Trama

An agent wrecks the main computer on another planet.

Lemmy Caution, an American private-eye, arrives in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet. His very American character is at odds with the city's ruler, an evil scientist named Von Braun, who has outlawed love and self-expression.—Gene Volovich <volovich@netcom.com>

In a near future, the American secret agent Lemmy Caution travels to Alphaville posing as the journalist Ivan Johnson from the Figaro-Pravda newspaper. His mission is to find the missing agent Henry Dickson and to convince Professor von Braun to come with him to Nueva York. Prof. von Braun is actually Leonard Nosferatu and has created the powerful computer Alpha 60 that has conceived the inhuman dystopian society of Alphaville, where love, conscience, poetry and emotion have been banished and words are systematically eliminated from the dictionary. Alpha 60 is also omnipresent and Lemmy has the assistance of Natacha von Braun, who is the daughter of von Braun. Soon he falls in love with Natacha but he needs to complete his mission before leaving Alphaville.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Undercover using the assumed name and identity Ivan Johnson, a reporter for Figaro-Pravda, secret agent Lemmy Caution has been dispatched from the Outer Countries and has just arrived in Alphaville, located on the other side of the galaxy. He has two contact sheets for the people he has been sent to locate. One is Henri Dickson, another agent who may have gone rogue in he not having reported back since his arrival in Alphaville. The other is Professor Léonard von Braun who Dickson was supposed to locate. Caution can see the odd behavior of the people he encounters in they all having a somewhat cold, emotionless demeanor, even the women whose sole job seems to be to seduce male visitors to Alphaville. "They" have sent Natacha von Braun to be his guide, she claiming to be the daughter of Professor von Braun, although she further claims that she has never met him and does not know his whereabouts. Caution will learn that he finding Dickson and von Braun are connected, with everything tied to Alpha 60, the supercomputer developed by the Professor, it which controls everything in Alphaville based on what it considers logical. In that logic, there is no past and no future, only a present as that present is dictated by that logic. Also, certain concepts, mostly emotions, and their associated terms are erased from public consciousness, including feelings of love. As such, Caution goes on a related mission to destroy Alpha 60 in its dystopian control over its populace.—Huggo

A man arrives in a hotel very possessive about his white suitcase. This is Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine), an American private-eye, and he has arrived in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet.

Here he meets Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina) and tried to arrange an interview with her father, saying he is a journalist.

In the Red Star hotel he meets Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff), who tells him that there used to be artists, musicians et.c but today nothing at all.



FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Sometimes ...reality is too complex for oral communication But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world It was 24.17 Oceanic Time ...when I approached the suburbs of Alphaville [Sign:] Silence. Logic. Security. Prudence. Scene: Hotel Johnson:My paper reserved a room for me: Ivan Johnson -Which paper? -Figaro-Pravda Clerk: Room 344. Have you registered at Residents' Control? You must, even if you're a Festival visitor Johnson: Clear off! Seductress: You're tired, sir? You'd like to sleep, sir? If you're tired, you can rest, sir. The bedroom's here [Johnson checks the walls] Seductress: I'm checking if the Bible's here -Do you believe in all that? -Of course. Seductress: I'll put the tranquilizers in the bathroom I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome Seductress: -Will you take a bath? -Yes, I must think. I'll help you, sir I'll take your tie, sir Johnson: Now what? Seductress: I'll bathe you, if you like, sir Johnson: I'm a big boy, sweetie; I can find my own dames Clear off! [Spy concealed in bathroom:] Be polite to the ladies, Mister Johnson Johnson: Bloody hell, now what? Spy: Don't you fancy this kid? Johnson: How about your sister, Mister? [Johnson kills spy] I'm getting rusty What's the game? Are you on narcotics? Seductress: No, it's just normal Johnson: Everything weird is "normal" in this hole Sit in that chair [Johnson takes photograph of Seductress] Her name was Beatrice She said she was a Seductress, Third Class I was struck by her sad, yet hard, face Something's not in orbit in the capital of this Galaxy Johnson: Hold this up [Johnson shoots a hole through each breast in a Vargas painting in magazine] Johnson: Not bad for a veteran of Guadalcanal Seductress: Just what I was thinking about you Johnson: Go play your record elsewhere; I've heard it before Yes? [Voice:] Mister Johnson Miss Natasha Vonbraun... ...has called for you Johnson: Just a moment [photo on bed: Leonard Vonbraun; bring back alive, or liquidate] Johnson: Tell her I'll come down [Voice:] She's on her way up [photo on bed: Henry Dickson. Agent X21. 12, Enrico Fermi. Alphaville.] Natasha: Got a light? Johnson: I've traveled 9,000 kilometers to give it to you Natasha: I'm Natasha Vonbraun Johnson: Yes, I know Natasha: How do you know? Johnson: Miss Vonbraun? Natasha: Yes, I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome You've come from the Lands Without? Johnson: Yes Natasha: Everything to your satisfaction? Johnson: Yes Natasha: I've been ordered to remain at your service during your stay Johnson: Who ordered you? Natasha: The authorities, of course Are you here for the Festival? Johnson: Which Festival? Natasha: The big one; that's what people from the Lands Without come for It was silly not to have come earlier The Festival's nearly over; it's the last till next year Johnson: You don't say Natasha: Yes, Mister Johnson But this evening there is a Reception-Gala Performance Very big At a ministry. I'm going; come if you like Johnson: What time? I must attend to something else first Natasha: Residents' Control registration? Johnson: No. What's that? Natasha: You mustn't forget to go there. We can meet afterwards Johnson: I'll go there tomorrow. First I must meet a friend Natasha: I've work, too I'll tell you where I'll be Call for me and we'll go on together See you in an hour or two Johnson: See you then I'll go down with you Natasha: Mister Johnson, what's it like in the Lands Without? Johnson: Haven't you been there? Natasha: No, but my father told me about them when I was little Now it's forbidden to think about them Johnson: Are you often ordered to spend your time with strangers? Natasha: Yes, it's my job Johnson: How nice for you. Aren't you ever propositioned? Natasha: What? Johnson: Has no one ever fallen in love with you? Natasha: In love? What's that? Johnson: There's one thing I'd like to know Natasha: Yes, Mister Johnson? Johnson: Just how big of a fool do you take me for? Answer me Natasha: I can't understand what you're talking about Johnson: Check, Princess! I can't make head or tail of what you're talking about That's how it is, you never understand anything Yes, that's always how it is; you never understand anything Until one fine day you die of it Scene: Hotel Lobby Natasha: Which way are you going? Johnson: 12, Enrico Fermi Near Heisenberg Boulevard, near Mathematical Park Natasha: I can give you a lift I'll get the keys I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome Johnson: You don't want me to flirt with you? Natasha: What? Johnson: You really don't know what it means? [nods yes] Her smile and her small pointed teeth... ...reminded me of an old vampire film... ...the sort they used to show at cinerama museums [car drives away] Natasha: I'm a Programmer, Second Class Johnson: Natasha's a name from the past Natasha: Yes, but... ...the present is all one can know in life No one's lived in the past, or will live in the future Johnson: Thanks for the lift, anyway Natasha: It's a pleasure to do my job, Mister Johnson Johnson: Is it much farther? [Driver:] You know we must cross the north zone, Miss? Johnson: What's the population? Natasha: Don't forget, you must go to Residents' Control What exactly do you do for a living? Johnson: I work For a newspaper Professor Vonbraun, is he your father? It's vital that I write about him; can you arrange an interview? Natasha: I don't know. I've never seen him. I'll ask. Johnson: I'll get out here

-Here?

-I've changed my mind

Natasha: You noted where to meet me?

Johnson: Yes. Tell him to stop

Natasha: Stop

Scene:

Lobby

Johnson: Telecommunication

I'd like to telecommunicate

-Galaxy or local call?

-Local

-Do you know that man?

[Johnson points to portrait of Prof. Vonbraun on wall]

-Of course, I'm not stupid

Scene:

Hotel

[Man reading:]

At the end of Galata Bridge...

...that's where the Red Star Hotel is

It bears no comparison...

...to our splendid galactic corridors...

[Another man sitting on floor eats out of a box while rubbing thigh of woman]

...all a-glitter with luxury and light

It is a labyrinth of tall, cramped...

Johnson: Is this the Red Star Hotel?

Manager: Yes, I'm very well...

-Is Mister Dickson in?

-He's out

Johnson: I'll wait

Seductress: Have you money, sir?

You can wait here, sir, if you're tired

I wanted to see it again...

...and I saw the tomb of the Duc de Montpensier

The reclining statue of the Prince...

...is the work of Pradier

Johnson: Henry!

Henry, it's me!

We've got plenty to talk about

Dickson: -Where's my key

-Where's my rent, Mister Dickson?

[Johnson hands Dickson a stack of bills, Dickson lays a bill in front of hotel manager]

Manager: His key... and a beer

[Seductress brings Dickson his key and a beer]

Seductress: And me?

Manager: Why don't you hurry up and commit suicide?

We need the room for a cousin from the South

[Johnson and Dickson ascend stairs.]

Dickson: You come from the Lands Without?

Johnson: Why did he ask if you'd commit suicide?

Dickson: There's quite a few...

There's quite a few who do

Can't manage to adapt to this place

It's the method the Chinese invented...

...about thirty years ago in Pekingville

Dissuasion is their strong point

Johnson: What about those who won't adapt, or commit suicide?

Dickson: Those... they're executed

But one can hide, you know. There aren't many left

Johnson: Dick Tracy, is he dead?

[Dickson nods yes]

And Guy Léclair?

[Dickson nods yes]

Why didn't we hear from them, or from you, Henry?

Dickson: I'm sorry. These things happen

Johnson: And what's Alpha 60?

Dickson: A giant computer, like they used to have in big business

Johnson: Nueva York... IBM...

Dickson: Olivciti... General Electric... General Tokyorama...

Alpha 60 is one hundred and fifty light years more powerful

Johnson: I see. People have become slaves to probabilities

Dickson: Their ideal here, in Alphaville...

...is a technocracy, like that of termites and ants

Johnson: I don't understand

Dickson: Probably one hundred and fifty light years ago...

One hundred and fifty, two hundred...

...there were artists in the ant society

Artists, novelists, musicians, painters...

Today, nothing at all

Nothing, like here

Johnson: Has Professor Vonbraun organized it all?

Dickson: He just obeys logical orders

Johnson: Then why didn't you kill him?

Dickson: "Why" ... what does that word mean?

Johnson: You know his daughter, Natasha? Who is she really?

It was him they sent to Los Alamos

His name wasn't that then

Answer! That wasn't his name in those days

We'll get out together; you'll be O.K. But first you must...

[knock at door]

Dickson: It's a terrible secret, but...

Enter, Madame la Marquise

My cloak, Madame Récamier

Thank you, Madame Pompadour

Madame Bovary, Marie Antoinette...

...Madame La Fayette

[Madame and Dickson frolic on bed]

[Dickson spontaneously starts to choke]

Seductress: You're great

Darling you're wonderful

Dickson: I love you! I love...

[Dickson gasps in pain, then collapses & slides off bed]

Lemmy... conscience...

Alpha 60... make... self-destruct...

Tenderness...

Save those who weep

[Dickson points to object under pillow, then dies]

Scene:

Taxi

Johnson: The Capital of Pain

14. Light Radiation. Institute of General Semantics

Do you know it?

Driver: Which way? Through the North Zone, or the South?

Johnson: What's the difference?

Driver: There's snow in the North...

...and sun in the South

Johnson: Anyway, it's my Journey to the End of the Night

It was my first night in Alphaville...

...but it seemed to me that centuries had passed

Driver: I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome

[Johnson enters lobby]

Johnson: Natasha Vonbraun

Clerk: -Which section?

-Programming and memory

[clerk waves Johnson up stairs where a lecture is being delivered]

The Central Memory...

...is thus named...

...because of the primordial rôle...

...that it plays...

...in the logic-organization of Alpha 60

But no one has lived in the past...

...and no one will live in the future

The present is the form of all life

This quality...

...cannot be changed by any means

Time is like a circle...

...which is endlessly described

The declining arc...

...is the past

The inclining arc is the future

Everything has been said...

...provided words do not change their meanings...

and meanings their words

Is it not obvious that someone...

...who customarily live...

in a state of suffering...

...requires a different sort of religion...

...from a person habitually living in a state of well-being?

Before us, nothing existed here

No one

We are totally alone here

We are unique, dreadfully unique

The meaning of words...

...and of expressions, is no longer grasped

An isolated word, or a detail of a design...

...can be understood

But the meaning of the whole escapes

Once we know the number one...

...we believe that we know the number two...

...because one plus one equals two

We forget that first...

...we must know the meaning of plus

Johnson: I'm going

The acts of men...

...carried over from past centuries...

...will gradually...

...destroy them logically

I, Alpha 60...

...am merely the logical means of this destruction

[Natasha descends stairs]

Natasha: I thought you had gone for good

[Johnson takes photograph of Natasha]

Natasha: Shall we go?

I'll get the keys

Johnson: I left because I couldn't understand a word he was saying

Natasha: But it's very simple

We learned this evening...

...that death and life are found within the same circle

Johnson; -Are you afraid of death?

-Of course not. Why?

We took the tangent...

...to the centre segments

Traffic bulletins on the radio...

...as Natasha talked to me in her pretty sphinx voice

Pretty sphinx...

Pretty sphinx...

Pretty sphinx...

Pretty sphinx...

Natasha: Foreign ambassadors usually attend...

...or delegations from the districts

Johnson: Why does everyone look so miserable?

Natasha: You ask too many questions

Because they lack electricity

[Voice:]

The essence...

...of the so-called capitalist world...

...or the communist world...

[sign: MINISTERE DE LA DISSUASION Police]

...is not an evil volition...

...to subject their people...

...by the power of indoctrination...

...or the power of finance...

...but simply the natural ambition of any organization...

...to plan all its actions

Scene:

Theater

Natasha: In other words, to minimize unknown quantities

Johnson: This dump of yours isn't Alphaville, it's Zeroville

What's the show?

Natasha: Son et Lumière, I suppose

Where is everyone?

Attendant: It's already begun

Natasha: Hurry, we're late

Attendant: It's already begun

Scene:

Elevator

[Johnson shoots two photos of woman with white gown and number tattooed on forehead]

Scene:

Natasha: Don't they electrocute them anymore?

Attendant: Darling, you know the Seventeenth Plan took a plunge

[Man with machine gun steps away from edge of pool into which a body falls]

[Four female swimmers dive into pool in sequence in pursuit of floating body]

[Audience claps as Natasha kisses cheek of her father]

Johnson: Introduce me

Natasha: I told you to stay there; we're among very important people

Johnson: -May I take a photograph?

-I'll ask

[Natasha walks over to man in suit & hat who kisses her raised hand]

Natasha: Yes

[Johnson takes several more photos, including one of Professor Vonbraun]

Johnson: -What have they done?

Man to left: -They've been condemned

-Only men?

Man to right: There's usually a ratio of fifty men to one woman executed

Johnson: But what have they done?

Man to left: They behaved illogically

Natasha: Isn't that a crime in the Lands Without?

He wept when his wife died

[Man in white shirt approaches pool]

Johnson: He was condemned for that?

Natasha: Of course

Man in white: Only advance!

Aim straight for those you love!

[Gunfire, man in white shirt falls into pool, two swimmers dive in to retrieve body]

[Audience claps, one of the swimmers performs acrobatics in water]

[Another man stands at end of diving board]

Victim: Listen to me, normals!

We see the truth you no longer see!

The truth is that the essence of man is love and faith...

...courage, tenderness, generosity and sacrifice

The rest is the monolith created by your blindly ignorant progress

[gunfire, as man yells "One day!" swimmers dive into pool]

[Leaving the show Johnson pushes Professor Vonbraun away from guards into an elevator]

Johnson: Sorry, Professor, but I must have a word with you

Professor: I never give interviews

Johnson: I'm not really a reporter. Can't we talk somewhere quieter?

Professor Nosferatu...

[Johnson is apprehended as they leave the elevator]

Professor: That man no longer exists

[Johnson is dragged back into elevator and beaten back & forth by two guards. Elevator doors open]

Guard: Are you crying?

Natasha: No, because it's forbidden

Scene:

Hallway leading to interrogation rooms

[Voice:]

Occupied

Occupied

Occupied

Occupied

Free

Attendant: Sit there and answer when you're spoken to

Johnson: I haven't done anything

Attendant: Newcomers must be interrogated

Alpha 5: Alpha 5

What is your name?

Johnson: Ivan Johnson

Alpha 5: Where were you born?

Johnson: Nueva York

Alpha 5: How old are you?

Johnson: I don't know... forty-five

Alpha 5: What make and model is your car?

Johnson: Ford Galaxy

Alpha 5: What do you love above all?

Johnson: Money and women

Alpha 5: What are you doing in Alphaville?

Johnson: An article for Figaro-Pravda

Alpha 5: You seem to be afraid

Johnson: I'm not afraid... not the way you think

Anyway, you wouldn't understand

Alpha 5: Rest assured that my decisions...

...always have in view...

...the ultimate good

I shall now..

...ask you some test questions...

...as a control measure

You have come from the Lands Without

What were your feelings...

...when you passed through galactic space?

Johnson: The silence of infinite space appalled me

Alpha 5: What is the privilege of the dead?

Johnson: To die no more

Alpha 5: Do you know what illuminates the night?

Johnson: Poetry

Alpha 5: What is your religion?

Johnson: I believe in the inspirations of conscience

Alpha 5: Do you make any distinction...

...between the mystery...

...of the laws of knowledge...

...and the laws of love?

Johnson: In my opinion, there is no mystery of love

Alpha 5: You are not telling the truth

Johnson: I don't understand

Alpha 5: You are hiding certain things

Johnson: I admit I might have reasons to lie...

...but how can you differentiate between lies and truth?

Alpha 5: You are hiding certain things...

...but I do not yet know what they are

For the time being, you are free

I should like you to visit...

...the Control Complex

Free

Occupied

Free

Free

Occupied

Johnson: -Where are we going?

-To the Chief Engineer

Occupied

Occupied

Occupied

Free

Occupied

Occupied

Occupied

Ah, Le Jour se Lève

Scene:

Conference Room

[Chief Engineer pats calf of woman standing on table and she jumps off]

Engineer: A momentous occasion

Guard: Yes, we spent three years looking for Grand Omega Minus

Engineer: Well, Mister Johnson...

How do you find Alphaville?

Johnson: Not bad, if I knew where I was

Engineer: You are in the centre of Alphaville, inside Alpha 60

The task of Alpha 60 is to calculate and project...

...the results which Alphaville will subsequently enjoy

Johnson: Why?

Engineer: No one ever says "why"; one says "because"

In the life of individuals, as in the life of nations...

...everything is cause and effect

Johnson: That's the notorious theory of Professor Leonard Nosferatu

Engineer: Leonard Nosferatu...

...no longer exists, Mister Johnson

The Lands Without expelled him in 1964

Today there is only Professor Vonbraun

Johnson: I remember. He was sent to a town in the desert...

...to perfect his invention

Engineer: He was exiled, you mean

Now the Lands Without wring their hands, wishing him back

They flood us with spies. Perhaps you are a spy, Mister Johnson

Johnson: You know I'm not, since I'm a free man

Engineer: [blinks] A meaningless reply

We know nothing. We record, calculate, draw conclusions

An hour ago...

...one of Alpha 60's 1.4 billion nerve centres questioned you

Your replies were difficult and sometimes impossible to codify

We deduce an above-average intelligence

We are sometimes in mortal need of superior intelligences

At other times we have a no less mortal distrust of them

Johnson: So, what will you do with me?

Engineer: For the moment, we're ordered to show you Alpha 60

Johnson: Who ordered you? Professor Vonbraun?

Engineer: Absolutely not

An order is a logical conclusion

One must not be afraid of logic. Simply that. Full stop

What is it?

Man: The circuit elements... of 183 Omega Minus... malfunction

Engineer: Calculating or memory elements?

Man: Memory elements

Engineer: Professors Heckle and Jeckel

Prof. Heckle: I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome

Johnson: I'd like to know what Grand Omega Minus is

Engineer: Our Seventeenth Electricity Plan is inadequate

Sooner or later the Lands Without will declare war on us

Therefore, it has been decided to invade them

Directed by Professor Vonbraun...

...Omega Minus will be the victory...

...of anti-matter

Johnson: A great ideal!

Men like you could advise us of the weak points in the Lands Without

[Voice:]

Your tendency to dwell in the past...

...could be useful to us

Engineer: We send brain-washed people to the other galaxies...

...to forment strikes, revolutions, family rows, student revolts

That's us: Grand Omega Minus

[Walk past model of nude female in illuminated case

Johnson: -Where now?

-The invisible part of Alpha 60

[Voice:]

You think more of what has been...

...than of what will be

Assistant: An obsolete camera

Johnson: I'm old-fashioned

Jeckel asked why I shot the man in my bathroom...

...when the whole thing was just a psycho-test

I replied that I'm too old to argue, I shoot first

It's my only weapon against fatality

[Inside computer room]

Johnson: -What's this?

Engineer: -Central Interrogation Station

Here Alpha 60 sets itself problems

The forms and references are too complex for human understanding

Johnson: What sort of problems?

Assistant: Train and aeroplane timetables... movement of people and goods...

...electricity networking... crime suppression... war operations

[Voice:]

Element Seven. Malfunction.

Johnson: What's happened?

Engineer: It's war with the Lands Without

[Voice:]

A simple instruction...

...is usually insufficient...

...to put into execution...

...a task set by Alpha 60

Do not think that it is I...

...who initiates this destruction...

...nor the scientists...

...who have accepted my plan

Ordinary men...

...are unworthy...

...of the positions they hold in the world

Analysis of their past...

...automatically leads one...

...to this conclusion

Therefore...

...they must be destroyed

That is to say: transformed

[Voice:]

I don't need anyone to draw it for me

Directed by Vonbraun and his assistants...

...Alphaville has developed by leaps and bounds...

...guided by electronic brains that developed themselves...

...by posing and solving problems...

...beyond human comprehension

Foreigners had been assimilated if possible...

...which was easiest with the Swedes, Germans and Americans

The unassimilatables were purely and simply killed

Scene: Empty seats in a theater

The usual method was to seat them in a theater I saw...

...and electrocute them as they watched the show

The bodies were then tipped into huge rubbish bins...

...and the theater was ready for the next batch

If an individual showed hope of reclamation...

...he was sent to a chronic illness hospital...

...here mechanical and propagandistic treatments soon cured him

I felt that my existence here...

...was becoming a distorted, twilight memory...

...of an awesome destiny

There was only one solution

[Voice:]

It would not be logical...

...to prevent superior beings...

...from attacking...

...the other galaxies

Scene:

Fancy hotel

Bellboy: Going up, sir?

Johnson: No, I'll shine my shoes

[Johnson walks up stairs using carpeting on stairs to shine shoes]

Seductress: You're tired, sir?

You'd like to sleep, sir?

Johnson: Yes, to sleep: perchance to dream

What are you?

Seductress: I'm a Seductress, Third Class

Johnson: Has your colleague gone?

Seductress: Who? Beatrice?

Johnson: I don't know; a blond with long legs

Seductress: She's working in the suburban flats

We're all replacements

Johnson: Ever heard of the Lands Without?

Seductress: Never

[Johnson reaches for Seductress to see the number branded on her neck]

Johnson: -Clear off!

-Why?

[Johnson bends over to examine calf of Seductress]

Johnson: If anyone asks, say you don't know

Seductress: I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome

Scene:

Hotel room from first scene

Natasha: Mister Johnson?

Johnson: If it isn't the little princess

Natasha: I was forbidden to come, but I so wanted to see you again

Johnson: I pass!

As you're here, order breakfast for me

Natasha: I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome

Johnson: Natasha?

Natasha: Yes?

Johnson: Bow your head

[number "508" appears on the back of Natasha's neck]

Natasha: What is it?

Johnson: Nothing, just a thought

What about my breakfast?

Natasha: I want to tele-order breakfast

[Voice:] What is your number?

Natasha: What is your number?

Johnson: They didn't give me one at Alpha 60

Natasha: Not your control number, your room number

Johnson: Ever heard of this book?

Natasha: "The Capital of Pain". No

Johnson: Some words are underlined

Natasha: We live in the void of metamorphoses

But the echo that runs through the day...

...that echo beyond time, anguish or caress...

Are we near to our conscience, or far from it?

These are words I don't understand

Conscience...

Johnson: Death in conversation

And that

Natasha: Your eyes have returned from a despotic land...

...where no one has known the meaning of a glance

Johnson: You've really no idea what this is?

Natasha: It reminds me of something

I don't know what

The naked truth

I know it well

Despair is wingless, so is love...

I am as alive as my love and despair...

[Johnson grabs book from Natasha]

Johnson: And this: Dying is not dying

And this: The beguiler beguiled

This: Men who change

Never heard of secret messages, Miss Vonbraun?

Natasha: A secret message?

Johnson: Don't you know what a secret is?

Natasha: Yes. Planning secrets, atomic secrets, memory secrets

Johnson: Now what are you looking for?

This dump is driving me nuts!

Natasha: I'm looking for a Bible, to see if it's in it

Johnson: What?

Natasha: The word I'm looking for, of course.

Are you stupid?

Where is it? There's always one per person.

I'm becoming afraid

Since you've come, I no longer understand what is happening

Johnson: Me, I think I'm beginning to understand

[a knock, and breakfast is wheeled into the room by a hotel worker]

Natasha: I've found it

"Conscience"... it's not in it

Worker: I'm very well, thank you, you're welcome

Natasha: "Conscience"...

Not in the new one, either

So no one here...

...knows the meaning of the word conscience any more

Never mind

Sugar?

Johnson: This is a dictionary, not a Bible

Natasha: Isn't it the same in the Lands Without?

Johnson: Now tell me, what's it for?

Natasha: Nearly every day words disappear, because they are forbidden

They are replaced by new words expressing new ideas

In the last two or three months...

...some words I was very fond of has disappeared

Johnson: Which words? I am interested

[Johnson opens notebook: Make Alpha 60 self-destruct]

Natasha: Redbreast, weeping...

Save those who weep

...autumn light...

Tenderness

...tenderness, too

Mister Johnson

Johnson: Yes

Natasha: When I'm with you I'm afraid

They've ordered me not to see you again

Johnson: Who? The Alpha 60 engineers?

Natasha: Yes

Johnson: What are you afraid of?

Natasha: I'm afraid because I know that word...

...without ever having seen it or read it

-Which word?

-Le conscience

Johnson: La conscience

Natasha: La... ...conscience

Johnson: You've never been to the Lands Without?

Are you sure?

You're lying

Natasha: Why are you cross with me?

Johnson: Aren't you supposed to say "because", not "why"?

Natasha: I said "why"?

Johnson: Yes

And if enemy ears are listening, they heard you, too

Natasha: Well, then, I was careless, because it's forbidden

Perhaps it's all right for you to use it

When did I say "why"?

Johnson: Another question first: where were you born?

Natasha: Here, in Alphaville

Johnson: Another lie. Perhaps you're unaware of it, but you're lying

I must know the truth: where were you born?

Natasha: Here, I told you

In Alphaville

Johnson: No, in Tokyoama...

...the Land of the Rising Sun

Go on, say it

Natasha: In Tokyoama, in the Land of the Rising Sun

Johnson: Or in Florence, perhaps

Or... try to remember it for yourself, Natasha

Natasha: I don't know

Johnson: Where the sky's as blue as the South Seas

Natasha: Florence, where the sky's as blue as the South Seas

Johnson: Or in Nueva York

Natasha: Nueva York

Where the winter, Broadway...

...a glitter in a snow fur coat

Johnson: You see, you do know the Lands Without

Your father was banished from Nueva York in '64

He brought you here, so you don't belong here

Natasha: I know what this book is

A man who came with us from Nueva York, he wrote such books

I don't know what became of him

They live in the forbidden quarters here; they commit suicide

I know that Alpha 60 uses them sometimes

Johnson: How come?

Natasha: Because they write incomprehensible things

Now I know: it used to be called poetry

It seems to hold secrets, but really it's empty

When Control has an hour or so free...

...it codifies such stuff

Like everything else, one never knows

Johnson: It might prove useful

Natasha: Absolutely. We're highly organized

I'd like to go with you to the Lands Without

But I'm afraid

I'm no longer normal

When did I say "why"?

Johnson: Why?

Natasha: Because... you know very well, Mister Johnson

No, I don't

At which moment?

Johnson: Last night in the corridor, for instance

Natasha: Now it's you who is lying

Johnson: No, when I talked about falling in love

Natasha: In love? What's that?

[Johnson walks around Natasha]

Johnson: This

Natasha: No, I know what that is: it's sensuality

Johnson: No, sensuality flows from it

It cannot exist without love

Natasha: So what is love, then?

[Natasha's voice:]

Your voice, your eyes...

...your hands, your lips...

Our silences, our words...

Light that goes...

...light that returns

A single smile between us both

In quest of knowledge...

...I watched night create day...

...while we seemed unchanged

O beloved of all, beloved of one alone...

...your mouth silently promised to be happy

Away, away, says hate; never, never, says love

A caress leads us from our childhood

Increasingly I see the human form...

...as a lover's dialogue

The heart has but one mouth

Everything ordered by chance

All words without aforethought

Sentiments adrift

Men roam the city

A glance, a word

Because I love you

Everything moves

To live, only advance!

Aim straight for those you love

I went towards you, endlessly towards the light

If you smile, it is to enfold me all the better

The rays of your arms pierce the mist

Johnson: How will the chief engineer use me?

Natasha: As an inter-galaxy double agent, I think

Johnson: So it's true what Heckle said

You send spies to sabotage the rest of the world

Natasha: Of course; we learn that at school

Johnson: Are you going to betray me?

[Johnson places his hand around Natasha's throat and she nods "yes"]

You can't talk? Or don't you mean to?

[She shakes her head "no"]

Can I telecommunicate with Lands Without from this hotel?

Natasha: Just ask for Galaxy Service

[Voice:]

To Lands Without...

...telecommunications are suspended for some days

Natasha: What did you want?

Johnson: An atomic attack on Alphaville

I'll explain later, Princess, but now let's scram

[Four agents appear, two from the bathroom and two from the hallway]

-Come with us!

-Where?

Agent: Residents' Control. When he doubles up, get him

...Story 842, Miss

Natasha: One day a tiny man entered a North Zone café...

...and ordered a cup of very hot, sweet coffee...

...adding, "I shan't pay, because I'm afraid of no one"

He drank his coffee

He left

He didn't pay for his coffee

For the sake of peace, the café owner said nothing

But when the tiny man repeated the trick three times...

...the café owner decided to get a tough to sort him out

So, on the fourth day...

...when the tiny man called for his cup of coffee...

...the tough lumbered up to him and said:

"So you're afraid of no one?"

"That's right"

"Well, neither am I"

"Make that two cups of coffee", called the man

[Johnson begins laughing hysterically]

Meet you outside Residents' Control

You'll stay here, Miss Vonbraun

Scene:

Interrogation room

[Voice:]

Alpha 60: Last night you lied

Johnson: You organized Dickson's death. Why?

Alpha 60: Your name may be spelled...

...Ivan Johnson...

...but it is pronounced Lemmy Caution...

...Secret Agent...

[Johnson shakes head "no"]

...Number zero zero three...

[Johnson shakes head "yes"]

...of the Lands Without

You are a threat to the security of Alphaville

Johnson: I refuse to become what you call normal

Those you call mutants...

...form a race superior...

...to ordinary men...

...who we have almost eliminated

Unthinkable

An entire race cannot be destroyed

I shall calculate so that failure is impossible

I shall fight so that failure is impossible

Everything that I project shall be accomplished

Don't count on it; I have a secret, too

What is your secret? Tell me, Mister Caution

Something which never changes, day or night

The past represents its future, it advances in a straight line...

...yet it ends by coming full circle

I cannot trace what it is

I won't tell you

Several of my circuits...

...are looking for the solution to your riddle

I will find it

If you find it, you will destroy yourself simultaneously...

...because you will become my kin, my brother

Those who are not born, do not weep...

...and do not regret

Thus it is logical to condemn you to death

Stuff yourself with your logic

My judgment is just...

...and I am working for the universal good

If you plan to drive us from the other galaxies, you'll fail

You will not leave; the exit is blocked

We'll see

[Johnson crashes through door, firing. Kills man in stairway]

[Natasha is brought into the building but resists the agents as they struggle to get her into the lobby]

[Johnson avoids the agents, and Natasha, and asks a Driver:]

Professor Vonbraun -- do you know where he lives?

Alpha 60: Central Palace, South Zone, behind Raw Materials Station

Let's go

[Johnson gets in pointing a gun in the driver's neck]

[Driver parks]

Don't move

[Johnson shots driver]

That way I'm sure you will keep your word

[Professor Vonbraun is followed by a team of engineers through basement hallways]

[Johnson follows and takes a photo]

Assistant: No reporters!

Johnson: Reporter and Revenger both begin with R! Tell your boss!

[Johnson follows Vonbraun up a flight of stairs]

Professor: What can I do for you, Mister Caution?

Johnson: News travels fast here

Professor: Because we're very rapidly entering Light Civilization

Johnson: I'm returning to the Lands Without. Come with me

Professor: Stay with us, Mister Caution

When the war's over I'll put you in charge of another galaxy

You will have money and women

We are mastering a science so fantastic...

...that the old American and Russian atomics will see pathetic

Johnson: I see

You oppose my moral, even supernatural, sense of vocation...

...with a simple physical and mental existence...

...easily controllable by technicians

[Lights flash on several control panels]

Professor: Your ideas are strange

Some years ago, in the Age of Ideas, yours would have been thought sublime

Look at yourself. Men of your type will soon be extinct

You'll be something worse than dead

You'll become a legend

Johnson: Yes, I'm afraid of death...

...but for a humble secret agent that's a fact of life, like whisky

And I've drunk that all my life

[Johnson reveals a gun]

You never want to see the Lands Without again?

Professor: Good-bye, Mister Caution

[Shot]

Such people will serve as terrible examples...

...to those who want to play the world...

...when technical power is the only act in their repertoire

[Walking across balcony Johnson is fired upon from below by a policeman]

I was running a straight line which, like Dickson's Greek labyrinth...

...and its baffled philosophers, could disorientate a secret agent

[Johnson returns to the hallways of interrogation where men and women move along disoriented with the walls as their only means of guidance]

[Alpha 60:]

In many respects...

...your reactions and your modes of thought...

...differ...

...from present normality

[Johnson:]

The inhabitants of Alphaville are not normal

They are products of mutation

Do you accept our proposal?

Answer silently...

...with yes or no

[Johnson gets into a car; a tall man in a black suit leans against the hood]

I'll never betray the Lands Without

[Johnson engages the agent, knocks him down and drives over his head in an escape from the parking garage]

[Johnson is pursued by two cars as he drives toward the North]

[Voice:]

The present is terrifying...

...because it is irreversible...

...and because it has a will of iron

Time is the substance of which I am made

[Johnson searches interrogation rooms as men stumble down the hall. A woman stands motionless against wall]

Time is a river which carries me along

But I am time

It's a tiger, tearing me apart; but I am the tiger

[Johnson finds Natasha in an interrogation room]

Johnson: Look at her and me, there's your reply

We're happiness, and we're heading towards it

Alpha 60: It is our misfortune that the world is reality

And I...

...it is my misfortune that I am myself, Alpha 60

[Natasha is dazed and helped by Johnson down the hall]

Johnson: Natasha, think of the word love

[She regains her balance and they continue to escape]

[In the lobby Natasha is still dazed. Johnson carries her to the parking garage]

Not all the inhabitants died, but they were all stricken

Those not asphyxiated by the absence of light...

...sped about crazily, like ants

It was 23.15, Oceanic Time...

...when Natasha and I left Alphaville by the ring road

A night drive across intersidereal space, and we'd be home

Johnson: Don't look back

Natasha: Do you think they're all dead?

Johnson: Not yet

They may recover, and Alphaville will be happy, like Florence

Like Angoulême City, like Tokyorama

Natasha: Have I slept for long?

Johnson: No, just the span of a moment

Natasha: Where are we? In the Lands Without?

Johnson: Not yet

Natasha: You're looking at me very strangely

Johnson: Yes

Natasha: You're waiting for me to say something to you

Johnson: Yes

Natasha: I don't know what to say

They're words I don't know

I wasn't taught them

Help me

Johnson: Impossible, Princess. Help yourself, then you'll be saved

If you don't, you're as lost as the dead of Alphaville

Natasha: I

love

you

I love you

The End