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Of course, Godard likes experimenting with camera stuff, so we get some random inverted color shots. As a generic old photoshop feature, these may have lost their charm. Alphaville also progressively brightens as the movie goes on. Maybe the increasing brightness is supposed to signify the lead’s growing dissident enthusiasm, or maybe a cigar is just a cigar. There’s plenty more symbolism that went over my head too! The world is mostly pedestrian and minimal, with sci-fi set pieces few and far between, and an artificial intelligence that seems to be a telephone switchboard connected to a burping oven.
Entering Alphaville from a distant outer society, our lead (Lemmy Caution) is huuuge dick (not in the private eye sense). He hilariously pushes people around, hurls insults, and assumes lesser intelligence of all around him. Even though he’s trying to salvage the human element of Alphaville, he, perhaps contradictorily, has no respect for mindless conformists. Also, Eddie Constantine’s smoke-weathered cheeks can’t be beat.
The deadpan exists for a reason. Alphaville is sort of a French 1984 with a computerized big brother; the society forbids overt displays of emotion, and its citizens are brainwashed slaves to an omnipresent tech monarch (it’s not nearly as cyberpunk as I make it sound). Throughout the movie, Monsieur Caution tries to conceal his social views and conducts his business without much evident expression. His dialogue must subtly make him out to be an idealist.
I expect most people know what to expect. It almost jokingly picks up pace in the end, but it’s mostly dreary. It’s Godard. He’s one of the kings of hit & miss. This hit the right notes with me. It doesn’t come across quite as pretentious as some of his other stuff either.
We get a stellar demonstration of Monsieur Caution's catch wrestling ability.
Alphaville (1965)
Alphaville is essentially a satirical noir city. Given the narrative, the characters are mandatorily deadpan. The movie’s ‘villain’ is a raspy supercomputer with an over-the-top belching cadence. The bells and bombast also make this one of my favorite scores, overplayed as it is. This all seems to poke fun at noir clichés by turning them up to 11. I still feel like the humor is pretty nuanced though. With so much monotony, anything that stands out as odd or human might be funny. After shooting that borderline comic action finale, they had to know what they were doing.Of course, Godard likes experimenting with camera stuff, so we get some random inverted color shots. As a generic old photoshop feature, these may have lost their charm. Alphaville also progressively brightens as the movie goes on. Maybe the increasing brightness is supposed to signify the lead’s growing dissident enthusiasm, or maybe a cigar is just a cigar. There’s plenty more symbolism that went over my head too! The world is mostly pedestrian and minimal, with sci-fi set pieces few and far between, and an artificial intelligence that seems to be a telephone switchboard connected to a burping oven.
Entering Alphaville from a distant outer society, our lead (Lemmy Caution) is huuuge dick (not in the private eye sense). He hilariously pushes people around, hurls insults, and assumes lesser intelligence of all around him. Even though he’s trying to salvage the human element of Alphaville, he, perhaps contradictorily, has no respect for mindless conformists. Also, Eddie Constantine’s smoke-weathered cheeks can’t be beat.
The deadpan exists for a reason. Alphaville is sort of a French 1984 with a computerized big brother; the society forbids overt displays of emotion, and its citizens are brainwashed slaves to an omnipresent tech monarch (it’s not nearly as cyberpunk as I make it sound). Throughout the movie, Monsieur Caution tries to conceal his social views and conducts his business without much evident expression. His dialogue must subtly make him out to be an idealist.
I expect most people know what to expect. It almost jokingly picks up pace in the end, but it’s mostly dreary. It’s Godard. He’s one of the kings of hit & miss. This hit the right notes with me. It doesn’t come across quite as pretentious as some of his other stuff either.
We get a stellar demonstration of Monsieur Caution's catch wrestling ability.