Alphaville

Menage e trois

Alphaville appears to be the apex of Godard’s imagination and ideology, if not its synthesis. It is, along with so many of his 60s films, a cinematic excuse to spout various pensées that cohesively tie with the theme of the film and even the form, but appear to be little more than spontaneous bullet points uttered by Alpha 60, the sinister stand-in for Godard himself. Toying with film noir and the image of Bogart as usual, Alphaville takes anti-capitalist economics and pseudo-socialist politics to what may be their logical ends: a dystopic world in a parallel universe, totalitarian through its frighteningly perfect rationality. It almost appears as if Godard is lamenting in advance an embrace of ideology void of the affections. Society is not greater than love, but love begets the perfect society. Melodrama may be employed here tongue-in-cheek, along with every other genre Godard enlists, but we have learned that when Godard is least serious he is most earnest.

Eternal, circuitous despotism