Alphaville

Subtitled “A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution,” Godard’s hugely influential sci-fi thriller was originally called Tarzan vs. IBM, a title indicative of its pop art/pulp fiction sensibility and suggestive of its theme: the alienating, dehumanizing effects of contemporary corporate/computer culture. Lemmy Caution, Secret Agent .003 from the Outlands, travels through space in a Ford Galaxie to Alphaville, the city of the future, where love, art, and individuality are outlawed. Armed only with a Zippo lighter, a .45 calibre handgun, and a volume of Éluard’s poems, his mission is to neutralize the dictatorial Professor Von Braun and destroy Alpha 60, the ruthless computer that demands mindless conformity. Cartoon-balloon dialogue complements the comic book plot, while the amazing visuals of cinematographer Raoul Coutard render the city of the title as a shadowy, menacing, harshly-lit world of concrete and glass – sort of a Cold War-era vision of a futuristic East Berlin. In fact, Alphaville was shot entirely on location in contemporary Paris, underscoring Godard’s point that the sterile, soulless world of Alphaville is already the world of today. “The most influential movie of [the] genre next to Kubrick’s 2001” (Armond White). “One of Godard’s most sheerly enjoyable movies, a dazzling amalgam of film noir and science fiction" (Tom Milne).

Special 2-for-1 pricing: See both Vivre sa vie and Alphaville for our regular single-bill admission price: $10.50 Adults / $9.00.