Alex in Wonderland

Released: 1970

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Duration: 110 min

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Ellen Burstyn, Viola Spolin

Bohemian Alex Morrison has just finished directing his first feature-length movie. In its previews, the movie is considered a critical, artistic, and surefire commercial success, so Alex seemingly has his choice of what his next project will be. Alex has a few ideas, like a biopic of Lenny Bruce or a movie about a black uprising in Los Angeles. As he makes the rounds of both the Hollywood community and European movie centers for ideas, he fantasizes about movie scenarios of his those everyday situations, influenced by his movie idols, some of whom he actually meets, like Italian director Federico Fellini and French actress Jeanne Moreau. He's also wondering what to do about his personal life: does it make sense for him to "move up" with his wife Beth and their two daughters from their middle-class lifestyle? If so, filmmaking must not only achieve his main purpose of saying something meaningful, but also must be commercially successful. But must the need for commercial success ultimately take artistic control out of his hands?