I have my own personnel issues with Jean-Luc-Godard. I am not a fan of his politics but in general do not allow that to interfere in my appreciation of individual art. I was also not a great fan of his breakthrough debut film, “Breathless”, finding it quite dull. I did however find his poignant movie, “My life to live”, a sad and realistic expose of the lost life of prostitution. Generally, his films, in my view are cold, lacking in warmth and laughter. That is why I feel the Orwellian world found in his strange science fiction, “Alphaville”, a perfect vehicle for his film style. “Alphaville” is my favorite Godard movie for this reason. Throughout the 1950’s and at the start of the 60’s, American expatriate actor, Eddie Constantine, made a niche for himself by playing an American private detective, Lemmy Caution. During this period, he made over ten B-grade French films. Godard wanted to make a nihilistic science fiction film concerning a dark depressing future and used Constantine with the promise of making another Lemmy Caution detective flic, as a pretense in getting his movie funded. The result is, “Alphaville”, which would serve as a precursor to many similar type films of the future, with, “Bladerunner”, being the most celebrated of those. The movie is a glorious mix of 40s style American Noir, French New wave cinema and George Orwell’s population-controlled future. In “Breathless”, Jean-Paul Belmondo’s character wanted to imitate Humphrey Bogart’s gumshoe hero. In “Alphaville”, Constantine, is Bogart, but goes by the name of Lemmy Caution. He wear a 1940’s fedora and trench coat and treats everyone with suspicion, doesn’t abide by the floozies tossed his way and has a soft spot for the femme fatale. Alphaville is a city nation sometime in the future run by a computer called, Alpha 60, which outlaws individualism and private emotions such as love. Outside of Alphaville are other City states, who together constitute something called, “The Out-lands”. Caution has arrived in Alphaville from the Out-lands (New York), posing as a journalist with a mission to assassinate the creator of Alpha 60, who is a rogue professor previously banished from the Out-lands. Godard did not have a budget for building futuristic sets and instead filmed his movie on location in Paris, making use of what was then the new modern La Defense neighborhood. For Godard and for the French, the steel and glass buildings in 1965 seemed futuristic in comparison to the classic Parisian architecture that is famous worldwide. For the modern viewer there is nothing futuristic about these natural sets and it takes a bit getting used to, in order to believe the premise of a tale of the future. Once dismissing this initial feeling of disbelief, I quickly became absorbed in the harsh, cold, and disturbing world of Alphaville. One of the prophetic elements shown here is the way women are treated as prostitutes called, “seductress’s third class”. With all the horrid violence made to women in our world today, this picture of the future is what the,” Me too”, movement are trying to prevent. Citizens of this world either must forgo all true feelings and art or commit suicide. Those who refuse to commit suicide are executed in what is one of the most outlandish, peculiar, and original forms of executions that I have ever seen. Victims are taken to a swimming pool, dive off a diving board as they are shot, whereby a trio of synchronized female swimmers jump in the pool with knives finalizing the kill. If I needed a reminder that I was watching a story from the future or another dimension, then this execution scene did the trick. The overall feel of the movie with its dark shadowed black and white photography was of an old film Noire detective story and the contrasting modes of science fiction and Noire made for fascinating viewing. The villain here is a computer (Alpha 60), which can speak to anyone, anywhere in the city and at any time. Godard used the guttural voice box used by people who have had larynx or throat cancer as the voice of Alpha 60. It is an unpleasant sound that compounds and emphasizes the evil represented by the computer master in this world. What is truly amazing about the movie is how it has influenced, expensive, special effects filled science fiction films with their fear of technology and depressing look into our future. Before, Bladerunner, terminator and Children of Men, there was Godard, his take on our future and his love for the American Noir. There was Alphaville. A science fiction movie that is as bold and original today as it was when it first came out.
1001 Movies before you die 