Alphaville

In week 3 of New Communication Technologies, we viewed the French New Wave/Science Fiction film, Alphaville. Directed in 1965 by Jean Luc Goddard, the movie is set in the future and portrays the belief that in the future people are controlled by computers…(or in this case a computer known as alpha 60).


Alphaville was a ground breaking film back when it was first produced. But in all essence it seemed more like a comedy when viewed by today’s modern audience. This is greatly because of the advancement in technology, i.e colour, effects.

An interesting fact about the movie is despite it being extremely futuristic and ahead of it’s time, no special effects were used. It is all filmed in Paris using modern settings to give a futuristic feel. This place is known as Utopia, where the citizens and technology are in harmony.

Overall Alphaville was an experimental movie that was unbelievably well-crafted for its time. It shows a concept of humans being controlled in the future by technology and computers. Now over fifty years later, it seems like today’s society has come to that, in a much more subtle way, and those original ideas from Goddard don’t seem so crazy anymore.