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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD DVD Layers: 1 DVD Sides: 1 EAN: 9780780021549 Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC ISBN: 0780021541 Label: Criterion Languages: Manufacturer: Criterion MPN: 30 Number Of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Publisher: Criterion Region Code: 1 Release Date: October 27, 1998 Running Time: 99 minutes Studio: Criterion Theatrical Release Date: 1965 Editorial Review: Amazon.com essential video: As the French New Wave was reaching its maturity and filmgoing had evolved as a favorite pastime of intellectuals and urban sophisticates, along came Jean-Luc Godard to shake up every convention and send highfalutin critics scrambling to their typewriters. 1965's Alphaville is a perfect example of Godard's willingness to disrupt expectation, combine genres, and comment on movies while making sociopolitical statements that inspired doctoral theses and left a majority of viewers mystified. Part science fiction and part hard-boiled detective yarn, Alphaville presents a futuristic scenario using the most modern and impersonal architecture that Godard could find in mid-'60s Paris. A haggard private eye (Eddie Constantine) is sent to an ultramodern city run by a master computer, where his mission is to locate and rescue a scientist who is trapped there. As the story unfolds on Godard's strictly low-budget terms, the movie tackles a variety of topics such as the dehumanizing effect of technology, willful suppression of personality, saturation of commercial products, and, of course, the constant recollection of previous films through Godard's carefully chosen images. For most people Alphaville, like many of the director's films, will prove utterly baffling. For those inclined to dig deeper into Godard's artistic intentions, the words of critic Andrew Sarris (quoted from an essay that accompanies the Criterion Collection DVD) will ring true: "To understand and appreciate Alphaville is to understand Godard, and vice versa." --Jeff Shannon Description: A cockeyed fusion of science fiction, pulp characters, and surrealist poetry, Godard's irreverent journey to the mysterious Alphaville remains one of the least conventional films of all time. Eddie Constantine stars as intergalactic hero Lemmy Caution, on a mission to kill the inventor of fascist computer Alpha 60. Criterion's edition of this seminal film features a new digital transfer. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The big computerThe action in Alphaville is set in a future where everything is run by the big computer Alpha 60. It's hard to take this film seriously, the futuristic vision is very 1960s: the fear of a computerized society where machines rule with cold rationality and so on. As an example of this vision it is interesting. But Godard doesn't elaborate this future society very much so it is never especially "believable" or consistent. It is more like a playful attempt to make a budget sci-fi: the special effects ... Read More Rating:  - 2.5 Stars, Not an Easy Watch "Alphaville", an acknowledged high point of New Wave film, is billed as a must see for its genre-bending philosophical excursion into a totalitarian future. I found this film difficult to immerse myself in and watched it in segments over the course of three or four nights. Things I enjoyed included Eddie Constantine's grizzled visage and terse acting, the beautiful modernist architecture, lovely actresses, and the distorted voice of the deadly "Alpha 60". However, as when recently seeing "Breathless" ... Read More Rating:  - BoringThis movie is super super dull. Very artsy, weak plot, dadaistic dialogue, nothing but two hours of meaningless mumbo jumbo. Maybe this is of interest for film students who see this film as an experiment to break away from the rules of storytelling and dramaturgy or something. But for the regular viewer looking for a good sci-fi movie, you better go look elsewhere. Unbelievably overrated in my opinion. Rating:  - One of the most unique, moving, and poetic science fiction films ever made...This film really doesn't get as much attention as it should. I was recently watching clips of this on youtube, and was struck by a couple of comments. Someone wrote "how does Godard do it? He uses very old fashioned techniques here (dissolves, fades), yet, makes one of the most profound films ever made?". Another wrote "because he's an artist". This is so true. This is one of most challenging, complex, cerebral science fiction films ever made. Despite the fact that it was shot in current day Paris ... Read More Rating: - Brainwashed DronesLately I have been interested in watching films that have a strong leftist political feel to them. In the realm of Japanese film I have been viewing and purchasing films from the 1960s that have connections with the leftist theatrical troupes and student and social movements. Of course directors like Oshima Nagisa, Imamura Shohei, and Susumu Hani play an important role during this movement so I have picked up a number of their films. Anyway, I am slowly, but surely, developing an interest in films from America, ... Read More |
