72 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
72 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
|
||
created_at: '2016-03-09T05:37:34.000Z'
|
||
title: The First Film Version of Alice in Wonderland (1903)
|
||
url: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/watch_the_very_first_film_version_of_alice_in_wonderland_from_1903
|
||
author: flannery
|
||
points: 44
|
||
story_text:
|
||
comment_text:
|
||
num_comments: 2
|
||
story_id:
|
||
story_title:
|
||
story_url:
|
||
parent_id:
|
||
created_at_i: 1457501854
|
||
_tags:
|
||
- story
|
||
- author_flannery
|
||
- story_11251144
|
||
objectID: '11251144'
|
||
|
||
---
|
||
![1alic1903wonder.jpg](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/01alic1903wonder_465_360_int.jpg)
|
||
|
||
Cecil Hepworth is one of the unsung heroes of early cinema. The son of a
|
||
magic-lantern showman and novelist, Hepworth was one of the first
|
||
producers/directors to realize the potential of making full-length
|
||
“feature films” (his version of David Copperfield in 1913 ran for 67
|
||
minutes) and the selling power of star actors (and animals—most notably
|
||
his pet dog in Rescued by Rover in 1905).
|
||
|
||
Hepworth began by making short one-minute films. Influenced by the
|
||
Lumière Brothers and the early master of cinema Georges Méliès,
|
||
Hepworth tried his own hand at advancing their ideas. With [How It Feels
|
||
to be Run Over](https://youtu.be/m6F1VAPzvkU) he took the Lumiere’s
|
||
[Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat](https://youtu.be/1dgLEDdFddk) (1895)
|
||
and applied it to a motor car—where the vehicle heads straight for the
|
||
camera apparently mowing down both cameraman and audience. The same
|
||
year, he made [Explosion of a Motor Car](https://youtu.be/MNllVz6mKZ4)
|
||
in which a car with four passengers explodes. The road (in comic
|
||
fashion) is then littered with their body parts. This was shocking and
|
||
surreal viewing for early cinema goers. It was also, as Michael Brooke
|
||
of [BFI Screenonline](http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/444699/)
|
||
points out, “one of the first films to play with the laws of physics for
|
||
comic effect.” Hepworth pinched Méliès technique of editing in
|
||
camera—stopping the film between sequences to create one complete and
|
||
seemingly real
|
||
event.
|
||
|
||
![](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/alice1sdfsdfsdfsdf00000000_465_328_int.jpg)
|
||
|
||
In 1903, Hepworth decided to go large and make (as faithfully as
|
||
possible) an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in
|
||
Wonderland. Originally running twelve minutes in length, Hepworth’s
|
||
Alice in Wonderland was the longest film yet produced in Britain.
|
||
Hepworth co-directed the film with Percy Stow. He wanted to keep the
|
||
style of the film in keeping with Sir John Tenniel’s original
|
||
illustrations. Costumes were designed and elaborate sets were built at
|
||
Hepworth’s film studio—including a rather impressive rabbit burrow.
|
||
Family members, friends and their children were used in the cast.
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately, the full version of Hepworth’s mini classic has been
|
||
lost. The print that exists is damaged but is still a beautiful, trippy
|
||
and incredible piece of work—which as far this little ole blogger’s
|
||
concerned, still stands high above that Tim Burton
|
||
atrocity.
|
||
|
||
![](/content/uploads/images/made/content/uploads/images/aliceWFP2-CLAR01_465_359_int.jpg)
|
||
|
||
The BFI created a remastered version of this film in 2010, which can be
|
||
seen [here](https://youtu.be/zeIXfdogJbA). I’m sticking with a scratchy,
|
||
silent B\&W version—for which you can supply your own soundtrack.
|