An apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland

Always a great fan of myth and fantasy, and especially of the work of Lewis Carroll, Louis Malle in Black Moon tries to create the special, charged atmosphere of a world in which actions, objects and creatures are never quite what they seem. The film begins as the teenaged Lily (Cathryn Harrison) has a road accident and discovers she's landed smack in the middle of some kind of civil war. Fleeing into some nearby fields, she comes upon a lonely mansion inhabited by an old lady (Therese Giehse) who knows how to talk to animals. There's also a brother and sister (Joe Dallessandro and Alexandra Stewart) and soon more and more children, as the surrounding battles seem to draw ever nearer.