Alphaville (film)

Alphaville
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard
Written by	Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by	André Michelin
Starring	Eddie Constantine Anna Karina Akim Tamiroff Howard Vernon
Cinematography	Raoul Coutard
Edited by	Agnès Guillemot
Music by	Paul Misraki
Distributed by	Athos Films
Release date	5 May 1965 (1965-05-05)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution) is a 1965 French New Wave science fiction neo-noir film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Howard Vernon, and Akim Tamiroff. The film won the Golden Bear award of the 15th Berlin International Film Festival in 1965.^[1][2]

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 the city's interiors. The film is set in the future but the characters also refer to twentieth-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 a futuristic sci-fi dystopia, the technocratic dictatorship of Alphaville.