Alphaville (subtitled Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution, "A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution") is a 1965 French New Wave tech noir film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina and Akim Tamiroff. The film 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. Although the film is set in the future, the technologies used and the corporations and events mentioned in the film place them firmly in the 20th century; for example, Caution describes himself as a Guadalcanal veteran.

Plot

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 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.

Awards