Louis Malle
1975
Up until now every Louis Malle picture I've seen has been gangbusters, but this ludicrously indulgent Alice In Wonderland rehash is mostly tedious and uninteresting. The majority of the action revolves around a prim golden-haired lass navigating the absurd and surrealist mysteries of a provincial mansion with the encroaching specter of large-scale armed conflict uncomfortably seething in the background. An overweight and inelegant Unicorn, gangs of naked children tending hogs, and breast-fed old women are thrown in for color, but it all sounds better in print than in it's onscreen execution. Warhol film vet Joe Dallesandro is underused and leaves the screen with a whimper instead of the bang he deserves. Cathryn Harrison does her best as the Alice stand-in, with a mutable temperament, switching from innocent victim, to indignant snob, to motherly provider on a per-scene basis, yet no amount of lead actress bravado could get this lame duck off the ground. Based on all the great Malle films I've seen prior to this stinker I'm willing to give him a "get-out-of-jail free card" just this once.
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