La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) (1973)
FRANCE --- science fiction

Dir: René Laloux

Many films have juxtaposed a subjugated human race under the heels of some alien (or other creatures) rule to stress some social commentary about slavery, religion, or just simply social class systems in general. We've seen this conceit in a myriad of forms such as Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Edgar Rice Burrough's "John Carter of Mars" series of books, L. Ron Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth", or "Planet of the Apes". In the film "La Planète Sauvage" (Fantastic Planet) we are shown a similar visionary nightmare in the package of a science fiction tale on these dark aspects of humanity's greatest failings.

Based on the 1957 book "Oms en série" by French science fiction novelist Stefan Wul, the film follows a young human boy called an "Om" (french word "Hommes" that means "man") who is left orphaned after alien children accidentally kill his mother while playing with her. The aliens are called Draags, who are giant red-eyed blue-skinned beings with webbed ears, yet are highly civilized. Immediately after the boy is left alone crying, a Draag dignitary's young daughter, Tiva, finds him and adopts him as her personal pet. She eventually names him Terr. He observes the strange alien landscape, as he grows up confined to a specially created collar complete with a wristband controller belonging to Tiva. Tiva truly treats Terr as a favored pet, and even has him with her during her learning sessions through the use of an encyclopedic computerized headband which trains her by feeding information directly into her mind. When her parents begin to notice that Terr has been using the headband with and without Tiva, they ban her allowing him to be present while she is learning with it. However, as she begins to grow out of adolescence, Terr becomes more dependent on educating himself from the computer headband and ultimately escapes out on his own.

Terr drags the headband with him as he is out in the alien wilderness. He eventually meets up with an Om woman of the "savage" Oms. When Tiva tries to recall Terr through the collar, the woman help him get set free from it. She takes Terr to her tribe located in a tree and they instantly label him as a domesticated Om. When he observes that they too could use the information from the learning headband, some of the tribe of course outright disdain Terr's gift of Draag knowledge. Eventually learning of a "fantastic planet". They force him into a combat ritual, in which he prevails as the victor. The tribal elders allow Terr to join their tribe. Terr observes the Oms living condition and how they have adapted to life in Draag world. He even is introduced to a band of evil Om bandits who live in their own tree and steal of the Om tribe he has befriended.

Later some of the educated Oms uncovers the Draag plan to "de-Omised" their local village based on seeing some graffiti they were able to interpret. Terr takes it upon himself to warn the tribe of Om bandits, but they do not heed his warning, and their leader, an old woman, has him locked away. Soon after, the Draags do strike using gas pellets, killing a high majority of Oms. The old woman frees Terr, as they all narrowly escape with a remnant of the people. One of the Draags witness them escaping and goes after them crushing them like insects. The Oms fight back as they actually take down and kill the Draag. The old woman leads the remnant group out to a safe haven, namely an old rocket depot, and eventually Terr leads the very large tribe on a mission to the fantastic planet. After the death of one of their own, the Draags have another council meeting, and they are not far behind the Oms, as they discover the secret behind just what the fantastic planet is.

Although I certainly wouldn't recommend "Fantastic Planet" to just anyone, it is something interesting to watch. The film is animated in a slightly strange cutout animation style reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's interstitials in "Monty Python". There is also the unavoidable phallic and organic imagery throughout the film of the alien landscape, successfully creating an uneasy surreal atmosphere. Laloux collaborated with famed French artist/ writer Roland Topor for this feature length film. Personally, this film is far overdue for a live-action adaptation with the right director.

Něco z Alenky (Alice/ Something From Alice) (1988)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA --- fantasy

Dir: Jan Švankmajer

Yet another take on the timeless story of "Alice in Wonderland". Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", was an advanced fairy tale written for children and adults alike. This one is a mix of both stop-motion animation and live action. Alice in this one is played by a true curious little girl (the only human being in the film), who goes through the typical Alice routine of shrinking and growing while chasing the white rabbit. The director turns the rabbit hole into a desk drawer as well as transforming her into a doll in some scenes and has made the other characters highly abstract through very practical depictions. For instance the white rabbit and other characters almost come off as taxidermy looking, while others are simply socks like the caterpillar and dolls and puppets like the March Hare, even the Mad Hatter is a marionette.

This being a very low budget film, the director seemed to take advantage of the idea that this entire film is happening from the perspective of Alice's own imagination. It feels like a very rudimentary home movie peaking into a girls bedroom as she plays tea with her dolls. The fact that Alice speaks all the lines in the film, with inter cut closeup shots of her lips speaking, cements the theme that this is all one very long and strange dream. However, having the actress speak the lines of all the characters ends up allowing Carroll's strange dialogue to lose its punch.

Jan Švankmajer had previously mastered a series of short films done in the same style with stop-motion effects. Taking this simplistic and familiar story and setting it on its head with highly stylized shots from a child's perspective is an interesting vision of the the tale that has never been done before. He also uses no music whatsoever, but completely ADR pronounced sound effects, which gives the film a kinda quiet eeriness. All the while, the director keeps the Lewis Carroll's often strange but dark vision intact. One thing I found odd, even though she's age appropriate, the Alice in this story isn't even wearing the typical Disney-fied blue dress; but that's a matter of choice opinion I guess. True to the book, the film is chock full of phallic imagery and strange dialogue.The film has to be seen, but it of course isn't the greatest adaptation of the story.

Valerie a Týden Divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) (1970)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA --- fantasy/ horror


Dir: Jaromil Jires

There have been more than a few films that have explored the connection of fairy tales to a young woman's sexual awakening. You get plenty of male coming-of-age films, but seldom well-told female-centric films that show us a progression of growing up. The few we often do get are usually love stories, and they are usually told through fairy tale devices. It's safe to say, this film is none of the above, at least not to the status quo.


"Valerie a Týden Divů" is one of those films that doesn't particularly need to tell a coherent story, but just has the capacity to look like a beautiful work of art. It is an experimental film of sorts, but shows us through the rose-colored glasses of a young girls early youth, how she begins to awaken to the subtle change into a woman.

The opening has 13 year-old Valerie asleep (Jaroslava Schallerovà, who was really 14 years old at the time of filming), while a boy sneaks in the barn she's in and steals her earrings. The boy, Eagle, is scolded by a pasty looking man adorned in all black, with a cape and hat, and answers to constable. Symbolic visuals suggests, that Valerie is just at the age of losing her innocence. The earrings are returned to her. In the morning, after observing some women frolicking intimately among themselves, she goes to her pale creepy grandmother (in lieu of the evil stepmother), who is a bit domineering in her wishes that Valerie concentrate on the things of the church. Most certainly not playing with her mothers earrings. She states, missionaries are visiting and will be staying in their house. Curiously, most of them are portrayed as ghastly, Max Shreck-looking vampires cloaked in black.


By the time you get to the middle of the film, you realize everything is bent on stealing young Valerie's purity and innocence. Mostly sexual, but deeper than even that. The grandmother seemed to force her belief on  fräulein Valerie, one of the missionaries tries to take advantage of her, and yet the town parson seems to want to protect her. Confusing? A little, but the Catholic symbolism is pretty much speckled throughout the film in it's defense of staying pure and holy for God. Even mmarriage is portrayed in a pessimistic light, as Valerie observes a bride who seemingly enjoys her honeymoon with more than one lover, but yet begins to change in appearance. Also, Valerie's own love interest is revealed to be her brother, and lest we forget the vampires of the "church". Always a symbol of forbidden lust. Most films from the early 70's had vestiges of the free-loving sentiments of the ‘60s, and this film was seemingly being a harbinger of the introspective soul-searching films that would appear later in the decade.

All throughout the film, we see recurring themes such as Valerie being framed like a painting or even like an image in a mirror. Just another reason the film is art house masterpiece, filled to the brim with subtle expository shots one could pause and study. The composition, cinematography, and ethereal production design is gorgeous, and ten minutes into the film you almost get the feeling that you're watching someone's dreams like in the film "Who Wants to Kill Jessi?". Released in the same year as another surreal classic of experimental cinema, Alejandro Jodorowsky's "El Topo", "Valerie" has mesmerized many with a cult following for decades since it was discovered. It's theme has inspired films even to this day with Stephanie Meyers "Twilight" or author Angela Carter's short story collection "The Bloody Chamber"; which was adapted to film as "A Company of Wolves". In that, "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" is inspired by the classic fairy tales like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Both which have since become known for having underlying psychological themes of a young woman's sexual awakening. 

Kdo Chce Zabit Jessii? (Who Wants to Kill Jessie?) (1966)
Czechoslovakia --- science fiction/ fantasy

Dir: Václav Vorlícek and Milos Macourek

When it comes to Sixties comedies, you pretty much know what you can expect from them. They're definitely going to be pretty silly, no matter what country their from, and this film is no exception. There must've been something in the air. . . besides all the cannabis. From the comic strip opening, we pretty much can tell we're in for a zany ride.

The film, "Who Wants to Kill Jessie?", tells the story of government research scientist, Ruzenka, who invents a machine that is able to telecast dreams onto a monitor. Her milquetoast engineer husband, Jindrich, has been having wacky fantasies based on a comic strip he has been following about a beautiful woman (Jessie, played by the first Czech Playboy model Olga Schoberva) being chased down by two villains. One dressed as a cowboy, and the other a Superman knock-off, both conspicuously very Americana . . . hmmm. They are after her for an invention called anti-gravitational gloves. The scientist conducts a kind of showing of what her invention is capable of, using a cow as her guinea pig. The monitor shows the cow in distress over him having gadflies, and then once the scientist injects a serum to treat the nightmare into the cow while it's asleep, the gadflies emerge from the cows ears. This, for some reason is ignored, as the fellow scientist are simply amazed that they can see what the cow is dreaming.

One night while her husband is clearly talking in his sleep, and dreaming of the misadventures of Jessie, Ruzenka hooks her husband up to her invention, to espy just what is on his mind. Much to her consternation, she sees her husband and Jessie, as well as the two rascals after her. She wakes him up in disgust, and sends him to the couch. But not before giving him the serum. This is the part of the film where reality, goes out the window. For when her husband wakes up, he arises with Jessie asleep on the couch with him. Unfortunately, it also means her two adversaries are can't be far behind.

When Jindrich goes to work to continue on construction problems in the warehouse he's employed in, he leaves his all too real dream girl in the house. She eventually escapes her two pursurers through a window. She thus begins trapesing around town in nothing more than a short dress fleeing her comic-strip predators. This however becomes a major problem when his dreams cause troubles in the real world, and both Ruzenka and Jinrich are at fault.

Would it be too pretentious to look at this film as an allegory about freedom the often Commie powers-that-be who controlled most of Eastern Europe at that time? Perhaps. This comedic fantasy is so over-the-top you can't help but laugh at some of the stuff explored in the film. The dream characters have actual word ballons in the film that the reality characters physically interact with. Two interesting factoids: This film is not alone in the Czech New-Wave film movement, although Milos Forman didn't have too much to do with them, the movement didn't last too long at all. The other interesting factoid is, Japan has developed a machine that can see into dreams. Though the technology is far from what is seen in this film, or something like "Paprika" or the recent "Inception", it does exist in a rudimentary stage.