Editing Alphaville (film) (section)

==Influences on the film==
*Caution references [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]] directly in the taxi, when he says "I am on a journey to the end of the night" (Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932). The use of poetry to combat Alpha 60 as a sentient being echoes the attitudes of Céline in a number of his works.
*[[Henri Bergson]] is also referenced by Caution when being interrogated by Alpha 60, when he answers "the immediate data of consciousness " (Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience, 1889) when asked his religion. Bergson's rejection of idealism in favour of felt experiences parallels Caution's conflict with the logical Alpha 60.
*Caution makes another reference to French poetry when speaking to Alpha 60, saying that when it will solve his riddle it will become "[his] like, [his] brother," echoing the famous last line of [[Charles Baudelaire]]'s ''To the Reader'' in [[Les Fleurs du mal|Flowers of Evil]].
*[[Jean Cocteau]] exerted significant influence on Godard's films,<ref name="Godard_1">{{harvp|Godard|1986|p=277}}</ref> and parallels between ''Alphaville'' and Cocteau's 1950 film ''[[Orpheus (film)|Orpheus]]'' are evident. For example, Orphée's search for Cégeste and Caution's for Henri Dickson, between the poems Orphée hears on the radio and the aphoristic questions given by Alpha 60, between Orphée's victory over death through the recovery of his poetic powers and Caution's use of poetry to destroy Alpha 60.<ref name="Godard_1"/> Godard also openly acknowledges his debt to Cocteau on several occasions.<ref name="Godard_2">{{harvp|Godard|1986|p=278}}</ref> When Alpha 60 is destroyed, for instance, people stagger down labyrinthine corridors and cling to the walls like the inhabitants of Cocteau's ''Zone de la mort'', and, at the end of the film, Caution tells Natacha not to look back. Godard compares this scene with Orphée's warning to [[Eurydice]], and it is also possible to detect a reference here to the [[Lot (biblical person)#Sodom|biblical flight from Sodom]].<ref name="Godard_2"/>
*The voice of Alpha 60 was performed by a man with a [[mechanical larynx|mechanical voice box]] replacing his [[cancer of the larynx|cancer-damaged]] [[larynx]].<ref name="Darke_3">{{harvp|Darke|2005|p=39}}</ref> It is inspired by [[Dr. Mabuse]]'s disembodied voice in the 1933 film ''[[The Testament of Dr Mabuse]]''.<ref name="Darke_4">{{harvp|Darke|2005|p=101}}</ref>