Review of Alphaville (1965) by Quentin T — 05 Dec 2009

Seeing the movie for the first time, all I could say that this film is "breathtaking". For two simple reasons: it's Jean-Luc Godard's and it has Anna Karina in it.

Seeing the movie for the second time, it's a different story. I could finally say that "Alphaville" is one of the most intelligent films that one mind can fathom.

Alphaville (Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution or literally: Alphaville, a Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution) is a science-fiction film noir French movie directed by the great Jean-Luc Godard in 1965. It stars the American born French actor Eddie Constantine as a strong-willed superego-driven secret agent named Lemmy Caution and Jean-Luc Godard's wife Anna Karina as Natacha Von Braun, the daughter of scientist who created Alpha 60.

Alpha 60 is a computer program commonly referenced to as being "dictatorial". It was created by Professor Von Braun, a former inhabitant of the "Outlands", a galaxy light-years away from Alphaville. Lemmy Caution, a man who hides himself as being a journalist named Ivan Johnson is triggered to spy on Alphaville and destroy the dictatorship in the city.

Alphaville 60 dictates even the slightest human emotion. It tells people what to and what not to feel. It deprives people of things that are supposedly they should be having and should be enjoying as privilege from birth, such as, love and conscience. Thus, people in Alphaville don't even know what love and conscience mean: what it feels to love and be loved. They do things according to what logic Alpha 60 is programmed, wickedly and immorally. People in Alphaville act as if they are animals tamed by a group of scientists and engineers to act as taught.

Natacha (Karina) is an inhabitant of Alphaville. She is one of those "experimental pets" that are being controlled by Alpha 60. Lemmy Caution is to save her from being totally poisoned by Alpha 60's philosophy and beliefs.

One highlight of the film is the confrontation between Lemmy and Natacha in one hotel in Alphaville. There, director Jean-Luc Godard included poetry, of fine idealism and philosophy to heighten the storyline. Godard is a huge fan of poetry and literature and as he always makes reference to them when making films. In his 1964 film Band À Part, he even included excerpts from the book Romeo and Juliet as part of the lessons that the main characters are taking up as a course.

Godard's ideas about life, philosophy, the present and the future relationship are so vague. It's really obvious in this film. Watching it is like going deeper the human mind to understand life itself. It?s a low-budget intellectual film that will surely appeal to fans of human mysteries.

The whole idealism the film inculcates to its viewers is pretty vague. You will then be surprised that you are being drowned in those deep meaningful words of characters that are cheap in nature but rich with philosophy. Words come here and there, everywhere. I love it also how characters interact with each other. The culture of the fictitious village called Alphaville is now a legend. There, there's no love, there is no conscience, what matters most is science and the logic of life itself.

The false belief of Alpha 60 and the righteous Mr. Caution...

The movie starts with a Hitchcock-like header. Music is set to ascending tone. Dark and gloomy. The cinematography is great. Camera angles, magnificent. (Actually, all Godard's films I saw exhibit great camera works.) The characters are very convincing. Anna Karina, is one beautiful woman who has practised her craft very well over the years. She actually had convinced me that she had gone mad in the film. Every character she stars in is different but she manages to act each excellently and earnestly. That's the gift of acting. As for Godard, he's one of the best. His careful attention to even the smallest detail is commendable.