“The Future Is Now”
By Raymond Benson
If you’re familiar with the work of that French New Wave revolutionary, Jean-Luc Godard, you may not think that he was the type of filmmaker who would make a science fiction film. He did, though, in 1965, and he merged the genre with that of film noir to create a unique hybrid that also contains many of the jarring stylistic elements with which Godard loves to bombard his audiences.
Godard was the “bad boy” of the French New Wave. He seemed to take pleasure in angering viewers and being controversial by choice. That said, though, there is much in Godard’s canon that can be not only shocking and challenging, but truly wonderful.
Such is the case with Alphaville.
Western audiences may not be familiar with the character of Lemmy Caution. He’s a private investigator of the Philip Marlowe/Sam Spade type,...
By Raymond Benson
If you’re familiar with the work of that French New Wave revolutionary, Jean-Luc Godard, you may not think that he was the type of filmmaker who would make a science fiction film. He did, though, in 1965, and he merged the genre with that of film noir to create a unique hybrid that also contains many of the jarring stylistic elements with which Godard loves to bombard his audiences.
Godard was the “bad boy” of the French New Wave. He seemed to take pleasure in angering viewers and being controversial by choice. That said, though, there is much in Godard’s canon that can be not only shocking and challenging, but truly wonderful.
Such is the case with Alphaville.
Western audiences may not be familiar with the character of Lemmy Caution. He’s a private investigator of the Philip Marlowe/Sam Spade type,...
- 8/13/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Though you have to look twice to find the original title, this stunning Danish poster is unmistakeably for Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville. With its combination of sci-fi settings and two poster-genic stars, Alphaville may have inspired more great and varied posters than most other films. The most famous of course is Jean Mascii’s greyscale masterpiece. Illustrator of some 1500 posters from the early 50s through to the late 80s, Mascii (1926-2003) was an old school artist who fit right into the new world of the Nouvelle Vague with his photorealist illustration of Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina (you can see the poster in detail at the bottom of this article).
Other fabulous Alphaville posters include the Japanese...
...the Italian, titled Agent Lemmy Caution: Missione Alphaville...
...the German, titled Lemmy Caution against Alpha 60...
...the Bass-influenced American one-sheet...
...and the Belgian poster...
The Danish poster, which we started with, trumpets the film...
Other fabulous Alphaville posters include the Japanese...
...the Italian, titled Agent Lemmy Caution: Missione Alphaville...
...the German, titled Lemmy Caution against Alpha 60...
...the Bass-influenced American one-sheet...
...and the Belgian poster...
The Danish poster, which we started with, trumpets the film...
- 3/3/2012
- MUBI
Richard Williams continues our writers' favourite films series with Godard's vision of a future state that has outlawed love
Is this review forward-thinking enough? Post your own dissident tract here or rebel in the comments thread below
At a time when 10,000 of the world's leading physicists are holed up in a Swiss bunker engaged on a project that may one day enable them to pretend they understand the nature of the universe, Alphaville has never seemed more timely.
Jean-Luc Godard's film – "a science fiction film without special effects" in the words of the critic Andrew Sarris; "a fable on a realistic ground" in Godard's own description – is a cry of protest aimed at the worshippers of science and logic. Unlike Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which now resembles a picturesque relic of long-abandoned aspirations, Alphaville still seems to be watching the world come to meet it. And...
Is this review forward-thinking enough? Post your own dissident tract here or rebel in the comments thread below
At a time when 10,000 of the world's leading physicists are holed up in a Swiss bunker engaged on a project that may one day enable them to pretend they understand the nature of the universe, Alphaville has never seemed more timely.
Jean-Luc Godard's film – "a science fiction film without special effects" in the words of the critic Andrew Sarris; "a fable on a realistic ground" in Godard's own description – is a cry of protest aimed at the worshippers of science and logic. Unlike Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which now resembles a picturesque relic of long-abandoned aspirations, Alphaville still seems to be watching the world come to meet it. And...
- 12/28/2011
- by Richard Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
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