Christian Voveris ARTH 227 Urban Space in Alphaville as an expression of conflict

With reference to one or more examples of C20th art, cinema or architecture, write an essay exploring the City as a kind of environment (through which one journeys), and as a text (which one might read). Consider the effects of visual culture in shaping these two understandings of urban space

The urban is defined as a place where conflicts are expressed. (Lefebvre, 2003) Lefebvres declaration finds a place not only in the urban itself, but also in its representation in cinema. Since the conception of film, directors and critics alike have been trying to define and understand the relationship between the city and its filmic representation. Among these, directors such as Fritz Lang, Jean-Luc Godard, and Riddley Scott made use of the recreation of urban space in film to address this conflict in the context of a dystopian future, in which humanity is not the predominant force of society. The ability of filmmakers to capture, manipulate and orchestrate moving images of urban space, whether shot in studios or actual cities, opens up possibilities to develop this narrative of conflict in different ways. Certain features of orchestration between scenes allows urban spaces to be recreated in film in a way that functions in a similar way as one can explore it in real-life, as an environment, albeit a mental one, through which one can travel. In the same films, we can also discern literary features within the fabric of urban space, such as symbolism, juxtaposition and character projection that allow us to read into the narrative of conflict that is being created. Bearing this bilateral method of analysis in mind, I will predominantly look at Godards Alphaville (1965), as not only a hypothetical situation of urban space in a post-human context, but also as a critique of contemporary issues pertaining to urban space. To support this, I will look at films in the genre that are either referenced in, or reference Alphaville, such as Langs 1926 production of

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epic proportions, Metropolis. Furthermore, I would like to look at the effects of this genre of film, and especially Alphaville, in shaping the understanding of urban space.

Considering the focus on dystopia and the post-technological sublime in this essay, it would be fair to first arrive at a consistent definition of the idea of dystopia, which in turn would require a re-evaluation of utopia, to correct a common misrepresentation in the coining of the term. Utopia, as used in the title of Sir Thomas Moores 1516 classic proposal of an ideal society most closely is most closely associated with the idea of a good place, from which most would follow that dystopia is simply its opposite, or a bad place. British literary critic John Carey offers a distinction stating that all imaginary places, whether ideally good or bad are in fact utopias, satisfying the criteria by being expressions desire, whereas to count as dystopia, an imaginary place must be an expression of fear (Darke, 2005, p. 24). The origins of modern dystopia were beginning to be explored in literature with works such as Aldous Huxleys A Brave New Word (1924), and George Orwells 1984, from which it passed on into common currency. In post-human dystopian films, this expression of fear is manifested in the recreation of urban space is manifested, especially so in Alphaville, a film in which the hierarchy between humans and technology is completely reversed, and it citizens blindly obey a supercomputer that calculates with complete rationality the optimal and most efficient choices and systems in all aspects of the city. In an objective sense, it might not be a bad place: the city is a functional system that serves the needs of its citizens, and that of its own progress. However, from the subjective point of view of the human, it is an expression of fear in the utter lack of the human in both its environment and the message that this environment delivers.

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From its opening scenes, Alphaville strives for a complete immersion in its own urban space as an environment in which the main character, Lemmy Caution is introduced. Panning through low-angle shots of identically faceless buildings, the film strives for an atmosphere devoid of individuality, while shots of car-congested streets lit up by dazzling neon signs suggest the fastpaced nature of modernity in this fictitious yet city. Amidst this modernity, Lemmy Cautions human and individualistic qualities find a protruding presence. As an environment, Alphaville succeeds in showcasing modernity as antithetical to a human nature and incompatible with transcendental human qualities such as individuality.

Urban Space in Alphaville (1965)

Films that deal with visions of the future, and especially those with a dystopian future tend to require an artificial setting for their production, since it is difficult to make a believable projection of a future city of fear from what is present in the contemporary. For this reason, the studio is used more often in the making of films of this genre, starting with Langs monstrously elaborate and unprecedentedly massive set in which the city of Metropolis is created, which is

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also referenced at multiple instances in Blade Runner. Godards city takes a distinctly different approach by piecing together Alphaville from scenes shot in actual contemporary Paris of the 1960s. While financial constraints are a reality, it would be inane to argue that this was merely a budgetary decision. The use of real shots from a real city in the context of a dystopian future makes the concepts and ideas attached far less removed and distanced from the reality of the viewers, eschewing the inescapable artificiality of the studio. Furthermore this suggests a criticism of social issues that goes beyond the science fiction of the film, which could be aimed specifically at the impact of uncontrolled capitalism on the social functions of urban space.

A great deal of thought has been put into the transformation of 1960s Paris into Alphaville. For instance, there is an absence of recognizable monuments, landmarks, and points of interest that give a city its uniqueness and character. The choice of architecture in the urban spaces that were selected for Godards city leans heavily towards the grandiose and identical-looking buildings of the international style that was at the peak of its popularity in the post-World War II period. In between scenes set in these emblems of modernity we see Lemmy Caution transported through bright neon-lit streets that are congested with cars and almost entirely void of pedestrians. Altogether, these features add up to create an environment that feels alien and foreign, while at the same time echoing the familiar. This effect can be in part traced to the fact that the images in Alphaville in fact have value as historical documents of an actual urban space, unlike the entirely fictional studio-based production of Metropolis, which in the present pales in its obsolescence in terms of production value.

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Urban space in film can also often be read as well as explored as a text. A very obvious example of this can be found in the vertical spatial organization of Fritz Langs Metropolis, in which the upper classes of factory owners occupy the vertically highest spaces of the city, while the working classes of factory workers occupy the lowest layers. As a result, access to public space, education, and even a most basic good such as light, all become privileges reserved for an exclusive elite, metaphorically pointing towards the hierarchical organization of society. Similarly, Alphaville also relies on spatial organization as a text for communicating its ideas. For instance, there is a recurring theme of centrality in Alphaville, as it is often referred to as the center of this Galaxy. It is not surprising, then, that at the heart of the city, behind a hotel lobby lies the supercomputer which the city is built upon. Furthermore, there is an almost unbridgeable divide between the city and the outside world, which is only referred to as the Outlands by its citizens, most of whom know nothing about anything beyond its limits. Furthermore, the only directional distinctions in Alphaville are North and South; the two areas of the city are seemingly almost identical, the only difference between the two being weather. Through these features, Godard sets up his vision of a dystopian city as a homogenous and all-consuming entity for its inhabitants, whose entire reality becomes completely endogenous to the city.

Godards Alphaville reveals itself as a total essence of rationality in food, travel, work, sexual relations, housing, architecture, and details of design. However, the exercise in rationality conflicts with the notion of humanity, which remains alive while struggling in pockets and backwaters of the city that seem to be overlooked by the iron hand of modernity. In the seedy

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hotels we are introduced to the dwindling population of outcasts that remain un-brainwashed by the rule of the post-human technology, amidst a backdrop of surviving, yet decaying classical and pre-modern architecture. The rest of the city seems unrepresentative of any such conflict however, which Richard Koeck relates to a comment on the state of urban space in the present, claiming that the the urban centres that we inhabit suffer from a homogenous lack of identity that tries to avoid any dialogue (or conflict) with the context in which it is situated. (Koeck, 2008) This lack of identity, a result of an artificial homogenization of urban space is what the French Marxist theorist Guy Debord explains as a byproduct of Capitalist production, which he sees as breaking down the boundaries between societies in an extensive and intensive process of banalization. (Debord, 1967) Whether or not this is the case, this backlash against modernist architecture and use of urban space is at least in part a response to the critique of urban space in Godards Alphaville, serving as an example of the influence of visual culture on the understanding of urban space.

A scene of anti-Modern space in Alphaville (1965)

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The idea of Alphaville is not only manifested in Godards science fiction film; features of the dystopian city can be seen in multiple instances of real life urban spaces. One of these bears an especially uncanny resemblance: a neighborhood of Sao Paolo, Brazils most populated city, which was named, whether unwittingly or in full acceptance of the irony, Alphaville. It is home to over 30,000 of Brazils most wealthy residents, who inhabit the community surrounded by electric fence and protected by a private army of 1,100 (Darke, Alphaville Exists, 2005). For their own entertainment, the residents can watch their maids exiting the complex among the masses of workers being patted down and searched in front of a live video feed. While this may not be a metropolis blindly following the directions of a supercomputer, it does share quite a few features with Godards city, with most aspects of planning and maintenance controlled not by democratic government, but a private company, which also manages dozens of other similar projects throughout Brazil. This allows for exclusive allocations of urban space that only cater to the wealthy few, while the overwhelming majority of the population have no choice other than the crime-ridden favelas of Sao Paolo, making an analogy to the spatial hierarchy of society in Metropolis not at all far-fetched.

The filmic exploration of dystopian future reflected in urban spaces is often far more than merely science fiction, as Alphaville clearly shows us. Through its environmental depiction of urban space, Godards film explores the spatial effects of modernity by creating an environment which is all encompassing for the characters within it: the boundaries of this dystopian city are far removed and never in sight, its weight reinforced by the endless presence of night. The textual aspect of the city explores the social effects of a city in which the human

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has lost control, starting with the spatial organization of the city, which aside from the supercomputer at its center, is almost entirely homogenous and featureless. In this setting, the conflict between the protagonist and the citys presence is expressed in the issues of a modern city structure in which the inhabitants have lost control over the right that Lefebvre claimed to be one of the most vital to urban human existence (Harvey, 2008), the right to reshape themselves by shaping the city, and it is in this aspect that it is truly an expression of fear, and thereby qualifies as dystopia. Its choice of filming location in contemporary 60s Paris, as well as numerous references to figures of modernity establish the film beyond its face-value of a combination of film-noir and science fiction, and applying its criticism of urban space to issues of the present. The effect of Godards film on the understanding of urban space is present in the debate on urban space that it subsequently sparked, and allows us to better understand and recognize how the development of modern day dystopias within urban space.

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Bibliography
Clarke, D. (1997). The Cinematic City. London: Routledge. Darke, C. (2005). Alphaville. Campaign: University of Illinois Press. Darke, C. (2005). Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965). Chris Darke: University of Illinois Press. Darke, C. (2005, July). Alphaville Exists. Vertigo, p. 8. Debord, G. (1967). Society of the Spectacle. London: Rebel Pres. Harvey, D. (2008). The Right to the City. The New Left Review. Koeck, R. (2008). Cine Montage: The Spatial Editing of Cities. In The City and the Moving Image (pp. 208221). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Koeck, R., & Roberts, L. (2010). Introduction: Projecting the Urban. In The City and the Moving Image. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Lefebvre, H. (2003). The Urban Revolution. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press. Mennel, B. (2008). Cities and Cinema. New York: Routledge. Shiel, M., & Fitzmaurice, T. (2001). Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context. Oxford: Blackwell.