settima

eddieconstantine

Bildnis einer Trinkerin – Aller jamais retour [Portrait of a Female Drunkard. Ticket of No Return] (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979)

Jul

15

Bildnis einer Trinkerin( (1979)

Sie, German for “She”, hungover in her fabulous yellow nappa leather outfit (via). DP: Ulrike Ottinger.

Someone is hungover*

“Ein Psychogramm zweier ungewöhnlicher, aber auch extrem unterschiedlicher Frauen. Die eine, reich, exzentrisch, ihre Gefühle maskenhaft verbergend, trinkt sich bewusst zu Tode. Sie ist der Fall, der in der Statistik nicht erscheint, weil entweder zu Hause unter Valium gehalten oder unter Verschluss in einer Privatklinik. Die andere ist arm und trinkt sich unbewusst zu Tode. Sie erscheint in der normalen Statistik als Typ der haltlosen Trinkerin”

– U.O., via

An eccentric woman simply named Sie (Tabea Blumenschein), takes a one-way trip to West Berlin. Accompanied by her alter ego, a homeless alcoholic, and commented on by a Greek choir consisting of Soziale Frage (Social Question), Exakte Statistik (Exact Statistics), and Gesunder Menschenverstand (Common Sense), she drinks herself to death.

 

Moi, un noir [I, a Negro] (Jean Rouch, 1958)

Oct

16

National Eddie Day

Moi, un noir (1958)

A young woman looks over her shoulder, smiling. DP: Jean Rouch.

Some of the leads play out their hopes and dreams and are named after famous actors from Western films. Petit Touré is #EddieConstantine.

Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

Jul

16

petit déjeuner

Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

In one of the very few daytime scenes, Natacha (Anna Karina) and Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) share breakfast at a small table while awkwardly sitting on the armrests of two upholstered chairs. A large television is set up directly behind the table. DP: Raoul Coutard.

“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.”

– Lemmy Caution

Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)

Jul

16

AI Appreciation Day

Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)

Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina) and Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine). Lights reflected in the windowpane that shields the two characters suggest “the existence of an obscure reality” (after Baudrillard). DP: Raoul Coutard..

Science fiction, of course, doesn't have to be driven by grandes effects, by superstar names and monumental backdrops. It can be cool, dry, colourless even. The hero, in trenchcoat and fedora, traverses a lightless city. There are few others at this time of night. The familiar landmarks of the City of Light become the voice of 𝛼-60, an artificial intelligence that presides over Alphaville.

𝛼-60: “Do you know what illuminates the night?”

Lemmy Caution: “Poetry.”

– 𝛼-60 playing the imitation game with Lemmy Caution

Based on a poem by Paul Éluard, #Godard's Alphaville bears similarities with Jean #Cocteau's Orphée (1950), transported to a mirror world of sorts. It also foreshadows not only our time, but also M. Hulot's, whose #Tativille could be the simulacra of 𝛼-60's simulated, dehumanised world.