Alphaville (film)

Alphaville
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard
Written by	Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by	André Michelin
Starring	Eddie Constantine Anna Karina Akim Tamiroff Howard Vernon
Cinematography	Raoul Coutard
Edited by	Agnès Guillemot
Music by	Paul Misraki
Distributed by	Athos Films
Release date	5 May 1965 (1965-05-05)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution) is a 1965 French New Wave science fiction neo-noir film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Howard Vernon, and Akim Tamiroff. The film won the Golden Bear award of the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965.^[1][2]

Alphaville combines the

Expatriate American actor

Alpha 60 has outlawed free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion in the city, replacing them with contradictory concepts or eliminating them altogether. One of Alpha 60's dictates is that "people should not ask 'why', but only say 'because'". People who show signs of emotion are presumed to be acting illogically and are executed. There is a dictionary in every hotel room that is continuously updated when words that are deemed to evoke emotion become banned. As a result, Alphaville is an inhuman, alienated society.

Images of the

Production

Despite its futuristic scenario, Alphaville was filmed entirely in and around Paris and no special sets or props were constructed. Buildings used were the Electricity Board building for the Alpha 60 computer centre and the Hotel Scribe.^[6]

Constantine came to the film through producer André Michelin, who had the actor under contract. 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. Godard appropriated the character for Alphaville but according to director Anne Andreu,^[7] Godard's subversion of the Lemmy Caution "stereotype" effectively shattered Constantine's connection with the character—he reportedly said that he was shunned by producers after Alphaville was released. Constantine didn't play Lemmy Caution again until Panic Time in 1980.^[8]

The opening section of the film includes an unedited sequence that depicts Caution walking into his hotel, checking in, riding an elevator and being taken through various corridors to his room. According to cinematographer Raoul Coutard, he and Godard shot this section as a continuous four-minute take. Part of this sequence shows Caution riding an elevator up to his room, which was achieved thanks to the fact that the hotel used as the location had two glass-walled elevators side by side, allowing the camera operator to ride in one lift while filming Constantine riding the other car through the glass between the two. However, as Coutard recalled, this required multiple takes, since the elevators were old and in practice they proved very difficult to synchronize.^[7]

Like most of Godard's films, the performances and dialogue in Alphaville were substantially improvised. Assistant director Charles Bitsch recalled that, even when production commenced, he had no idea what Godard was planning to do. Godard's first act was to ask Bitsch to write a screenplay, saying that producer Michelin had been pestering him for a script because he needed it to help him raise finance from backers in Germany (where Constantine was popular). Bitsch protested that he had never read a Lemmy Caution book, but Godard simply said "Read one and then write it." Bitsch read a Caution book, then wrote a 30-page treatment and brought it to Godard, who said "OK, fine" and took it without even looking at it. It was then given to Michelin, who was pleased with the result, and the "script" was duly translated into German and sent off to the backers. In fact, none of it even reached the screen and according to Bitsch the German backers later asked Michelin to repay the money when they saw the completed film.^[7]

Influences on the film

• Caution references Louis-Ferdinand Céline directly in the taxi, when he says "I am on a journey to the end of the night" (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932). The use of poetry to combat Alpha 60 as a sentient being echoes the attitudes of Céline in a number of his works.
• Henri Bergson is also referenced by Caution when being interrogated by Alpha 60, when he answers "the immediate data of consciousness " (Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience, 1889) when asked his religion. Bergson's rejection of idealism in favour of felt experiences parallels Caution's conflict with the logical Alpha 60.
• Caution makes another reference to French poetry when speaking to Alpha 60, saying that when it will solve his riddle it will become "[his] like, [his] brother," echoing the famous last line of Charles Baudelaire's To the Reader in Flowers of Evil.
• Jean Cocteau exerted significant influence on Godard's films,^[9] and parallels between Alphaville and Cocteau's 1950 film Orpheus are evident. For example, Orphée's search for Cégeste and Caution's for Henri Dickson, between the poems Orphée hears on the radio and the aphoristic questions given by Alpha 60, between Orphée's victory over death through the recovery of his poetic powers and Caution's use of poetry to destroy Alpha 60.^[9] Godard also openly acknowledges his debt to Cocteau on several occasions.^[10] When Alpha 60 is destroyed, for instance, people stagger down labyrinthine corridors and cling to the walls like the inhabitants of Cocteau's Zone de la mort, and, at the end of the film, Caution tells Natacha not to look back. Godard compares this scene with Orphée's warning to Eurydice, and it is also possible to detect a reference here to the biblical flight from Sodom.^[10]
• The voice of Alpha 60 was performed by a man with a
  The Testament of Dr Mabuse.^[12]

Legacy

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• Episode 21 of season 1 of Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Return of the Archons", which originally aired on 9 February 1967, refers to Alphaville.
• In "The Prisoner" 1967 TV series, the lead character says "I am not a number. . .I am a free man" similar to Caution's frequent defiant statements. The question "who is number one?" is frequently asked, but never answered. We can conclude that it is the computer that controls the Village. Number One corresponds with the letter Alpha, the name of the computer controlling Alphaville.
• German synth-pop band Alphaville took their name from the film.^[13]
• The affluent suburb Alphaville, outside São Paulo, Brazil, is named after the film.^[14]
• The cover of Robert Palmer's 1974 debut album Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley was inspired by Alphaville.^[15]
• Alphaville is mentioned in the first chapter of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.
• The music video for the 1993 song "Linger" by The Cranberries was shot in grayscale and is a tribute/recreation of scenes from Alphaville.
• The film production company Alphaville Pictures was co-founded in 2003 by Danish director Christoffer Boe, and was named after the film.^[16]
• After Dark features a love hotel named after the film. The book is also set entirely at night and the narrative voice often takes the shape of a camera.^[17]
• The music video for the 2005 Kelly Osbourne song "One Word" is an homage to Alphaville. It was filmed in black and white and restages multiple sequences from the film, including many specific shots, and also recreates many of the film's distinctive costumes, sets and locations.^[18]
• Jazz bassist and composer William Parker's 2007 album Alphaville Suite is inspired by and named after the film.^[19]
• The 2009 song "Your Pretty Sphinx Voice" by The Sour Notes includes sampled passages from Paul Éluard's "Capitale de la Douleur", as recited in the film.
• Bryan Ferry's 2010 album Olympia includes a track titled "Alphaville", which takes its name from this film.
• Swedish alternative rock band Alpha 60 is named after the computer from the film.
• The name of a Finnish movie production company Villealfa comes from the movie. Also, the name of Aki Kaurismäki's character in an early Mika Kaurismäki movie The Liar is Ville Alfa.
• New York-based experimental metal band Imperial Triumphant's 2020 album is named Alphaville.
• Bally's 1966 pinball machine Capersville was inspired by the film.

Reception

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On