Movies > Sincerely Yours, Lewis Carroll [short film]

[QueenJabberwocky]

Some months ago I discovered a really charming short film about Lewis Carroll. It portrays some snapshots from his life, there is also Alice in Wonderland-related sequence.
The title is Sincerely yours, Lewis Carroll - like a letter signature.
You can watch it on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/105485998 (25 minutes)

Producers: George Arthur Pastic, Andy Malcolm
Music: Neil Smolar
Sound: Denise McCormick
Editors: George Arthur Pastic, Andy Malcolm
Narrators: Martin Gwynn Jones, Reginald Southey, Louis Di Florio, Brittany Starkmann.

Cast:
Mark Zsifkovitz (Lewis Carroll)
Neve Dickson (Alice Liddell)
Berkley Page (Edith Liddell)
Kaelee Malcolm (Lorina Liddell)
Cathy Duke (Miss Prickett)
Ginger (Dinah, a cat)

(How cute the cat was credited! )

Informations accesed from this link: https://www.worldcat.org/title/sincerel ... /191114815

[QueenJabberwocky]

Excerpt from Knight Letter issued by LCSNA, issue 70 (Winter 2002):

The film was shot on the proverbial shoestring, the primary locations being "my friend's garage", the Ontario countryside and Trinity College of the University of Toronto, which looks a great deal like an Oxford college. This description may belie both the look of the film and the fanatical quest for authenticity that drove the filmmakers to attend antique sales, to build their ovm camera as an exact replica of Dodgson's, to take a course in collodion photography, and to reconstruct his sitting-room and darkrooms to the smallest detail. Almost all the words in the film are CLD's (except a Bible quote), and it is all done in voiceovers. There is no spoken dialogue. The pace is leisurely, Victorian.

"Sincerely Yours, Lewis Carroll" begins with Dodgson's musings on New Years Eve, 1855, having just secured the post of Tutor in Christ Church, and full of misgivings of "great talents misapplied". We next see him around two years later, still long before the publication of the books that made him famous, but at the height of his photographic prowess. We are silent witnesses as he thinks about calculus and the fourth dimension while sitting in a field of cows; looks through a microscope; gazes though his (meticulously reconstructed) photographic album; muses on religious thoughts in a meadow at sunset; sketches from nature (including a frog, a caterpillar, and a mouse); recites poetry; and other such tableaux.

The high point of the film was certainly the photographing of the Liddell girls, as they had tea with Miss Prickett and a tiny kitten looked down from the branch of a tree with a subtle smile on its face. We see Dodgson creating the famous shot of the three sisters on the couch which, even seen upside down (as the focusing plane of the camera), brought goosebumps. Alice herself was also photographed alone, and we were privileged to listen in on her musings (more of which will be added later).

"Sincerely Yours, Lewis Carroll" is an exceptional production, a sort of time-capsule and glimpse into the mind and world of an extraordinary soul. It is not a "movie" with plot, dialog, and action; rather, it is a stunning film. The filmmakers' current plans are to excerpt some still frames into a book which will be sold with a DVD in the back.

(p. 3)

The issue is accessible on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/knightlette ... 2/mode/2up

[QueenJabberwocky]

Knight Letter, issue 73 (Spring 2004) had this announcement:

ALL IN THE GOLDEN AFTERNOON

Full leisurely we glide through the very day in 1859 on which Alice and her two sisters were being captured on a sofa for the now iconic photograph.

Andy Malcolm and George Pastic have at long last released their heartfelt and exquisitely crafted film Sincerely Yours on DVD, running a leisurely 24 minutes. A tantalizing glimpse was offered us as long ago as October '99 at our meeting in Toronto (KL 62:5) — it was then called A Golden Afternoon — and the film was premiered in almost finished form at our San Francisco gathering in November '02 (fully reviewed in KL 70:3). This sweet series of intimate vignettes is a "sort of time capsule and glimpse into the mind and world of an extraordinary soul," as the reviewer put it, and carries our highest recommendation. Andy Malcolm, 363 Regional Rd 8, RRl, Uxbridge ON L9P IRl, Canada; (905) 852-2510; -2508 fax; foot [email protected]. US$22 includes postage.

(p. 41)
https://archive.org/details/knightlette ... 0/mode/2up

That's so curious, it's called Yours sincerely, Lewis Carroll but the first idea for a title was A Golden Afternoon!

[QueenJabberwocky]

Upcoming screening hosted by LCSNA on February 20!
More information here:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8676