DREAM CHILD

UK, 1985, 94 minutes, Colour.
Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper, Jane Asher, Amelia Shankley, James Wilby, Shane Rimmer. Voices of Fulton Mackay, Alan Bennett, Julie Walters, Ken Campbell, Tony Haygarth, Frank Middlemass.
Directed by Gavin Millar.

Dream Child was written for the screen by Dennis Potter. Potter had achieved success on television in the 1960s with such plays as The Gospel Focused, Son of Man. He also wrote such series as Brimstone and Treacle and Cold Lazarus as well as his most famous series, Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective (both of which were transferred to the United States and made into films). The film shows Potter's delight in words, especially as it meets the skills of Lewis Carroll and his Alice in Wonderland stories.

The title of the film refers to Alice Liddell, the Alice whom the Reverend Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) told his stories to. The film focuses on the summer of 1862 when Dodgson told his stories to little Alice. The focus of the film, however, is on episodes seventy years later as Alice, now Mrs Hargreaves, is travelling to the United States for the Carroll Centenary to receive an honorary degree. This gives the opportunity for reflections on the world in the 1930s as well as the world of seventy years earlier. Coral Browne is excellent, strong and somewhat acerbic, as Alice. Peter Gallagher is the journalist who befriends her. Ian Holm appears in the flashbacks as Charles Dodgson.

The film utilises a lot of the characters from the Alice in Wonderland stories which are voiced by such performers as Fulton Mackay, playwright Alan Bennett and Julie Walters. The film shows an interesting counterpoint between the worlds of the 19th century and the 20th century, especially as regards imagination, children, language and literature.

1. Audience knowledge of the Alice in Wonderland stories? The work and writings of Lewis Carroll? Their popularity, interest? Delight?

2. The focus on Dodgson as a character, as religious, as loving Alice, the 20th century perception on adults and their emotional attitudes towards children, his sublimation? His telling stories to Alice, including her? The contrast with the older Alice, her years of experience, Alice of the 20th century compared with Alice of the 19th century?

3. The credits and the creation of mood, the artificial sea, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon, the two Alices? The atmosphere of fantasy and reality, of memory? The insertion of the creatures: the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar - the ending? The thread of the stories?

4. The 1930s, the SS Berengaria? Its style, costumes and décor? New York and the wharves? The world of newspapers of the 30s? The Waldorf Astoria, the New York skyline? The world of radio, commercials? The diner? Columbia University? Recapturing the world of the 1930s?

5. Oxford in the 1860s, a donnish world, academic, the homes? The growing interest in photography? The river, picnics and boats? The sun, colour? Recapturing the old world?

6. Mrs Hargreaves at eighty, her presence, manner, crotchety, Victorian in attitude, imperious? On the boat, her having been persuaded to go to the New World? Lucy as her companion, her severity with her? Her bewilderment at Jack and the manners of the press? Her emphasis on good manners and prayers? Her interaction with people, bewildered by the Americans? Helped by Jack, her reaction? Her decision to talk to him, her shrewdness, her weariness? The rest, panic, the effect on her - and her fantasies? Her being hard on Lucy, watching Jack and Lucy dance? Her talk, the world of money, commercials, the diner, the old cow, relenting and becoming rather nicer? Her speech and the acclaim? Her rising to the occasion, coming to life, coming to terms with her world? Her feelings of gratitude to Lewis Carroll?

7. The older Alice as wilful and unimaginative, proper, interested in meanings and words, riddles, fantasy, stirred by Lucy? The continuing puzzle over the attitudes and behaviour of Dodgson? Her understanding of love and repression? Gratitude and reconciliation?

8. Alice at ten, the same kind of little girl as she was to grow into as a woman? Matter-of-fact, lively and strong, her liking Dodgson? His book and the photographs? Her family, her relationship with her mother? The gossip? The picnics, her spending time with Dodgson, listening to his stories? The growing up, marrying, photography, the boat and the splash, the picnic and the story, the laugh and the kiss?

9. Ian Holm as Dodgson, belonging to the world of Oxford, to the clergy, mathematics, tutoring? His reserved personality, stammering? His being able to be friendly with small girls? His wanting to photograph them? Talking with Alice, telling her stories, the book, the present? Alice teasing him? The humiliation at the picnic? The kiss? Her gratitude towards him?

10. The portrait of family, mother and daughter, the style, piano, the picnics, decorum? The mother's attitude towards her daughter? Suitors?

11. The fantasy, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar - and Alice's bewilderment?
12. Lucy, dominated by Mrs Hargreaves, mousy, having to get permission, the dance in the ballroom, infatuation with Jack? Her wanting to leave Mrs Hargreaves? Her falling in love with Jack?

13. Jack as the American of the 30s, the newspaperman, fired? Pushy, at the wharf, taking over, self-seeking, the interview with Mrs Hargreaves, warming towards her, helping her? Being an agent, the advertisements and the contracts? The meeting with Lucy, falling in love, the dance, changing attitudes?

14. The picture of journalist at the time, the press, their crass attitude, hype?

15. The early world of radio, commercials and production and the effect on Mrs Hargreaves?

16. The final ceremony, the significance of her speech, her attitude having changed - and the final "Will yer, won't yer"?