Alphaville (1965)

Suddenly the world is Alphaville , a trench-coat wearing secret agent is a breathless race against the Masters of future . As an extraordinarie Sleuth is sent into the future world and arrives in Alphaville . This is Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine), an American private-eye, who investigates at a futuristic and logic-constructed city located on another planet. Caution is moved from his usual twentieth century setting, and places him in a futuristic sci-fi dystopia, the technocratic dictatorship of Alphaville .His mission is to rescue a trapped scientific and chase the criminal brain , Nosferatu or Professor Von Braun (Howard Vernon , Jesus Franco's ordinary) . Here he meets Natacha Von Braun (Anna Karina who married Jean Luc Godard) and tried to arrange an interview with her father, saying he is a journalist. In the Red Star hotel he meets Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) and happen weird events . The futuristic city called Alphavilled is run by an electronic brain computer that submits the citizens .

Eddie Constantine came to the film through producer André Michelin, who had the actor under contract , he is good as super private-eye in this jumbled New Wave film . Constantine had become a popular actor in France and Germany through his portrayal of tough-guy detective Lemmy Caution in a series of earlier films and the character was originally created by British pulp novelist Peter Cheyney . It's Sam Spade type of story with Science-Fiction leanings and stretching rather far for some of the plot points . The picture is full of cinematic and literary references as Jorge Luis Borges , Raymond Chandler , and George Orwell , adding comic-book style . Like most of Godard's films, the performances and dialog in Alphaville were substantially improvised . Alphaville mingles the genres of Dystopian science fiction and film noir. Although set far in the future on another planet, there are no special effects or elaborate sets; in spite of , the movie was filmed in real locations in Paris by cameraman Raoul Coutard , Godard usual, in precious white and black photography , the night-time streets of the capital becoming the streets of Alphaville, while modernist glass and concrete buildings represent the city's interiors . Suspenseful and thrilling musical score by Paul Misraky . This low-budgeted motion picture is originally directed by Jean Luc Godard who created various masterpieces of the Nouvelle vague as ¨A Bout De Suffle , Pierrot Le Fou and La Chinoise ¨ . ¨Lemmy Caution¨ won the Golden Bear award of the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965 but is recommended for New Wave fans , only .

Fmovies: Complex plot about a secret agent who arrives from the outer space outlands in the capital of a large union of nations which resides in space. The people in this capital are acting very crazy. They are token under tranquillizers the whole time and even don't know anymore what love is. The system from the state is under the spell from a large, intelligent computer, alpha 60, which cares about nearly everything. Developed from a scientist (von Braun aka Nosferatu, both are hints to germans, the first to werner von braun, the developer from the apollo moon project, the second from the first dracula movie ever, the german soundless movie: NOSFERATU 1922)he tries to install a system of pure logic and rationalism. But what about emotions? And freedom? No one cares anymore... And then the secret agent comes into town and have to fight against this system. Goddard shows nearly no special effects and has made his movie in Paris in the sixties, which is a good trick (except that it is cheap!), because it says that this system is not far away from our reality.

Forget about watching this if you have no patience for slow-moving drama, thought-provoking narratives, and/or philosophical discourse.

This film is however unique, virtually impossible to categorize and visually arresting. It's basically a film noir set in an Orwellian future with its lead character using emotion, jokes, philosophy and love to weeds doubts into the rule imposed by a mechanized society of tomorrow....and well it's much more than that too. Recommended to anyone who enjoys the qualities listed in the first paragraph.

Alphaville fmovies. I really like Alphaville. But I can understand why some would find it uninspiring or even boring. A Sci-Fi with no special effect. An intellectual feast in black and white. A movie that probably appealed to the crowd of the Quartier Latin. The story of a techno society. A society where people are killed if they act in an illogical way (ex. express sentiments). The episode of the pool is particularly good. The movie goes between two paradox: technology and poetry. But eventually, victory will prevail in the form of a «je vous aime».

Great lines in this one: «Dans la vie, il n'y a que le présent. Personne n'a vécu dans le passé et personne ne vivra dans le futur». Or this question by Alpha 60: «Quel est le privilège des morts?». Lemmy answers: «Ne plus mourir». This is just great!

On last word: Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina are both terrific in their role.

Out of 100, I give it 79. That's good for *** out of ****.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on November 12th, 2002.

What can you say that hasn't already been said. The dispassionate pastiche that is Lemmy Caution. The lethargy is exhilarating at times. The photography inventive and startling. The sound design unique and ground breaking. The acting superb. The music fantastique! Love it or get out of here!

In a near future, the American secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) travels to Alphaville posing as the journalist Ivan Johnson from the Figaro-Pravda newspaper. His mission is to find the missing agent Henry Dickson (Akim Tamirof) and to convince Professor von Braun (Howard Vernon) to come with him to Nueva York. Prof. von Braun is actually Leonard Nosferatu and has created the powerful computer Alpha 60 that has conceived the inhuman dystopian society of Alphaville, where love, conscience, poetry and emotion have been banished and words are systematically eliminated from the dictionary. Alpha 60 is also omnipresent and Lemmy has the assistance of Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina), who is the daughter of von Braun. Soon he falls in love with Natacha but he needs to complete his mission before leaving Alphaville.

"Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy" is my favorite Godard movie and maybe his most digestible film despite being weird. This is the third time that I see this sci-fi noir (last time was on 07 September 2001) and it is still an intriguing story that resembles George Orwell's 1984, inclusive with the idea of rewriting the dictionary removing words related to emotions and including new ones. The scary atmosphere gives the sensation of nightmare and the sets and locations are ahead of time. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Alphaville"