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MOVIES / ON DVD / ALPHAVILLE
Alphaville

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Alphaville (1965)

87%
67%
85%
N/A
N/A
N/A
87 %
Reviews Counted: 23 Fresh: 20  Rotten:3 Average Rating: 8/10
 
Consensus: A witty, noir-ish sci-fi film. While Alphaville is by no means a conventional sci-fi film, Jean-Luc Godard creates a witty, noir-ish future all his own. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Synopsis:
With 1965's ALPHAVILLE--part sci-fi action film, part noir thriller--the acclaimed French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard achieves a stunningly clinical futurism using absolutely no special visual effects. The result is a moving, original film that, with its abstract, political,... [More]
With 1965's ALPHAVILLE--part sci-fi action film, part noir thriller--the acclaimed French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard achieves a stunningly clinical futurism using absolutely no special visual effects. The result is a moving, original film that, with its abstract, political, and intellectual themes, essentially redefines the apocalyptic science fiction genre. ALPHAVILLE, clearly the product of one of cinema's greatest contributors, is nothing less than a bona fide cult classic. A bizarre space-chase across a glass and metal landscape of futuristic Paris--here called Alphaville--is the movie's premise. Creating a dystopian "tomorrow" characterized by alienation and cold corporate comforts, Godard slyly suggests that the future is now. Secret agent man Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) travels across the expanses of intergalactic space and time to uncover the fate of his missing predecessor. Working under the alias of Ivan Johnson, Caution is accompanied in his quest by the lovely Natasha Vonbraun (Anna Karina), the daughter of a supposedly missing professor. Caution later discovers that the elder Vonbraun is the mastermind behind Alpha 60--the rigid, masterful computer that governs Alphaville. Alpha's job is to crush individuality, eradicating any human being who does not conform. Ultimately, Lemmy is left with no other choice but to destroy the calculating chip-and-wire monolith, with the only weapons he has left: his heart and soul. [Less]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon, Laszlo Szabo

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Screenwriter: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Andre Michelin
Composer: Paul Misraki

DVD Info

Release:

May 9, 2000

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital Mono - French
  • Subtitles - English - Optional

Chapters:

  • 1. Logos
  • 2. Opening Credits
  • 3. Agent from the Outlands
  • 4. Seductress, Third Class
  • 5. Natasha
  • 6. Stupid Questions
  • 7. Can't Hear the Music
  • 8. Dying Words
  • 9. The Teachings of Alpha 60
  • 10. Deadly Bathing Beauties
  • 11. The Love of Money and Women
  • 12. Professors Eckle and Jeckel
  • 13. A Guarantee to Electrify
  • 14. The Meaning of Conscience
  • 15. Remembering Broadway
  • 16. Natasha Defines Love
  • 17. A Man and a Cup of Coffee
  • 18. Reporter and Revenger
  • 19. Escape
  • 20. Rescuing the Princess
  • 21. Color Bars

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2
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Ratings Image

A perfect example of Godard shaking up convention and exploring new ways of making cinema, Alphaville is challenging in places and thematically familiar in others.

Full Review | Comment
05/29/07 06:37 PM
Laura Bushell
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

One of Godard's most sheerly enjoyable movies, a dazzling amalgam of film noir and science fiction.

Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 04:32 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

Godard's avoidance of conventional science fiction architecture, in favour of what was actually available within Paris 1965, is his way of commenting on the city, what it was doing to its inhabitants, and what they were in danger of becoming.

Full Review | Comment
01/01/00 12:00 AM
Keith H. Brown
Edinburgh U Film Society
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Unforgettable.

| Comment
09/13/07 09:06 AM
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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It remains an outstanding example of the filmmaker's power to transform an environment through the selection of detail: everything in it is familiar, but nothing is recognizable.

Full Review | Comment
05/29/07 06:37 PM
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
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New Wave classic. Set bold new standards. Whatever.

| Comment
08/29/05 09:18 PM
Rob Vaux
Flipside Movie Emporium
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No review available.

| Comment
06/12/05 03:36 PM
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Ratings Image

Mr. Godard's conclusion that love -- good old love -- conquers all is a curiously disappointing finish for such an initially promising film.

Full Review | Comment
05/09/05 03:15 AM
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
11/12/04 12:57 AM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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No review available.

| Comment
06/25/04 03:11 PM
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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This cold war allegorical sci-fi film is imaginatively made and proves that sometimes the most mundane images can become dazzling in the right context.

| Comment
04/29/04 10:06 PM
Dan Lybarger
Nitrate Online
Ratings Image

Packed to the brim with imagination, particularly the insane 2nd half.

| Comment
12/22/03 11:17 PM
Gabe Leibowitz
eCinemaCenter.com
Ratings Image

It works both as a philosophical treatise on politics and film as well as an entertaining and often amusing look at a future overrun by technology.

Full Review | Comment
10/10/03 08:32 PM
Derek Smith
Cinematic Reflections
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No review available.

| Comment
08/22/03 05:00 PM
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
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No review available.

| Comment
08/17/03 06:14 PM
Jonathan R. Perry
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)
Ratings Image

A poetic, funny, and visually inspired blend of sci-fi, detective-film satire, and political allegory.

Full Review | Comment
07/30/03 05:07 PM
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Ratings Image

Esta fascinante mistura de noir, 1984 e Admirável Mundo Novo filosofa, como Solaris faria sete anos depois, sobre a natureza do homem e suas contradições.

| Comment
07/25/03 09:53 PM
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
06/26/03 12:00 PM
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central
Ratings Image

Godard's masterpiece of French new-wave cinema. Essential viewing.

| Comment
02/11/03 05:17 PM
Shannon J. Harvey
Sunday Times (Australia)
Ratings Image

No review available.

| Comment
11/21/02 01:14 PM
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2
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