Sometimes ...reality is too complex for oral communication
But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the
world
Scene:
Alphaville
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 L¨¦clair?
[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 R¨¦camier
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 Lumi¨¨re, 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 L¨¨ve
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 caf¨¦...
...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 caf¨¦ owner said nothing
But when the tiny man repeated the trick three times...
...the caf¨¦ 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 Angoul¨ºme 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
* * *
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