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Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

Posted By: Someonelse

Date: 26 Jul 2021 00:47:17

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Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff

A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard’s irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60.

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Jean Luc-Godard’s Alphaville (1965, aka The Strange Adventure Of Lemmy Caution or/ou Une estrange aventure de Lemmy Caution) is unlike any film ever made and it certainly could not be made again with the same impact and delicacy of the original. In fact, just based on its timing it would not even make sense to try and revisit the film for the material that it was working with is now! Whether or not Godard realized this or not and he is probably laughing with each new day at how close he was to the type of society that has formed in the past 40 years. He originally wanted to call it Tarzan Vs. I.B.M., but it looks like neither entity was interested in giving him permission for such a title.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

When Alphaville opened in the 60’s that world seemed so far removed from where we are now with it. It must have seemed so alien-like as if some little Martian had come to earth and made a film. Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was still three years off, so the world had not been introduced to the ‘monolith’. Part of the reason is the fact that the film incorporates so many styles, but adheres to none. It simply mixes everything up and breaks just about every rule there is as if it were ‘amateur’ work, but something this brilliant could only be made by a master. There is a fine line between an amateur director making a great film and a great director making an amateur film.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

What separates this film the most is its Science Fiction roots shot as if it were a 40’s Noir and at the same time you don’t know when to laugh or cry. Its influence is seen clearly in films today from Memento to The Matrix. What is brilliant about Alphaville is its ability to do so much with so little. Unlike blockbusters of today, which rely on special effects as its fuel, Godard knew that what the audience ‘thinks’ is different from what they ‘know’ therefore if he can make them think a certain way, then they will never know the difference.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

For example, there is a scene in the film where our main character Lemmy Caution is being interrogated by the Alpha 60 Computer and all you see is our character in a glass room with lights being flashed in while three microphones dance around his head. There is nothing in the room that is ‘foreign’ to us, but as collaboration, it looks strange and we get the feeling that everything is ‘hi-tech’ so to speak.

Alphaville might not be Godard’s best film, but it is certainly one of his oddest with all the trademarks of the director’s unusual and untraditional style.
Fulvue Drive-in

Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE is a poetic, funny, and visually inspired blend of sci-fi, detective-film satire, and political allegory.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

Secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) enters Alphaville in search of his predecessor Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) and Professor Von Braun (Howard Vernon), the inventor of a death ray. Pretending to be a reporter, Lemmy discovers that Alphaville is a cold and loveless automated society that's run by a computer invented by Von Braun called Alpha 60. He meets Von Braun's daughter Natasha (Anna Karina) and finds Dickson at a hotel where dissidents are kept until they commit suicide. After seeing Dickson die, Natasha takes Lemmy to see her father. Von Braun's guards capture Lemmy and he's interrogated by Alpha 60, then given a tour of the computer's control center. There he learns that Von Braun intends to declare war on the Outlands.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

ALPHAVILLE is a brilliant satire of an alienated society that has been robbed of its poetry and emotion by science and technology. The film's central conceit–and joke–is that this dystopian futuristic society is actually contemporary France, and the pod-like, conformist mindset of its people already exists. All of the interiors were filmed in dehumanizing glass and concrete office buildings and hotels, filled with sterile corridors and fluorescent computer rooms. All of the exteriors take place in a nocturnal Paris illuminated only by car lights and flashing neon.

Alphaville (1965) [The Criterion Collection #25 - Out Of Print]

The casting of Eddie Constantine was inspired, as he had established the character of the hard-boiled dick Lemmy Caution in a series of French movies based on Peter Cheyney's novels. With his trench-coat, fedora, cigarette, and craggy face, Constantine recalls a poor-man's Humphrey Bogart, nonchalantly shooting everything in sight. Raoul Coutard's superbly mobile camerawork and Paul Misraki's excellent score all contribute to a movie that proves that you need neither a huge budget or computer effects to make a classic sci-fi movie, but only imagination.
TV Guide