Using Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland in other curriculum subjects

This film lends itself to a range of cross-curricular activities and in the context of studying the film in English your students could be invited to:

Art

  • Research and study some Victorian photographs and photographers: eg Fox-Talbot, Julia Margaret-Cameron and Frank Meadows Sutcliffe, and some Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Analyse how both of these have influenced Miller's film.
  • Try to recreate a film still or a photograph: draw or paint it. Students could try to emulate the style of one of the photographers or a Pre-Raphaelite painter.
  • Take a photograph or painting and use it as the basis for a short film sequence.

History

  • Research Victorian values and culture.
  • Research the values and culture of the 1960s. Compare the two.
  • Analyse how Miller's film is a product of its day.
  • Analyse how the 1903 Alice in Wonderland (on the DVD) reflects its society.

Science

  • Study the eye and the camera lens. Look at how you can deceive the eye. Use the camera lens to make things look bigger and smaller than they are.
  • Study what happens to the body when we sleep. Find out how and why we dream.
  • Using ideas from Miller's film, make an information film based on one of the above points.
  • Use the 'eat me' and 'drink me' section in the film as a springboard for teaching the effects of drugs on the body.

Design and Technology

  • Explore the technology of film from 1903, the 1960s and the 21st century.
  • Take a sequence from Miller's film and plan a re-shoot using the technology available today.

Geography

  • Use Miller's film to study the representation of the countryside. Discuss how and why this might be idealised.
  • Produce a film sequence that shows the reality of the countryside today.

Music

  • Analyse the relationship between the music and the images used in a section of the film.
  • Compose a music soundtrack to the 1903 Alice in Wonderland.

ICT

  • Design some opening titles for the film. Produce them as a PowerPoint display.

PE/Dance

  • Choreograph the lobster quadrille.

Drama

  • Produce a drama based upon a dream sequence.
  • Take a section of the novel that is not included in the film, eg the crying and swimming sequence. Write a script for that section and perform it.
  • Film the drama; analyse the film to evaluate it, and see how it could be improved.

RE/Citizenship/PSHE

  • Discuss what is suitable and unsuitable for children in the film.
  • Classify the film, giving reasons.
  • Discuss how and why childhood is thought of as precious.
  • Discuss what is real, surreal and idealised in the film.
  • Discuss how ideas about sanity and madness are represented in the film.
  • Use the caucus-race as a starting point for studying Victorian high-church religion.

GCSE Media studies

  • Produce a biography of Jonathan Miller.
  • Analyse the style of his films.
  • Produce a film sequence in the style of Miller.
Last Updated: 22 Mar 2010