About this episode
As always there are spoilers ahead! (And the podcast is much more fun if you've seen the film first.) You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky. If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm Jean-Luc Godard is potentially the most prominent of the French New Wave directors. In the mid-60s his mind turned to science fiction and the result was a visually striking, choatic film about a dystopian world in which logic rules and love is punished. If you find the film confusing you are not alone and I have two brilliant academic brains to help us out. Roger Luckhurst is a Professor at Birkbeck, University of London. He has written/edited numerous articles and books on cultural history and film. Douglas Morrey is an associate professor of French at the University of Warwick. He has a special interest in the French new Wave on which he has written extensively, including the 2005 book Jean-Luc Godard. CORRECTION: In the podcast I mention Roger citing Alphaville having an image from Chris Marker's La Jetée but the image is actually Marker's photograph which is in the credit sequence but doesn not feature in La Jetée. The book of poetry in the film Capitale de la douleur (Capital of Pain) is written by Paul Elouard. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:40 French New Wave in 1965 03:38 Godard's influences for Alphaville 11:31 Eddie Constantine: The illogical Noir hero 16:43 Lemmy Caution and fascism 18:05 Alienation and confusion 25:52 Godard's technique and budgets 30:07 Sound design 32:30 The swimming
