The “tech-noir” subgenre of sci-fi cinema is often traced back to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1982 masterpieceBlade Runner. Scott’s movie did define a lot of the tropes of the genre, deftly blending the visual markers of a film noir with the mind-bending existentialism of science fiction.Blade Runnertells a hard-boiled detective story about sneaky androids. It explores urban decay in a futuristic Los Angeles. The traditional saxophone rhythms on the score are complemented by mesmerizing, otherworldly synthesizers. Scott even dressed up the Bradbury Building, an iconic filming location featured in many classic noirs, as a decrepit relic.Blade Runneris the apex of the sci-fi-infused film noir.
ButBlade Runnerwasn’t the first movie to push thought-provoking sci-fi through the context ofa pulpy detective story. Way back in 1965, Jean-Luc Godard’sAlphavilletold the speculative tale of Agent Lemmy Caution traveling to a dystopian metropolis at the edge of the galaxy to take down Alpha 60, a malicious sentient computer controlling the minds of the city’s residents.
RELATED:How Blade Runner 2049 Flips The First Movie On Its Head
Godard is, of course, best known as one of the leading pioneers of the French New Wave. His game-changing directorial debutBreathlessis widely regarded to be the movie that initially kicked off the movement (and one of its definitive works). Over the course of his more than half-century-spanning filmmaking career, Godard has helmed all kinds of movies.A Woman is a Womanis a whimsical, brightly colored romcom about a love triangle.Bande à partis a crime caper about gangster movie buffs finding themselves way out of their depth in a real high-stakes criminal situation.Weekendis a pitch-black comedy about a married couple hitting the road and encountering a band of cannibals. Considering science fiction isn’t what he’s famous for, Godard’sdystopian crack at the genreis a mind-boggling gem.
A Radical Departure From The Lemmy Caution Tradition
Lemmy Caution was originally created by British pulp novelist Peter Cheyney, first characterized as an FBI agent and later as a private detective. The success of the Caution stories allowed Cheyney to quit his job as a police officer and become a professional author. Although Caution is an American character created by a British writer, he’s never been featured in an English-language film. The actor most commonly associated with the role is French actor Eddie Constantine.
Constantine’s first seven Caution movies – produced between 1953 and 1963 – werestraightforward noir-style detective thrillersgrounded in a present-day setting. The next three decades of Caution-centric movies took a more experimental turn, with some full-blown comedies. Godard’s vision for the character transplanted Constantine’s Caution into a dystopian distant future, sending him to another planet to battle a rogue artificial intelligence.
Godard radically changed the character in more ways than just sending him forward in time. Traditionally, Caution had been presented asa James Bond-type figuredefined by his strength, unwavering optimism, and ability to defy the odds to win. InAlphaville, Caution is presented as a grizzled, aging lawman at the end of his tether. Godard utilized intense lighting and refused to let Constantine wear makeup, giving him a darker, edgier appearance than audiences were accustomed to. Godard also dressed Constantine in the iconic style of trench coat that Humphrey Bogart’s own P.I. antiheroes used to wear (an archetype evoked byHarrison Ford’s Rick Deckard inBlade Runner), suggesting that this version of Caution is a man out of his time, unable to adapt to a futuristic world.
No Special Effects
To immerse moviegoers in a futuristic city in the farthest reaches of outer space, Godard didn’tutilize any special effects, or even any props or newly constructed sets. Instead, he used real filming locations around contemporary Paris. At the time, the modernist-style concrete and glass structures popping up around the French capital were considered to be bold, unusual, otherworldly designs. Godard and his crew simply waited for the sun to set and used the darkness of the night to turn the streets of Paris into the streets of Alphaville.
Alpha 60’s rule over the residents of Alphaville paves the way forsome interesting Orwellian commentary. The computer bans people from experiencing love, and continually updates the dictionary to remove words that cause readers to feel emotions. The voice of Alpha 60 is arguably even more chilling and captivating than Douglas Rain’s unforgettable portrayal of renegade A.I. HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s2001: A Space Odyssey. The character’s voice was provided by a man whose cancer-damaged larynx had been replaced by a mechanical voice box. Many of Alpha 60’s quotes embody the tenets of fascism and totalitarianism: “People should not ask ‘why,’ but only say ‘because.’”
Alphavillehas all the hallmarks of a Godard movie: improvised dialogue, long takes chopped up into a series of snappy jump cuts, obscured violence taking the usual Hollywood glorification out of bloodshed. But its blend of pulpy storytelling and sci-fi iconography also makes it entirely unique within his filmography. The movie is a must-see forfans of dystopian sci-fi(who don’t mind reading subtitles).
