Line #18 Film/Alphaville


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alphaville.jpg]]
2
3	''Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution'' is a 1965 UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave film by Creator/JeanLucGodard, starring Eddie Constantine and Creator/AnnaKarina. A GenreBusting work that mixes {{dystopia}}n ScienceFiction and FilmNoir, the film is considered one of the [[UrExample Ur-Examples]] of {{Cyberpunk}}. The film uses no special props or futuristic sets, instead having been shot on in location in Paris, the night-time streets of the capital becoming the streets of Alphaville, while modernist glass and concrete buildings -- things that to a French audience of The60s were still rather novel and strange architectural designs -- represent the city's interiors.
4
5	The story follows secret agent Lemmy Caution (Constantine) as he infiltrates and investigates the futuristic city of Alphaville, under the guise of a journalist. Alphaville is a dystopian, alienated society, where free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion are forbidden, and logic and order is strictly enforced under the threat of execution. The city is ruled by the mysterious Professor von Braun and under constant SinisterSurveillance by his creation, the sentient and dictatorial Alpha 60 computer.
6	----
7	!!This films contains examples of:
8	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Brainwashed agitators are sent to other galaxies to create strikes, riots, revolutions, and...family quarrels?
9	* BigBad: MasterComputer Alpha 60, who is determined to create a MasterRace out of humanity [[TheComputerIsYourFriend even if it kills most of them in the process]].
10	-->"The acts of Man through the centuries will [[InYourNatureToDestroyYourselves gradually, logically destroy them]]. I, Alpha 60, am merely the logical means of this destruction."
11	* BlackComedy: Caution hijacks a police car at gunpoint, then tells the driver to wait after arriving at his destination. He then shoots the driver, saying, "That way I'm sure you'll keep your word."
12	* BloodlessCarnage: A number of people are machine-gunned one at a time, falling into a pool where they're repeatedly stabbed as a CoupDeGrace. Despite this the water remains clear.
13	* BondVillainStupidity: Caution is captured and interrogated, but despite clearly hiding something, Alpha 60 allows him to go free...because it doesn't know what Caution is hiding. Scratch that; Bond villains are much smarter than this thing.
14	* BreadAndCircuses: Despite illogical behavior and emotions being forbidden, prostitutes are abundant in Alphaville. One of them puts [[HighTimesFuture tranquilizers in the hotel bathroom like you would complimentary soap and toothpaste]].
15	* BrokenRecord: "I'm fine, thanks. Don't mention it" seems to be the automatic response of most women in the film, even though no-one actually enquires after their health, least of all Caution.
16	* CameraFiend: Posing as a journalist, Caution goes around photographing everything he sees (especially Natacha). It's an eccentricity in a city [[YearZero where there is no past]], hence no need to record it.
17	* CommieNazis: Caution claims to be Ivan Johnson, a journalist for ''Figaro-Pravda''. ''Le Figaro'' is a conservative French newspaper while ''Pravda'' was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Somehow the political situation has changed enough to make a merger of the two newspapers possible.
18	* ComputerVoice: Alpha 60 was voiced using an electrolarynx, resulting a MachineMonotone version of a [[EvilSoundsDeep harsh throaty voice]].
19	* CoolStarship: Completely averted. Caution's "spaceship" is a Ford Galaxie and hyperspace is a road.
20	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Those who refuse to assimilate or kill themselves are placed on a diving board, shot in the back with a machine gun so they fall into the water, then a group of synchronized swimmers with knives dive in to finish them off. Caution talks of others being electrocuted en masse in theatre chairs.
21	* DisproportionateRetribution: People are executed in Alphaville for "behaving illogically". One man was executed for crying after the death of his wife.
22	* DrivenToSuicide: Most of those who can't adapt to Alphaville end up killing themselves.
23	* EmotionsVsStoicism: A main theme of the film. As a very archetypical HardboiledDetective oozing with old-fashioned machismo, Lemmy Caution finds himself in sharp conflict with the puritanical society order Alpha 60 enforces in Alphaville.
24	* EEqualsMCHammer: E = mc2 and E = hf are displayed to show the scientism underpinning Alphaville.
25	* EverythingInSpaceIsAGalaxy: The minions of Alpha 60 talk of conquering other galaxies, but the Outlands they refer to appear to be Earth cities (New York and Tokyo are mentioned) while Caution arrives and leaves Alphaville in an ordinary car despite talk of traveling through space, so it's unclear whether this is meant to be symbolic; a sign of the self-imposed isolation of Alphaville.
26	* FreeLoveFuture: The hotel where Caution stays at has a Level Three Seductress on the staff who shows him his room, though the RatedMForManly Caution declines her services as he can get his own women.
27	* GenreShift: The previous Lemmy Caution films were fairly straightforward FilmNoir episodes. This movie marked a sudden shift to ScienceFiction.
28	* GoodIsNotNice: Caution ruthlessly kills mooks in the final act, some of them lying helpless on the ground. Early in the movie he uses the woman in his hotel room for some WilliamTelling involving his pistol and a centerfold she's holding above her head.
29	* HardboiledDetective: Caution is technically a secret agent, but with his hat, trenchcoat, and weathered visage he pulls off this look.
30	* IAmTheNoun
31	-->'''Alpha 60:''' Time is the substance of which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along. But I am time. It's a tiger, tearing me apart; but I am the tiger.
32	* LanguageEqualsThought:
33	** The bedside 'bible' kept in each hotel room isn't a Gideon's--it's a dictionary that's constantly updated because Alpha 60 keeps forbidding or [[NewSpeak replacing words]].
34	** Caution demands to know why Dickson hasn't assassinated Professor Von Braun himself. The question only confuses Dickson as he's forgotten the meaning of "why". People in Alphaville are discouraged from using the word "why"--only [[BecauseISaidSo "because"]] is acceptable.
35	* LogicBomb: Alpha 60 has forbidden poetry but still studies it in case it proves useful in future. Caution is able to present a riddle it can't understand; it dedicates several circuits to the problem and eventually breaks down, causing everyone under its influence to have a mental breakdown as well.
36	* LoveIsACrime: As Love is a highly potent emotion, Alpha 60 is especially zealous in cracking down on it.
37	* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Natacha Von Braun.
38	* MayDecemberRomance: Natacha is half Caution's age, but winds up falling for him.
39	* NotAfraidToDie: Natacha has no fear of death as that would be an emotion. Later Caution says he ''is'' afraid of dying, but as a secret agent he's used to this fear as he lives with it all the time.
40	* OutWithABang: Caution tracks down Henri Dickson, a secret agent who had gone missing, only to have him drop dead while making out with a Seductress.
41	* SecretTestOfCharacter: The man who attacked Caution in his hotel room was a "psychological test", according to Professor Jeckel. One would hate to see what a maths test is like!
42	* ShoutOut:
43	** Many of Alpha 60's lines are direct quotes from the poems of Creator/JorgeLuisBorges (the irony being that poetry is one of the things the computer has outlawed in Alphaville).
44	** Names of the engineers working on Alpha 60 include Film/{{Nosferatu}}, WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle.
45	** Caution asks another agent, "Is ComicStrip/DickTracy dead? What about Franchise/FlashGordon?"
46	* SingleTear: When Caution is beaten up by police, they demand to know if Natacha is crying for him. She replies that crying is forbidden, but when the light changes we see a single tear gleaming on her face.
47	* SmokingIsCool: Caution somehow lights his cigarette lighter by firing a bullet at it. When lighting one up for Natacha, he claims he travelled 9,000 kilometers to do so.
48	* StrawVulcan: An entire city populated with them.
49	* ThatManIsDead: Professor Von Braun's response to his previous name of Leonard Nosferatu is that he no longer exists.
50	* TransplantedCharacterFic: Lemmy Caution was originally a detective in a series of B-movies.
51	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: When Caution guns down an intruder in his hotel room the Seductress in his bathtub barely reacts.
52	-->'''Caution:''' What is this? Are you on drugs?
53	-->'''Beatrice:''' No, this is normal, sir.
54	-->'''Caution:''' Everything weird is "normal" in this damn town!
55	* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: Natacha, finally free of Alpha 60's influence, ends the movie by telling Caution, "I love you", having spent most of the movie unaware of what love and other emotions are.
56	* WeCanRuleTogether: Caution is offered a galaxy to rule by Professor Von Braun. He responds with an offer to take Von Braun back home. Neither man is willing to compromise their ideals, so Caution kills Von Braun.
57	* WeNeedADistraction: When the police burst in on Caution, he pulls a gun on them. Their leader says to grab Caution when he doubles over, then asks Natacha to tell Joke 842. When Caution doubles over laughing in response to the joke, the police jump him.
58	* YouAreNumberSix: The women in Alphaville have numerals tattooed on their bodies (presumably the men as well but [[FanService women are the ones who expose more skin]]). One woman has the tattoo on her face.

Context Film / Alphaville