Rent Alphaville (1965)

Deadpan in a Dead World - Alphaville review by griggs

Neon, glass and shadow turn Paris into a city at once familiar and alien, ruled by reason and stripped of poetry. Into this world strides Eddie Constantine’s Lemmy Caution, trench coat and pulp swagger intact, as if he’s wandered in from another reel. His deadpan delivery makes him a strange but steady anchor against Godard’s stark backdrops.

Anna Karina gives the story its human spark, her performance suggesting warmth in a place bent on erasing it. Godard films offices, hotels and highways as monuments to control, while the rasping voice of Alpha 60 saturates the soundtrack like an endless lecture. The effect is both oppressive and slyly comic. What emerges is a noir-sci-fi hybrid that argues for human feeling against a world of cold logic.