“Alphaville” (アルファヴィル), Original Japanese Movie Poster 1965, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) ZA1084
This is an original Japanese B2 poster printed for the Japanese release of Alphaville (Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution), Jean-Luc Godard’s landmark 1965 science-fiction noir starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, and Howard Vernon. One of the defining works of European art cinema, the film remains celebrated for its radical fusion of detective story, dystopian science fiction, and philosophical modernism.
Film background
In Alphaville, secret agent Lemmy Caution travels to a cold, futuristic city ruled by Alpha 60, a sentient computer that has outlawed emotion, poetry, and love. His mission is to find and eliminate Professor von Braun while navigating a world governed entirely by logic and control. What makes the film so extraordinary is Godard’s refusal to rely on conventional science-fiction spectacle: instead of elaborate sets or effects, he used the modern architecture and nocturnal streets of Paris to create a chilling vision of the future. The result is one of cinema’s great examples of sci-fi noir, and a film whose influence can be traced through later dystopian works from Blade Runner onward.
The film won the Golden Bear at the 1965 Berlin International Film Festival and is widely regarded as one of the key achievements of 1960s international cinema.
Poster design
This is a superb and highly sophisticated Japanese design. The composition places the shadowed profile of Anna Karina at monumental scale, counterbalanced by an icy geometric structure that perfectly evokes the film’s cold technological world. Below, the smaller portraits of Constantine, Karina, and Vernon, together with the trench-coated figure of Lemmy Caution, bring in the detective-noir element that defines the film’s unique mood. The palette is restrained and atmospheric, relying on blacks, whites, and cool pale blues rather than sensational colour, which gives the sheet a distinctly elegant and cerebral presence.
The Japanese title treatment at the bottom is especially striking, rendered in sharp angular lettering that feels entirely in keeping with the film’s severe modernist aesthetic. Overall, this is an exceptionally attractive country-of-origin poster for one of Godard’s most important films, and a particularly appealing piece for collectors of French New Wave, science fiction, and avant-garde Japanese release paper.
Condition
Excellent (close to near mint). Please review the photos—they show the exact poster for sale. The poster presents beautifully overall, with strong contrast and excellent display appeal.
It is over 61 years old!
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
