Review of Alphaville (1965) by Mat H — 14 Mar 2008

ALPHAVILLE (1965).

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim TamiroffWhat a strange city and film is that Alphaville. This is Jean-Luc Godard take on the totalitarian world mixed with a film noir plot. A journalist comes to Alphaville to interview a scientist but first he meets up with his daughter. They chat about stuff and it gives us more insight as of what that world is really about. Its like A Brave New World or 1984 in some ways. In Alphaville people arent allowed to be illogical. For the authorities, crying is an exemple of being illogical, just as laughing. Basically all emotions arent. Performing such an act can simply get you executed. Individuallity has been suppressed as expected and the journalist tries to understand and hide his really identity. The film is subtitled Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution which means «a strange adventure of Lemmy Caution». So we know that there is something we arent being told cause the main character claims to be named Johnson. When all is revealed is turns into some kind of action movie and its quite effective.Watching Alphaville I realized it had that Philip K. Dick quality. A kind of paranoia towards a science-fiction possibility. Its very enjoyable and it becomes some sort of philosophical experience in some way. Thats not all, Alphaville is also a quirky love story involving the main character played in the right tone by Eddie Constantine and the scientist's daughter played wonderfully, again, by Anna Karina.This one was shot in black and white to make it easier to accept it a futuristic world cause it obviously doesnt look like Blade Runner. Also Godard manages to set the tone right away during the opening credits with a score that comes back a bit too often in the film afterwards. For once he has a real plot that we can follow and he takes his film seriously without trying to experiment too much, simply telling a fascinating story. There are some cool camera movement, one particular long shot in the elevator was sublime.Alphaville is filled with good ideas, inventive way of telling the story and its definately one fo the most interesting film of the French New Wave. I recommend.