Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Jean-Luc Godard (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 May 1965 (France)

Genre:

Mystery | Sci-Fi | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Suddenly the word is Alphaville... and a secret agent is in a breathless race against the Masters of the Future.

Plot:

Lemmy Caution, an American private-eye, arrives in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet....

Plot Keywords:

Lemmy Caution | Comic Violence | Ford Mustang | Future | Metropolis

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Eddie Constantine	...	Lemmy Caution
Anna Karina	...	Natacha von Braun
Akim Tamiroff	...	Henri Dickson

Also Known As:

Agente Lemmy Caution, missione Alphaville (Italy)
Alphaville (France)
Alphaville, a Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution
Alphaville, a Strange Case of Lemmy Caution
Dick Tracy on Mars (USA) (informal title)
Tarzan vs. IBM (France) (working title)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13 | Brazil:12 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16 (w) | South Korea:15 | Peru:14 | UK:12A (re-rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1994)

Filming Locations:

EDF building, Paris 12, Paris, France

Company:

Athos Films

Trivia:

The line by Alpha60 that begins "Time is the substance of which I am made" is paraphrased from the 1946 essay "A New Refutation of Time" by famous Argentinean writer and fantasist Jorge Luis Borges, which reads: "Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges."

Goofs:

Continuity: Towards the end when Lemmy and Natasha get into their car while all the Alphaville residents are incapacitated, cars can be seen driving past, while the drivers should have been knocked out.

Quotes:

Alpha 60: What do you love above all?
Lemmy Caution: Gold and women.

Movie Connections:

References "The Heckle and Jeckle Show" (1956)

unconventional and brilliant

i find this film fascinating and refreshing. Godard creates a world of the future and sets it in modern Paris. the city of alphaville is run by alpha-60, a supercomputer, which dictates the society and forces it to operate exercising extreme logic. logic=happiness and reason. this sounds completely insane. rather, it would have sounded completely insane in 1967. what is interesting about this film is looking at it from todays viewpoint. it takes place in the future, but is set in "modern" sixties paris. some people look at this and feel as though godard made the film poorly by choosing the locations that he did...but why would he do that? we know he is quite capable and he certainly had access to the funds to create a distant futuristic world if he so desired. i feel that he set the film in the locations he did because it says something specific about the world he lived in. this was not some ridiculous futuristic world that was highly unlikely to evolve. this was the future of the present. ok, this can be a little bit confusing, but follow me: by setting the film in sixties paris, what was at the time present day, places the viewer in a seemingly uncomfortable position. they are experiencing the future in a very immediate sense. what is to happen is already happening. this is a very layered and complex issue that masks itself and appears in the form of simplicity (i.e. very simple locations). it can easily be construde that godard used cheap sets, but that is just not the case. i find it fascinating how so many people view this film and come to that conclusion without thinking that perhaps he meant to say something by it.

at any rate, look around today. presently, we are all able to read reviews of this and other films because we are all connected to a vast and expansive internet system. a computer in almost every home. people sit for hours and type and converse and express themselves in purely mechanistic ways, just like the people of alphaville. its a little frightening in some ways. we are losing touch with the ability to communicate in a natural humanistic manner. this is totally present in alphaville. this sense of alienation from the characters. we are not experiencing the world with them, as is usually the case with godards films, but rather, it is viewed from an objective point, distancing the viewer. it is quite important that godard sets the piece like this because if the viewer were allowed to enter the world of the characters and identify with them in anyway, we would lose sight of what the overall message would be. bottom line, this film is unconventional and brilliant. if anyone wants to chat further and more in depth, feel free to email me.