The Kingdom of False Mirrors

People, people! This film is nothing like Alice in Wonderland and forget about "cheap special effects." This is a Soviet film from the 60's after all. The broken jar has nothing to do with special mushrooms. Tarrop is not like criticisms of W; its a tongue-and-cheek criticism of "rotten capitalism". Its pure and abashed sly propaganda aimed at children. But of course, having watched it as a kid growing up in USSR, you get engrossed with the actual fairy-tales aspects of having strong friendships, being honest, etc.. Yes, in Soviet films, they always made girls' dresses short, but in schools you would be kicked out if your dress was shorter than knee-length. Part of that was to project a young naive perfect little Pioneer girls who were completely asexual. But you have to remember that during Soviet times we, youngsters, played outside, by ourselves, past midnight and never even wondered if we would get kidnapped. It was safer for kids there in that respect. Otherwise, it was a straight-forward propaganda tale that also taught kids good moral qualities, without all the super-junky-sugar coat freakiness of Disney cartoons. It is reminiscent of the cartoon "Three Fatsos" where there is also a commentary against imperialist enslavement of people via classism and basically call for unity of proletariats. Or even an Italian story of "Adventures of Chipollino". Again, everyone, it is not alike to Alice in Wonderland (how irritating and presumptuous)! It is a great Soviet classic!

Although "Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors" is transparently Soviet propaganda, the mirror motif is intriguing and potentially undermining of its own message. And while one might rightly expect such a fairy tale clearly inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" to be utterly contrariwise to that book's brilliance, there is some cleverness here. Sure, the breaking of the fourth wall to advise one to "look at yourself with other people's eyes" is blatant collectivist lecturing, the children break into patriotic song at the end, and one of the girls even proclaims when asked from whence she came, "From the best country. There's no country better in the world!" As nauseating as all of that is, the production design isn't bad, albeit childish. Moreover, when the blonde girl, like Alice, follows her cat into the mirror, she meets her own reflection (as played by real twins). Everyone from this looking-glass land has a name that spells another word backwards. The twins, for example, are called Olya and Yalo, or the king is revealed to be the pesky parrot from the world outside the mirror when his name is reversed. The wordplay doesn't get any more clever than that, let alone does it come near approaching Carroll's wit, but in addition to all these doppelgängers and semordnilaps, there's something to the crooked-mirrors business, including as it relates to cinema.

Indeed, the picture begins with a film-within-the-film (a foreign, Italian one, "Abracadabra" (1952)). We don't see the actual film, although many of the town's children do despite a sign stating that no one under 16 is to be admitted. This recalls the beginning of "Alice in Wonderland," with the reading and complaint of books without pictures or conversations. Moreover, film is already strongly associative with mirrors, and their placement beside each other here only suggests that the filmmakers understand that and leverage it. In the fairy tale, there are the crooked mirrors that distort reality and straight ones whereby people see the truth, but the film never really exits the fantasy. Even in the land outside of the mirror, cats and jars of jam move backwards in time and a character makes an address directly to the camera. In its entirety, the film itself is a kingdom of crooked mirrors. The outward politics of it, of submitting to the conformity of others' "eyes," is quite stupid, but the inward reflexivity of a film about films as metaphorical mirrors is rather intelligent. It's actually about examining oneself by looking within--not from without.

Have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of watching Russian films, especially fantasy. Both five years ago, when going on a bit of a quest to help me through an intensive period of studying, and now when re-visiting the fond happy memories during a much calmer period. Watching the films has given me great pleasure and it is somewhat too an education, getting acquainted with these stories and making one interested in learning Russian (a lovely language, though not easy to learn).

'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' is not one of the standouts of the "re-visiting" period and it is not one of my favourite Russian fantasies. It is still a lovely film, very entertaining and charming and with a lot in its favour. As noted, there is a 'Alice in Wonderland' influence to the story and atmosphere, but it is hardly derivative. There are enough imaginative touches to set it apart and the atmosphere has a sense of wonder, the surrealism being a big part of the appeal. It is another winner from Alexandr Rou, have not seen all his films but have liked all that have been seen. It will be a shame though that some viewers will be most familiar with him from 'Frosty' (or 'Morozko'), riffed on MST3K, which to me is not near as bad as indicated and not done justice by its dubbed version (like all the Russian fantasy films riffed).

The production values are not always mind-blowing. The costumes are over-saturated and some of the special effects do look rushed and not very special.

Some of the acting is a touch on the broad side.

On the other hand, enough of 'Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors' is colourful and nicely designed with a good deal of atmosphere. Other special effects have a charm to them and are quite imaginatively used. The music is lush and atmospheric and Rou directs with an assured touch that never gets too serious or farcical. The writing flowed enough and made enough sense, some of it is on the cheesy side but again not in a way that was distracting as it didn't feel over-the-top and it certainly doesn't complicate the storytelling which is actually pretty simple.

Liked the storytelling, which was fun and amiable with a sense of wonder and endearing quirkiness, and the viewer is fully immersed into a wonderfully bizarre world. The surrealism is done inventively and even though strange (in a captivating way) didn't to me become incoherent. The characters are immensely colourful in personality and it is difficult to not remember them. The acting is not the greatest but there was something oddly likeable in this respect.

In conclusion, very nice. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Certain films leave a lasting impression, even though you cannot explain why. This film is dated and the quality of the special effects is questionable. Nonetheless, this movie has a lot of charm. It is actually quite exciting (my little cousins love it) and fun to watch.

As some other reviewers have noted, WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS is a delightfully old-fashioned Russian fairy tale put on film. It's a children's fantasy heavily indebted to the likes of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, telling of a young and innocent girl who climbs through a mirror and finds herself transported to a fantastic world that has been corrupted by evil reflections. Most of the film concentrates on having fun with backwards characters and names.

The dated nature of this production gives it the quality of an old pantomime and that's not helped by the garish costumes and over-saturated colours of the production. However, at the same time, these things are strengths when it comes to WORLD OF CROOKED MIRRORS. The film has a distinctive and surreal look with some parts that would be more than frightening for a watching child spoon-fed on the safe world of Disney. The special effects are quaint rather than elaborate and lovers of the bizarre will be in their element.