32-508: Alphaville may refer to: Arts and entertainment [ edit ] Alphaville (film) , a 1965 French science fiction film directed by Jean-Luc Godard Alphaville (band) , a German music group Alphaville, album from the metal band Imperial Triumphant . "Alphaville", a song from Bryan Ferry's 2010 album Olympia Alphaville, a fictional city in The Sims Online game Alphaville,
64-467: A book of poems by Paul Éluard . Caution meets Dickson, who soon dies in the process of making love to a "Seductress Third Class". Caution then enlists the assistance of Natacha von Braun, a programmer of Alpha 60 and daughter of Professor von Braun. Natacha is a citizen of Alphaville and, when questioned, says that she does not know the meaning of "love" or "conscience". Caution falls in love with her, and his love introduces emotion and unpredictability into
96-482: A character that would still typically be a suave-talking, seductive, smooth guy although he often played that for laughs. He turned his accent and perceived American cockiness to advantage in such roles, and he later described his film persona as having been "James Bond before James Bond". One of his best remembered later roles was as the visiting Mafia boss Charlie in the British gangster film The Long Good Friday (1980),
128-417: A continuous four-minute take. Part of this sequence shows Caution riding an elevator up to his room, which was achieved thanks to the fact that the hotel used as the location had two glass-walled elevators side by side, allowing the camera operator to ride in one lift while filming Constantine riding the other car through the glass between the two. However, as Coutard recalled, this required multiple takes, since
160-711: A fictional city in ALPH , a science fiction novel by Charles Eric Maine Alphaville Films , an American film production company whose films include The Mummy series FT Alphaville , a blog-style online publication of the Financial Times newspaper Other uses [ edit ] Alphaville, São Paulo , a real estate and gated communities development in Brazil and Portugal See also [ edit ] Lost in Alphaville , 2014 album by The Rentals Topics referred to by
192-506: A futuristic sci-fi dystopia, the technocratic dictatorship of Alphaville. Lemmy Caution is a secret agent with the code number of 003 from "the Outlands". Entering Alphaville in his Ford Mustang , which he refers to as a Ford Galaxie , he poses as a journalist named Ivan Johnson and claims to work for the Figaro - Pravda newspaper. Caution is on a series of missions. First, he searches for
224-735: A rare English-speaking role. One of his most notable roles was in Jean-Luc Godard 's Alphaville (1965), in which he reprised (to a more radical end) the role of Lemmy Caution, in a departure from the style of his other films. His box-office appeal in France waned in the mid-1960s. Having remarried to a German television producer, he eventually relocated to Germany , where he worked as a character actor, appearing in German television dramas as well as film. Constantine later claimed that he had never taken his acting career seriously, as he considered himself to be
256-466: A result, Alphaville is an inhuman, alienated society. Images of the E = mc and E = hf (the equations of, respectively, special relativity and quantum mechanics ) are displayed several times to refer to the scientism that underpins Alphaville. At one point, Caution passes through a place called the Grand Omega Minus, from where brainwashed people are sent out to
288-457: A script because he needed it to help him raise finance from backers in Germany (where Constantine was popular). Bitsch protested that he had never read a Lemmy Caution book, but Godard simply said "Read one and then write it." Bitsch read a Caution book, then wrote a 30-page treatment and brought it to Godard, who said "OK, fine" and took it without even looking at it. It was then given to Michelin, who
320-588: A singer by trade, and that he had been an actor strictly for the money. In 1982 he appeared in Rosa von Praunheim 's film Red Love . He nevertheless worked with directors including Godard and Rainer Werner Fassbinder , and his last notable film appearance was in Lars von Trier 's Europa in 1991. He had taken up the part of Lemmy for the last time that year, in Godard's experimental film Germany Year 90 Nine Zero . Constantine
352-630: Is by no means a conventional sci-fi film, Jean-Luc Godard creates a witty, noir-ish future all his own." Time Out London gave the film a positive review, calling it "a dazzling amalgam of film noir and science fiction". Eddie Constantine Eddie Constantine (born Israel Constantine ; October 29, 1913 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of secret agent Lemmy Caution and other, similar pulp heroes in French B-movies of
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#1732885063774384-418: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Alphaville (film) Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution ( Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution ) is a 1965 French New Wave tech noir film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard . It stars Eddie Constantine , Anna Karina , Howard Vernon and Akim Tamiroff . The film won
416-610: Is totally unemotional.” - Film historian Gordon Gow in Suspense in the Cinema (1968). Despite its futuristic scenario, Alphaville was filmed entirely in and around Paris and no special sets or props were constructed. Buildings used were the Electricity Board building for the Alpha 60 computer centre and Le Grand Hotel . Constantine came to the film through producer André Michelin, who had
448-632: The Golden Bear award of the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965. Alphaville combines the genres of dystopian science fiction and film noir . There are no special props or futuristic sets; instead, the film was shot in real locations in Paris , the night-time streets of the capital becoming the streets of Alphaville, while modernist glass and concrete buildings (which in 1965 were new and strange architectural designs) represent
480-539: The 1950s and 1960s. His celebrity and status as something of a pop icon saw him work with prominent arthouse directors like Jean-Luc Godard (as Caution in Alphaville and Germany Year 90 Nine Zero ), Rainer Werner Fassbinder (as himself in Beware of a Holy Whore 1971 and also World on a Wire ), Jesús Franco , Agnès Varda , Rosa von Praunheim , Lars von Trier , William Klein and Mika Kaurismäki . Constantine
512-471: The 1950s, Constantine was a star in France because of his role as the hard-boiled detective/secret agent Lemmy Caution (from Peter Cheyney 's novels) in a series of French B-pictures, including La môme vert-de-gris (1953), This Man Is Dangerous (1953), Je suis un sentimental (1955), Lemmy pour les dames (1961) and Your Turn, Darling (1963). When not playing Lemmy Caution, Constantine would have
544-469: The actor under contract. Constantine had become a popular actor in France and Germany through his portrayal of tough-guy detective Lemmy Caution in a series of earlier films. Godard appropriated the character for Alphaville but according to director Anne Andreu, Godard's subversion of the Lemmy Caution "stereotype" effectively shattered Constantine's connection with the character—he reportedly said that he
576-632: The city's interiors. Although the film is set in the future, the characters also refer to 20th-century events; for example, the hero describes himself as a Guadalcanal veteran . Expatriate American actor Eddie Constantine plays Lemmy Caution , a trenchcoat -wearing secret agent. Constantine had already played this or similar roles in dozens of previous films; the character was originally created by British crime novelist Peter Cheyney . However, in Alphaville , director Jean-Luc Godard moves Caution away from his usual twentieth-century setting and places him in
608-404: The city, replacing them with contradictory concepts or eliminating them altogether. One of Alpha 60's dictates is that "people should not ask 'why', but only say 'because ' ". People who show signs of emotion are presumed to be acting illogically and are executed. There is a dictionary in every hotel room that is continuously updated when words that are deemed to evoke emotion become banned. As
640-418: The city. Natacha discovers, with the help of Lemmy Caution, that she was actually born outside Alphaville. Professor von Braun was originally known as Leonard Nosferatu, but Caution is repeatedly told that Nosferatu no longer exists. The Professor himself talks infrequently, referring only vaguely to his hatred for journalists, and offering Caution the chance to join Alphaville, even going so far as to offer him
672-444: The collectivized citizens of Alphaville, and this is the key to Caution's riddle. Natacha eventually realizes that it is her understanding of herself as an individual with desires. The film ends with her line "Je vous aime" ("I love you"). Uncredited “Professor von Braun (Howard Vernon) has invented the omniscient computer that rules the lives of the Alphaville citizens...The dominating computer, reducing life to ‘logic’...replaces
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#1732885063774704-454: The early 1950s and started singing and performing in Paris cabarets. He was noticed by Edith Piaf , who cast him in the musical La p'tite Lili . Constantine also helped Piaf with translations for her 1956 album La Vie en Rose/Édith Piaf Sings In English and so he has songwriting credits on the English versions of some of her most famous songs (especially "Hymne à l'amour"/"Hymn to Love"). In
736-437: The elevators were old and in practice they proved very difficult to synchronize. Like most of Godard's films, the performances and dialogue in Alphaville were substantially improvised. Assistant director Charles Bitsch recalled that, even when production commenced, he had no idea what Godard was planning to do. Godard's first act was to ask Bitsch to write a screenplay, saying that producer Michelin had been pestering him for
768-420: The individual’s will with a tranquilized submission...In Alphaville, by computer decree, killing is a spectator sport. At a swimming pool, illogical [disobedient] men...are blindfolded and made to stand on diving boards. They are shot and fall into the water, whereupon girls with knives dive into the pool and hack at the bodies. All this is greeted with polite applause from the tranquilized onlookers. The atmosphere
800-402: The missing agent Henri Dickson; second, he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun; lastly, he aims to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60. Alpha 60 is a sentient computer system created by von Braun, which is in complete control of all of Alphaville. Alpha 60 has outlawed free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion in
832-432: The opportunity to rule a galaxy. When he refuses Caution's offer to go back to "the outlands", Caution kills him. Alpha 60 converses with Lemmy Caution several times, and its mechanically produced voice is seemingly ever-present in the city. Caution eventually destroys or incapacitates it by telling it a riddle that involves something that Alpha 60 cannot comprehend: poetry. The concept of the individual self has been lost to
864-430: The other "galaxies" to start strikes , revolutions , family rows, and student revolts. As an archetypal American antihero private eye, in trenchcoat and with weathered visage, Lemmy Caution's old-fashioned machismo conflicts with the puritanical computer. The opposition of his role to logic (and that of other dissidents to the regime) is represented by faux quotations from Capitale de la douleur ("Capital of Pain"),
896-417: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Alphaville . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alphaville&oldid=1169579007 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
928-552: Was born Israel Constantine in Los Angeles , California to Jewish immigrant parents, a Russian father and Polish mother; his father was a jeweler. In pursuit of a singing career, he went to Vienna for voice training. However, when he returned to the United States, his career failed to take off, and he started taking work as a film extra. Having failed to make a career in the United States, Constantine returned to Europe in
960-404: Was married three times: to Helene Musil (1942-1976, divorced), with whom he had three children; Dorothea Gibson (1977, divorced); and the film producer Maya Faber-Jansen (1979–1993, Constantine's death), with whom he had one child. His daughter Tanya (b. 1943) is a photographer. His daughter Barbara (b. 1955) is a writer, his son Lemmy (b. 1957) is also a singer and actor. His daughter Mia (b. 1981)
992-482: Was pleased with the result, and the "script" was duly translated into German and sent off to the backers. In fact, none of it even reached the screen and according to Bitsch the German backers later asked Michelin to repay the money when they saw the completed film. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , Alphaville holds an approval rating of 92% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "While Alphaville
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1024-409: Was shunned by producers after Alphaville was released. Constantine didn't play Lemmy Caution again until Panic Time in 1980. The opening section of the film includes an unedited sequence that depicts Caution walking into his hotel, checking in, riding an elevator and being taken through various corridors to his room. According to cinematographer Raoul Coutard , he and Godard shot this section as
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