Forever young

 

When I was much younger, there was a popular German pop band named Alphaville. They were apparently named after some strange dystopian movie. I watched the film earlier today - for the first time ever. ”Alphaville” turns out to be a French science fiction flick from 1965, directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Eddie Constantine, an American actor whose character Lemmy Caution seems strangely misplaced. And yes, he speaks French! The entire production is slightly surrealistic and the plot isn´t always clear.

The film taks us to Alphaville, a futuristic city which has traits of both the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and a Western techno-utopia. The streets are named after famous scientists, and the nominal leader is a certain Professor von Braun (or perhaps Vonbraun?). Guess who *he* is freely based on? All women seem to be prostitutes – think of how the KGB tried to snare Western visitors with honey traps. Alphaville is run by ALPHA-60, a super-intelligent computer which communicates with a peculiar guttural voice. Intentionally or otherwise, its monologues sound like typical French quasi-intellectual mumbo jumbo.

The similarities with George Orwell´s ”1984” are obvious, including a kind of Newspeak and the authoritarian idea of erasing both past and future, making everyone live in an Eternal Now. Naturally, feelings (including love) are banned. Since Caution uses ”Oceanic time” when making temporal references, the viewer is presumably supposed to spot the Orwellian influence. There is also a vampire theme, although not very pronounced. Vonbraun´s real name turns out to be Nosferatu!

Caution (posing as a reporter) is on a secret mission from the Outlands to retrieve a previous agent and kill Vonbraun. The exact location of the Outlands is never made clear. Is it another place on Earth? Or another galaxy entirely? Nor is it clear when the story is supposed to be set. At one point, it´s heavily implied that the Cold War is just a few decades in the past. Alphaville and the Outlands (including ”Tokyoville” and ”Nueva York”) are themselves embroiled in a cold war-style confrontation which threatens to turn hot at any moment.

The Alphavillians are remarkably inept and it´s difficult to believe that we´re really seeing a totalitarian dictatorship. There are a number of absurd situations, including a *very* bizarre execution scene. In fact, I don´t think I´ve ever seen an execution this strange in all of cinematic history! ALPHA-60 at first doesn´t consider Caution a threat and lets him freely roam the city. In another typical plot twist, Caution eventually destroys the computer by asking it a riddle it can´t answer (since the machine is strictly logical). And yes, underlying it all is an incredibly boring love story between the hard boiled Agent 003 and a certain Natacha von Braun (or is it Vonbraun?) who may or may not be the professor´s daughter.   

To a modern viewer, this 1965 production comes across as very dragging, but I admit that it was interesting (after a fashion) to see this relic of a time which feels both very far away and yet strangely familiar (even with the surrealist accoutrements). Pardon my French, by the way! The techno-utopia turned dystopia still looks very current, including the intelligent machine (think AI). Even the inept authoritarianism feels so 2025. Most of the other stuff comes across as very dated. I mean, they even use phone boots! Still, could be of some interest if European noir is your thing.