Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The first selected film, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is directed by William Sterling, with screenplay by Fiona Fullerton; produced at 1972. The film could be summarized as follows:

“Alice (Fiona Fullerton) falls down a rabbit hole and into a magical dream world populated by surreal characters and bewildering adventures. It's a journey of self-discovery for Alice as she searches for a way out of Wonderland and encounters many bizarre creatures such as the White Rabbit (Michael Crawford), the March Hare (Peter Sellers), the Queen of Hearts (Flora Robson), and the Dormouse (Dudley Moore). Musical highlights include the inspiring song "The Me I Never Knew."” (IMBd, 2018).

in the entire film outdoor spaces were used rather than interior spaces. The transitions between the spaces of the scenes are disconnected and therefore it is hard to follow the story. The transitivity between spaces, where the incidents occur, happens so quickly and this may cause confusion in the mind of viewers. in the film, the characteristics of space are transposed with emphasis and exaggeration of some features (color, scale, material, etc.) to the viewer. in one of the first scenes, where Alice passes through the Rabbit Hole, there is a symmetrical order in the hallway and the repetition of the doors are used to point out the small door, which are emphasized through the use of curtains, that marks the entrance of the Wonderland (Figure 2). The scale and orientation of the door and the curtains are important spatial features of this scene. The intention here could be to cause the viewer, a feeling of mystery and curiosity about this unknown world.

Figure 2. The hallway and the doors a. (Photograph taken from the 1972 film) b.(Photograph taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068190/)

c. (Photograph taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068190/)

One of the important things for this film is; there is a powerful contrast between facades and interior spaces of the building. This can be observed in the scene, which shows Duchess’ House, by looking at the contrast between the facade of the building, the garden and the interior of the house (Figure 3 and 4). The exterior of the building is white, which is a symbol of purity and order. It has a classical architectural style and symmetrical features in the placement of windows and columns.

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Figure 3. The Duchess’ house (Exterior view and garden) (Photographs taken from the 1972 film) On the other hand, the interior of the house is chaotic and presents to the viewer an opposite world (Figure 4). The objects do not have harmony. They are complicated and disorganized. Besides that the characters, whom has been in that house have the same chaos and this transfers to the viewer as a sense of discomfort.

Figure 4. The Duchess’ house (Interior of the house, the kitchen) (Photographs taken from the 1972 film)

in the following scenes of the film, it is possible to observe that the colors used in spaces fit a fictional world. They are soft and also suitable for animation since the story is narrated as a fairytale (Figure 5). Some of the architectural works in the film, including Red Queen’s palace, is built from scaled models (Figure 6). This could be interpreted as an effect of the inability of shooting techniques at that period of time.

Figure 5. The color selections of the scenes (Photographs taken from the 1972 film)

Figure 6. The Red Queen’ Palace and the garden (Photographs taken from the 1972 film)

49 Spatial Memory in Films: Analysis of “Alice in Wonderland”

The director generally used form and scale differences of objects rather than sounds and colors, to transfer feelings to the viewer by emphasis. in different scenes, the inconsistency of spaces and/ or characters’ scale and object’s scale is emphasized with disproportion of the spatial features (Figure 7).

It can be observed that exaggeration is constantly being used to emphasize spaces in this film.

Figure 7. The scale problems of Alice (The White Rabbit’ house and the tea party) (Photographs taken from the 1972 film)

in the court scene the materials, which had common use in that period (after 1960’s to 1980), are important such as the checkered floor and the wood paneling on the court’s walls. Alice is the focus point of this scene, who sits at the center of the court. in addition to that, the scale of Alice is an important factor in the scene as well as in the entire film. This may be explained through the inadaptability of the Alice figure in this different world. The Wonderland is a production of Alice’s imagination.

Figure 8. The Court Scene (Photographs taken from the 1972 film) 3.2 Alice in Wonderland

The second selected film, Alice in Wonderland, which is directed by Tim Burton, with screenplay by Linda Woolverton; produced by Richard Zanuck, Joe Roth, Suzenne Todd And Jennifer Todd, produced at Burbank in 2010. Gulec& cağlar (2014) summarized this film as below:

“Alice goes from her own world to the Wonderland. This passage starts on the ground (London city and people); and moves to the underground (wonderland and fairy-tale characters), which actually describes the fantasy world of the main character. Film's first and main opposition is the emphasis between the real world and the fantasy world. in his movies, Tim Burton generally focuses on oppositions that reflect the complexities and contrasts of the modern world against fantasy or even surreal worlds.” (Gulec & cağlar, 2014).

The techniques used in this production are visibly different from the previous film. However, Alice still has a scale problem with her own dimensions, which is evident in the use of spaces and clothes. One of the important characters of the story, the red queen, is an evil character (Figure 9). This is reflected through the characteristic and spatial features of the scenes that feature her, and even if the fairy tale is not known, people can recognize this through spaces. At these scenes, the colors can be observed to reflect the complexity; darkness; and chaos (Figure 10). Swamps, dry trees on the way to the Red Queen’s palace; red color intensity; the sharpness of the used forms keeps the viewers alert

Melike Selcan Cihangiroglu

in terms of their feelings. These features create an effect that an evil incident could happen at any moment and this expectation also creates the excitement.

Figure 9. The Red Queen (Photographs taken from the 2010 film)

Figure 10. The Red Queen’ palace / Commander and the playing card soldiers (Photographs taken from the 2010 film)

On the other hand, the White Queen, who is not included in the previous movie, and her palace is white, which could be explained as a symbol of order and purity (Figure 11). The garden of the palace is full of colorful flowers. The interior and exterior of the palace has soft transitional forms. These features could convey a sense of goodness to the viewer.

Figure 11. The White Queen’ palace and The White Queen (Photographs taken fromhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/?ref_=nv_sr_2)

The spaces, whether real or virtual space, are not just backgrounds but rather they are just as important elements as the characters. in the film, the characters who are seen in real or surreal spaces are a part of where they live with their costumes and bodies. According to these observations, it is possible to state that the viewer could live and understand the story more effectively with the effects of the visual perception of the scenes. Interactions between opposing places and characters are one of the most interesting features of the film (Gulec & cağlar, 2014). One of the important scenes in the film, which reflects the contradiction between good and evil to the viewer, is the battle scene. The good side is expressed by vivid colors, white costumes and light. On the contrary, the evil side is expressed by darkness, red and/ or dark colored costumes, rocky and arid places (Figure 13). in this scene, the viewers can clearly follow the importance of the spaces to reflect the emotions and the given messages.

in the film, the scenes were created mainly by the use of visual effects, which strengthens the perception of the viewer. in the scenes that can be seen in figures 10, 11, 12 and 13, the exaggerated

51 Spatial Memory in Films: Analysis of “Alice in Wonderland”

and colorful aspects of the characters and spaces are visible. The contrast between the concepts of beautiful / ugly and good / bad are also supported through the characters, which are also strengthened by the make-up, the body and the places in which they are located. in the scenes, notions such as color and light are used to make emphasis on the ideas and symbols, which have strong influences in revealing the opposite concepts that are conveyed to the viewers. It could be stated from the film that these two notions, which are commonly used in the scenes are important to draw attention to stimulate the visual perception.

Figure 12. Spaces from the Wonderland and Alice (Photographs taken fromhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/?ref_=nv_sr_2)

Figure 13. The Mad Hatter (His House- tea party and the battle field) (Photographs taken fromhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/?ref_=nv_sr_2)