Alphaville + Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
media release: TRAILER OF A FILM THAT WILL NEVER EXIST: PHONY WARS (FILM ANNONCE DU FILM QUI N'EXISTÉRA
JAMAIS: 'DRÔLES DE GUERRES')
France, Switzerland | 2023 | DCP | 20 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
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ALPHAVILLE
France | 1965 | DCP | 99 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff
Phony Wars, Godard’s final work, represents the legendary filmmaker’s initial attempts at adapting a 1937 novel by Charles Pilsnier. The resulting 20-minute ‘trailer’ for a film that never was is a complex collage of history, politics, and cinema constructed of paper and glue, paintings and photographs, sound and silence. The short will be immediately followed by a newly restored 4K DCP of Godard’s celebrated science-fiction masterpiece, Alphaville, the story of Lemmy Caution (Constantine) and his mission to eliminate the creator of a malevolent computer that rules a futuristic city.
Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.
NEW FRENCH RESTORATIONS: Beginning with the Lumieres and the origins of motion pictures more than 130 years ago, France has remained one of the world’s leading contributors to the art of cinema. From January through April, the Cinematheque will present six French feature films, all shown in new digital restorations, that cover nearly sixty years of French cinema history, from the 1930s to the 1990s. The lineup begins with a weird and fascinating psychological thriller unknown to most American audiences, Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler. Plus, Manon, an Henri-Georges Clouzot masterpiece made before the director’s The Wages of Fear and Diabolique; Jeunet and Caro’s cult classic, Delicatessen; Godard’s futuristic mind-melter Alphaville; and Lady Killer & The Strange Mr. Victor, two late 1930s gems by the great Jean Grémillon, subject of a 2015 Cinematheque series.