Alphaville (Criterion)
Picture:
C Sound: D Extras: D Film:
A-
Jean Luc-Godard’s Alphaville
(1965, aka The Strange Adventure Of Lemmy Caution or/ou Une estrange
aventure de Lemmy Caution) is unlike any film ever made and it certainly could
not be made again with the same impact and delicacy of the original. In fact, just based on its timing it would
not even make sense to try and revisit the film for the material that it was
working with is now! Whether or not
Godard realized this or not and he is probably laughing with each new day at
how close he was to the type of society that has formed in the past 40
years. He originally wanted to call it Tarzan
Vs. I.B.M., but it looks like neither entity was interested in giving him
permission for such a title.
When
Alphaville opened in the 60’s that world seemed so far removed from
where we are now with it. It must have
seemed so alien-like as if some little Martian had come to earth and made a
film. Kubrick’s 2001: A Space
Odyssey was still three years off, so the world had not been introduced to
the ‘monolith’. Part of the reason is
the fact that the film incorporates so many styles, but adheres to none. It simply mixes everything up and breaks
just about every rule there is as if it were ‘amateur’ work, but something this
brilliant could only be made by a master.
There is a fine line between an amateur director making a great film and
a great director making an amateur film.
What
separates this film the most is its Science Fiction roots shot as if it were a
40’s Noir and at the same time you don’t know when to laugh or cry. Its influence is seen clearly in films today
from Memento to The Matrix.
What is brilliant about Alphaville is its ability to do so much
with so little. Unlike blockbusters of
today, which rely on special effects as its fuel, Godard knew that what the
audience ‘thinks’ is different from what they ‘know’ therefore if he can make
them think a certain way, then they will never know the difference. For example, there is a scene in the film
where our main character Lemmy Caution is being interrogated by the Alpha 60
Computer and all you see is our character in a glass room with lights being
flashed in while three microphones dance around his head. There is nothing in the room that is
‘foreign’ to us, but as collaboration, it looks strange and we get the feeling
that everything is ‘hi-tech’ so to speak.
Alphaville might not be Godard’s best film, but it is certainly one of his oddest
with all the trademarks of the director’s unusual and untraditional style. Criterion has released the film in its
original full-frame aspect ratio with a 1.0 mono soundtrack. The print is very poor in some cases, especially
those at night, which occupy a large majority of the film. The blacks are very weak, if not a few
shades too light. By comparison to the
Wellspring DVD of Breathless or Criterion’s Band of Outsiders,
Alphaville does not quite shine like it could or should. However, since this is an older DVD a lot of
the time and work did not go into the film for the digital format. This is more
than likely the same print that Criterion used for the laserdisc years
ago. Although the film was mastered
from the original camera negative the results are less than spectacular as a
lot of grain, dust, and tears are still very evident on the print. This will certainly be a title that
Criterion will want to re-issue down the line if they can hold the rights. Similar to how they recently revisited Beauty
and the Beast as well as Truffaut’s The 400 Blows.
The
other downside with this DVD is the very harsh 1.0 Dolby Digital Mono
audio. Sound was mastered from the 35mm
magnetic audio track, but more time needs to be spent removing more hiss,
crackles, and pops. Not only that, but
the sound is too tin-y sounding. This
can be adjusted somewhat by adding more bass with your receiver, but that kind
of work should not be needed.
Alphaville comes to us from Criterion, usually noted for their special features,
did not include a single extra. Since
two sequels were done to this film, Anticipation (1966) and German
Year 90 Nine Zero (1994), why not include them? Some may wonder what kind of extras might exist out there if
Criterion would decide to go back and do further treatment for this film. Some may want to still get this DVD just for
the sake of the film being so great, but others may not want to risk that if
there is a special edition on the way.
It is so hard to judge these days, which DVD’s are worth picking up
since the common trend seems to be releasing multiple versions. With such poor quality though, this film
deserves further treatment, but until then at least the film is available on
DVD.
- Nate Goss
