Alphaville

A secret agent, posing as a journalist, from the ‘the world without’, penetrates ‘the world within’ - Alphaville. In his version of a futuristic dystopia, Jean-Luc Godard embraces a tech-noir aesthetic where human beings have become robotic slaves to technology, deprived of individuality and independent thought. In “Alphaville” the hero, played by Eddie Constantine with an embittered edge, evoking the ghost of Philipe Marlowe, has a mission to eliminate an eminent professor, the inventor of Alpha 60, a superior computer that governs society. The professor’s daughter, Natasha, played with an alluringly demure sensuality by Anna Karina, is the detective’s guide and also his love interest as he negotiates the bizarre, totalitarian state. Godard’s narrative is littered with numerous references, in particular, Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984”. Godard uses the modernist 1960 Paris aesthetic to great effect, succeeding in presenting the city as a glimmering, ominous prison, where absurd and inhumane policies intermingle. Several memorable sequences include a firing squad - a cultural performance, accompanied by elegant water ballet sequences - that is witnessed by an admiring audience. An unusual addition to the canon of French New Wave cinema. Glorious black and white cinematography by Raoul Coutard. In French with English subtitles.