Unjust ratings, people missing the point or am I?


I think many is missing the point of Alphaville, considering its ratings here on IMDb. Well, I'm not sure of Godard's intentions, if he even had any or if I'm right, but when I saw the film the other night it struck me quite obvious to be a parody, or atleast intentionally over-the-top. The private detective, the short suspense "fanfares" that kept spurting, all the American surnames, the hero shooting down people without any consequences, love conquering "evil"/logic. I guess the film also might be seen as an homage to film noir and early science fiction. Yet the film had qualities on its own, for sure. On first viewing I'll give it 9/10, having delighted in the surreal atmosphere and the occasional philosophical detours, and having a healthy laugh more than often. A lovely film!

My point is, it seems people rate this film low because they - somewhat understandable - find these over-the-top elements mentioned above, not as qualities but as vices. Any thoughts?

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It's very difficult, if not impossible, to view one Godard from, especially from the '60s, outside the context of everything else he was doing. One needs also to read his critical work, to understand the larger context of the "New Wave", and what they were intending, rightly or wrongly, for cinema.

"Sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail, and face the truth" - G. Marx

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I don't think it's a comedy.

I gave it 7/10 because it's a great film with some very annoying elements (Alpha60's voice, choppy editing) and hasn't dated too well.



~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~

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The original post is quite interesting in questioning if this film was parody. I was wondering myself if this was a bit of a piss take at American sci-fi and noir. Godard is a visionary and I can therefore see why people could be seduced by this film but as far as I am concerned as a film planted in the "sci-fi" genre it is perhaps the worst I have ever seen. The plot is swathed in the incomprehensible, Godard's philosophising is mind-numbing, the horrible miscasting of Eddie Constantine (Delon or Belmondo would have made it infinitely more watchable), the astonishingly irritating Alpha 60 voice, the misplacement of the incidental music in the story at frequent intervals that did nothing to define key plot elements, and a vision of a futuristic France which pales in comparison to something like Tati's Playtime. I watched and enjoyed Vivre Sa Vie for the first time 2 nights ago and having seeing Alphaville it makes me appreciate that even more.

The only opinion that counts is your own.

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Worth about 5/10 - it´s dull, the dialogue is frequently kinda silly and the thing as a whole lacks atmosphere, narrative urgency & creative imagination. Add to this the awfully banal bouts of indoors conversations that seem to last for ages (just the way it is in Breathless & Le Mepris, as well - especially the latter is pretty much ruined by the endless trivial bickering between Bardot and whoever that ugly man in a hat was). The whole sci-fi angle with the ancestor of HAL 9000 with a throat cancer, is more goofy than anything else and, crucially, for an alleged satire, it isn´t really particularly witty, funny or inventive. All in all, I´ve seen 4 Godard´s now and it seems the dude really is massively overrated - you can´t ride on yer bloody editing gimmicks forever... especially when someone like Resnais happens to be doing similar stuff to an even greater effect... and his movies also seem more consistent in tone and better paced than Godard´s experiments (as far as I´m concerned, his only truly good film is Pierrot Le Fou. Alphaville really didn´t do anything for me at all - a major disappointment).



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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the film is not rated low enough imho - i suspect some pseudo intellectuals rate this film highly - hey Godard is a classic filmmaker right? He cannot possibly make a bad film! - whereas the majority of people either have no interest in the film or watched it and have not been impressed...I am in the latter camp

I found the film gimmicky, slow, surreal, pretentious, well shot...and I'd rate it as 5 simply because its well shot and surreal...

For the 60s it may have been cool but for the 21st century the film is almost a joke

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This is a plotless, dumb and boring film. Was falling asleep so hard, tried to watch at least an hour of it but had to turn it off after 40 minutes, it was so bad. A film can try to be very smart and have some underlying phylosophical themes, and be a parody of other genres, but if it's not entertaining it fails on both levels, just like this one did.

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you crazy.

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