Alice ou la dernière fugue

Alice Carol (Sylvia Kristel) leaves her husband (Bernard Rousselet) in a rainy night telling that she does not like him anymore. She travels alone but when her car breaks the windshield in a lonely road, she crosses the gate of a creepy manor and is welcomed by the owner Henri Vergennes (Charles Vanel) and his butler Colas (Jean Carmet) that invite Alice to spend the night in the house. On the next morning, Alice does not meet the two men and finds the windshield of her car surprisingly fixed. She tries to leave the real estate but does not find the gate. She stops the car and walks around the wall trying to find an exit. Soon she finds that she is trapped and cannot leave the property.

"Alice ou la Dernière Fugue" is an intriguing unknown masterpiece written and directed by Claude Charbrol and supported basically by the wonderful performance of the gorgeous Sylvia Kristel. The story is developed in a nightmarish atmosphere and the name of the lead character "Alice Carol" seems to be a tribute to "Alice in the Wonderland" of Lewis Carroll. Further, Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" is visibly inspired in the storyline of this film. The mystery is kept until the very last scene. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Alice"

Note: On 17 November 2024, I saw this film again.

Saw this by chance late one evening.

Was attracted by the ambiance, which I found very Tarkovsky-esque, before I was attracted by Sylvia Kristel (she was not on screen during the first minutes I saw ;-)

Was surprised to see her act. Really loved the pace and the suspense. Found the conclusion wonderful, though-provoking, unexpected.

In my view this is clearly in the top 10 percent of Chabrol's production. I don't understand why this film is not well-known - maybe because it has an ex-erotic film actress in it?

A very good surprise.

The Disney cartoon is one of my favorite movies and while looking into other adaptations of the story I stumbled across this.

The beginning of the movie feels cliche and it drags a little. When she gets to Wonder/Horrorland the movie began to pull me in. The eerie infinite looping Mansion, with freaky characters and bizarre happenstances work well to build an unpredictable world that you alongside Alice get stuck in. Towards the end of the movie, keeping it spoiler free, Alice made a decision that I really don't understand. And the conclusion is something I had seen before in a Twilight Zone episode.

As an adaptation of Alice In Wonderland/Looking-Glass it's a flop. There is no Wonderland. None of the characters are there. The story is original. It's not complete non-sense. It's adult oriented. And aside from a couple of vague novel references it has nothing to do with Carrol's Story.

As a stand alone I think it's a hidden gem. With dozens of movie renditions, Alice doesn't always need to be true to the book. This movie has a great atmosphere, and in its own right a good sense of world building. Sure it's flawed and is clearly put together with time constraints and a low budget. But I do think it's worth checking out, and it's among the better horror movies that I have seen.

I'm not sure I have watched the same movies as the others, who give this film glowing reviews, pretty much across the board.

Most of us are aware of Sylvia Kristel's work: she's one of the few Euro-actors who have found relative success in the Hollywood mainstream. But to be fair, most of he notoriety and success comes from the soft-core Emmanuelle franchise which are staged in various parts of the world. Kristel is easy-on-the-eyes for most, looks fine in full frontal nudity, which to be honest, (and with no negating criticism) is largely what she is known for. And on that same level of honesty is a better actress than most who come from other countries ( in this case, the Netherlands) aside from England.

To say this film plods along at a snail's pace is an insult to snails. This isn't Kubrick/Kurosawa-esque deliberate slow-pacing, its simply SLOOOWW. There's vey little dialogue, especially from our lead protagonists, and on that note, there's very little story-line or plot.

Kristel does a lot walking around in the "spooky manor" she finds herself "pseudo" imprisoned, sometime it allows her to venture outside where she does some more walking around, and after about an hour into the film she somehow escapes the manor to drive around for a while. There's a lot of dramatic musical underscoring to make-up for a lack of basic drama in the film. Of course, Sylvia does appear full frontal one time in the film, with style hair and make-up. The rest of the time she magically has all of these nice stylish outfits to wear, but I'm still not clear to why she was wearing them and for whom. I still have not figured out the point of this sleepy film that nearly put me in a coma.....

Surprising movie! A twist in the end! I like such movies, when the viewer is fooled ...when what we thought we understood is overturned! Reminds me of something from 'The Sixth Sense'. Do you agree? I didn't like the the acting of Silvia Kristel in a few sequences, as she seemed to be making some effort to speak. In the first shots with her husband, she acted strangely as she didn't seem distressed at all when announcing the latter that she would leave him. There was no visible stress on her face and she appeared relaxed when communicating her departure. The husband also acted strangely when he told her to stay one more night and to leave tomorrow morning! No one would have realistically said that! didn't like a few shots as well...For instance, some night shots in the beginning were not properly lit. But, it remains a movie with a great script, with minimal dialog, with each shot compelling us to ask...'what will happen next?'. The characters were all weird - and later we can deduce why...