1972) -
whilst, towards the end of the decade, Chabrol would devote more of
his time to television. Uneven though his output was in
this middle phase of his career, it was here that Chabrol was at his most
eclectic and experimental.
Alice ou la dernière fugue is one of the
more interesting oddities that he came up with in this 'prodigious
decade', which includes one or two other neglected gems -
Juste avant la nuit (1971),
Les Innocents aux mains sales (1975)
and
Violette Nozière (1978).
Much of the criticism that
Alice ou la dernière fugue received on its original release
was directed at the casting of Sylvia Kristel in the lead role, that of
the heroine Alice. Kristel had recently become a worldwide star
through her appearance in the
Emmanuelle
films and Chabrol takes full advantage of her close association with
erotica by having her appear front-fontal naked in one scene.
Kristel may not have been the world's greatest actress but her
doll-like lack of expression makes her a perfect casting choice for
this film. Like the mysterious characters Alice encounters
(played by a colourful ensemble that includes such luminaries as
Charles Vanel and André Dussollier), she gives nothing
away. She is as enigmatic as her surroundings, sufficiently
charismatic to hold our attention and yet flagrantly detached from
reality, as though she too were an artificial construct of our
dream-making apparatus.
Alice
ou la dernière fugue is among Claude Chabrol's most
elegantly directed films, and also one of his most poetic - a haunting
excursion into an Escher-like dreamscape from which there is no
possibility of escape.
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Claude Chabrol film:
Les Liens du sang (1978)
Film Synopsis
After walking out on her husband, Alice gets into her car and sets out
for what she hopes will be a new life. Whilst driving through the
countryside a storm breaks and her windscreen suddenly cracks.
She takes refuge in an old mansion where she is cordially greeted by an
old man, Vergennes, and his butler. Vergennes persuades Alice to
stay the night and assures her that her car will be repaired by the
morning. The next day, Alice awakes to find the house deserted
and breakfast waiting for her. To her surprise, she finds that
her car windscreen is intact. But when she tries to drive away
every route she takes is blocked by a fallen tree. On foot, Alice
follows the wall surrounding the house and fails to find an exit.
A strange young man then appears from nowhere, but he refuses to answer
any of her questions. Realising there is no escape, Alice returns
to the house and is welcomed by Vergennes and his manservant for a
second time...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.