Last Friday night, I went to a screening of the film Alphaville, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and released in 1965. This is my report on the film. My thanks to Nowell and Sadie for screening the film with their very fancy digital projector.
The first things that anyone should know about Alphaville are that it is a French film, shot in black and white. Knowing these things about the movie, the viewer can prepare to be appropriately alienated. The film does have a plot, sort of. However, the plot is put together in a strange and disjointed way, leading to confusion, boredom, and several MST3K-style jokes made during the screening.
The movie takes place in the future, which looks remarkably like 1960’s Paris. Alphaville is a city (or planet, I’m not sure) that is a fascist society, lorded over by a master computer named Alpha 60. A guy named Lemmy Caution arrives in Alphaville. He claims to be a journalist named Ivan Johnson but he’s really there to find a mad scientist named Von Braun. Von Braun controls Alpha 60, and is, therefore, the evil overlord of Alphaville.
In the process of seeking out Von Braun, Lemmy meets Von Braun’s daughter, Natasha. Lemmy falls in love with her, and it’s unclear if she loves Lemmy back or not. In Alphaville all emotions are banned. The goal is to have a completely logical society, like the Vulcans in Star Trek, but more French.
Lots of stuff happens that I can’t remember. But the important thing is that Lemmy ends up killing the evil overlord, bringing down the fascist society, and he runs off with Natasha.
The movie has a lot of strange quirks about it. To begin with, the soundtrack does a great deal to contribute to the feeling of confusion and to be honest, it’s downright annoying. Also, a lot of odd things get flashed onto the screen, and it’s not always clear why they’re there. These include the words “Nord”, “Sud” (“north” and “south” in French) and the equation “E=mc ² ”. In addition, there are times when the colors of the film get inverted for no apparent reason. The film just looks like a negative for a few moments. It’s very strange.
All in all, watching Alphaville was a pretty weird experience. However, sometimes watching weird stuff is good for you. I’ve become accustomed to the movies of my time, which have their own particular language. (Lately that language seems to be “let’s re-make every movie, re-create every comic book, and re-tell every story that everybody already knows.” But I digress.) Godard’s films do not speak the film language I’m familiar with, so they are weird to me. That doesn’t mean there’s no value in them, though. And it was refreshing to see something that wasn’t an overwrought superhero film. Overall, I recommend that people challenge themselves with movies like this from time to time. It does help to have a bunch of friends on hand to make fun of the thing with you, though.
