Alphaville: Love and Poetry

Godard’s Alphaville is a concoction of love and technology, poetry and science.

In a city that is governed by an evil scientist, those who experience love, or grief, or even read poetry are sentenced to death. A tragic scene suffused with endless murder and beautiful synchronized swimmers, is displayed very matter-of-factly. The insouciance attitude in the characters is genuine to Alphaville on account of the inhuman sensitivity that everyone in this city is to attain. This scene specifically demonstrates the interrelation between evil and poetry that is prominent throughout the film.

Alphaville, the city where love is obsolete, technology plays the leading role. Ironically Alphaville is fluid with romanticism and despair that is easily interpreted by the over-sexualized women in this city. And it isn’t hard to predict that it is through the pursuit of love that Alphaville’s regime is eradicated.

Anna Karina, who plays the evil scientists’ daughter, maneuvers her way into the heart of an “outsider”, a journalist who has come to save its citizens from the Alpha 60 dictatorship. Here, with a touch of passion and courage, the journalist who also claims to stand for justice, hunts and kills the scientist while consequentially destroying Alphaville itself.

In a city that is entranced with apathy and dispassion, the film is flooded with love and poetry. From the opening quote by Borges: “Sometimes reality is too complex for oral communication. But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world”, to Anna Karina reading a love poem from Éluard’s Capital of Pain, Godard weaves love and poetry in and out in this hollow-robotic city.  For the protagonist, poetry turns darkness into light, and in the end, only those who love survive.


-ar

Godard the Poet

Similar to the thrill one feels while listening to a jazz musician weave together the many sounds and emotions at their disposal, so too does the viewer feel a thrill observing the myriad ways that Godard intertwines text, image, sound, and movement.  As Ian described in his post on Godard and Jazz, there is a certain element of “riffing” undertaken in Godard films which can also be likened to the idea of free writing or stream of consciousness poetry.  Sam mentioned in a previous post that “Godard believes in the necessity of poetry” and his efforts to create poems in his work whether through image, voice, and/or editing are apparent in all of his projects. 


I would also point out that Godard’s desire for poetry, his affinity for aesthetic pleasure and beauty cannot be separated from his efforts to incorporate social, political, and cultural commentary into his films.   In this sense, Godard’s work calls to mind the Epic Theatre, as envisioned by Brecht, that does not allow the audience to forget their surroundings or to get sucked into the cinematic charm (“engendering of illusion”) that renders us passive readers of images on a screen.  Godard lures the viewer in with lyrical and visual poetry and then spits us back out so we do not forget what it is that we are watching, what we are thinking, what we are doing, how we are living, and how our actions affect those individuals and institutions around us.






This clip from Masculin Feminin first lures the viewer in with a beautiful young woman talking about how lucky she is to be Miss 19. The viewer is charmed momentarily by her smile, her laugh, her modesty, her body framed in the window. But Godard brings us out of our visual enjoyment of Miss 19 through pointed questions about politics, war, society, and birth control.  Even the way in which Paul is asking questions are jarring to both the audience as well as Miss 19.



Then we have the opening five minutes of Contempt. It begins with a beautiful wide shot and an epic soundtrack but we are immediately grounded in the fact that we are watching a movie, a production, with actors, cameras, and sound operators. The credits inform the viewer of this reality as well as the fact that the wide shot includes a camera crew that is shooting a tracking shot within the frame. As we move on to the love scene we are still charmed by the music, the shot, the intimacy of the two characters and especially what they're saying to each other. Yet, Godard gently reminds the viewer that this too is cinema, this too is an illusion by changing the color filters over the lens.



This is the trailer that Sam posted of Godard's Film Socialisme.  I really loved this trailer and I found myself totally enthralled by the images in fast forward. However, Godard's use of titles as well as the dramatic music changes kept me attentive and aware of what I was watching as well as wondering about the purpose of each image, location, and the music choices.


True to a poets love and fascination with the world, Godard shares his pleasures and reflections on life with the audience through his choice of beautiful women, imagery, music and quotes. However, Godard does not let himself, nor the viewer get caught up in pure aesthetic enjoyment.  Godard's is an arresting kind of poetry, just as you feel you are falling into a rhythm, or start losing yourself in a shot, with Brechtian artistic purpose he brings us back to reality, back to politics, back to reflecting on our surroundings.


-A.B.

Godard's Ad for Vivre Sa Vie

UN

FILM

SUR

LA

PROSTITUTION

QUI

RACONTE

COMMENT

UNE

JEUNE

ET

JOLIE

VENDEUSE

PARISIENNE

DONNE

SON

CORPS

MAIS

GARDE

SON

AME

ALORS

QU'ELLE

TRAVERSE

COMME

DES

APPEARANCES

UNE

SERIE

D'AVENTURES

QUI

LUI

FONT

CONNAITRE

TOUS

LES

SENTIMENTS

HUMAINS

PROFONDS

POSSIBLES

ET

QUI

ONT

ETE

FILMES

PAR

JEAN-LUC

GODARD

ET

JOUES

PAR

ANNA KARINA

VIVRE SA

VIE

Translation, as found in the Criterion Collection booklet: "A film on prostitution about a pretty Paris shopgirl who sells her body but keeps her soul while going though a series of adventures that allow her to experience all possible deep human emotion, and that were filmed by Jean-Luc Godard and portrayed by Anna Karina. My life to live." Of course, the translation is inaccurate or misleading to the extent that it doesn't include the line breaks found in the advertisement (e.g. A / film / about / prostitution / about / a / pretty / Paris / shopgirl…), because it should be clear that what Godard is providing here is not simply a description of his film but also an attempt at modern poetry. (But let's be clear. It's not that Godard wishes to transform poetry into modern-day advertisements. No; he wishes to transform modern-day advertisements into poems. To make them more-than simple tools for commercial profit.) Godard believes in the necessity of poetry. Now and forever.

S I-G