"Sometimes, reality is too complex for oral communication" "But legend embodies it in a form which enables it to spread all over the world" "It was 24.17, Oceanic Time when I approached the suburbs of Alphaville" "Silence." "Logic." "Security." "Prudence" "My paper reserved a room for me:" "You are?" "Ivan Johnson" "Which paper?" "Figaro-Pravda" "Room 344." "Have you registered at Residents Control?" "You must, even if you're a Festival visitor" "Your bag, sir" "Please, sir." "Nothing." "Get lost" "This way, sir" "You're tired, sir?" "You wish to sleep, sir?" "It's this way, sir" "If you're tired, you can rest, sir" "Here it is, sir" "The bedroom's here, sir" "What are you looking for now?" "I'm checking if the Bible's here" "Everyone has one." "Do you believe that?" "Yes, of course" "I'll leave you the tranquillizers in the bathroom" "I'm very well." "Thank you so very much" "Are you going to take a bath, sir?" "Yes, I must reflect" "I'll help you, sir" "And your tie, sir" "Now what?" "I'll take a bath with you, sir, if you like" "Listen, doll, I'm a big boy" "I can find dames all alone" "Now get lost" "Be polite to the ladies, Mr. Johnson" "Shit." "Now what?" "This kid doesn't please you?" "And your sister, sir?" "I'm getting out of shape." "What sir?" "What's going on here?" "Are you on drugs or what?" "No, it's normal, sir." "All things weird are normal in this whore of cities" "Sit in that chair" "Her name was Beatrice" "She said she was a seductress, third class" "I was struck by the sadness and durability of her face" "Something's not in orbit in the capital of this Galaxy" "Hold this up" "Not bad for a veteran of Guadalcanal" "Just what I was thinking about you" "Go play your games with someone else" "I've heard it before" "Y es?" "Mr. Johnson" "Miss Natasha Von Braun calls for you" "Just a moment, please" "Leonard Von Braun, inventor of the death ray bring back alive, or liquidate" "Tell her to wait, I'll be down in 5 minutes" "She's on her way up" "Henry Dickson, Agent X21, 12, Enrico Fermi, Alphaville" "Got a light?" "I've traveled 9,000 kilometers to give it to you" "I'm Natasha Von Braun." "Yes, I know" "How do you know?" "You are Miss Von Braun" "Yes, I'm very well, thank you so very much" "You come from the Outlands, Mr. Johnson?" "Everything to your satisfaction?" "Yes" "I've been ordered to stay in your service during your stay in Alphaville" "Who ordered you?" "The authorities, of course" "You came for the festival, Mr. Johnson?" "Which festival?" "The big one; that's why people from the Outlands come" "ln my opinion, it's silly you did not." "Why?" "The festival's nearly over;" "No more until next year" "You don't say" "Y es, Mr Johnson" "But this evening, there's a gala reception" "Very big" "At a ministry." "I'm going; come if you like" "O.K." "What time?" "I must attend to something else first" "You must go to Residents Control registration?" "No." "What's that?" "You mustn't forget to go there, Mr Johnson." "We can meet afterwards" "No, I'll go there tomorrow." "First I must meet a friend" "Me too, I've work to do" "I'll give you the address where I'll be" "Call for me and we'll go together" "O.K. In an hour or two" "All right, see you later, Mr. Johnson" "I'll go down with you, miss" "Mr. Johnson, what's it like in the Outlands?" "You've never been?" "No, but my father told me about them when I was little" "Now it's forbidden to think about them" "Are you often ordered to stay with strangers?" "Yes, it's my job." "Sometimes, it must be nice" "Why?" "You never have love affairs?" "What?" "Has no one ever fallen in love with you?" "In love?" "What's that?" "There's one thing I'd like to know, miss" "Yes, Mr. Johnson." "You've finished taking me" "for an ass, or are you beginning?" "Let go of me" "But answer me" "I don't understand, what are you talking about?" "Realize, Princess." "I don't know what you're talking about either" "It's always like that." "You never understand anything" "Yes, it's always like that." "You never understand anything" "And one night, you end it in death" "Which way are you going?" "12, Enrico Fermi" "That's after Heisenberg Boulevard, not far from Mathematical Park" "I have a car, I can give you a lift, if you wish." "O.K." "I'll get the keys" "You don't want me to court you?" "What?" "You really don't know what it means?" "Her smile and her small, pointed teeth reminded me of the old vampire films the sort they used to show at cinerama museums" "I'm a programmer, second class" "Natasha's a name from the past" "Yes, but in life, one can only know the present" "No one's lived in the past, or will live in the future" "Thanks for the lift, anyway" "It's a pleasure to do my job, Mr. Johnson" "It's much farther?" "You know we must cross the North Zone, Miss" "What's the population of Alphaville?" "Don't forget, you must go to Residents Control" "Yes" "What exactly do you do for a living?" "I work" "for a newspaper" "Professor Von Braun is your father?" "It's vital that I write about him;" "Could you arrange a meeting?" "I don't know." "I've never seen him." "I'll ask" "Finally, I leave you" "Here?" "I've changed my mind" "You have the address?" "Yes." "Tell him to stop" "Telecommunication" "I'd like to telecommunicate" "Galaxy or local call?" "Local" "Cabin 2" "Miss, do you know that man?" "Of course I know him." "Don't be stupid" "At the end of Galata Bridge one finds the Red Star." "My place" "You can't compare it to our splendid galactic corridors" "all a-glitter with luxury and light" "It's only a vast labyrinth, tall, cramped" "Is this the Red Star Hotel?" "Yes, it is, thank you" "ls Mr. Dickson in?" "He's out" "Fine, I'll wait" "You have money, sir?" "You can have a seat, sir, if you're tired" "I wanted to see it again the tomb of the Duc de Montpensier" "The reclining statue of the Prince is the work of Pradier" "The Prince wears the costume of" "Henry, it's me!" "We've got plenty to talk about" "Where's my key?" "Where's my money, Mr. Dickson?" "My key." "His key" "And a beer" "And me?" "Why don't you hurry up and commit suicide?" "We need the room for our cousinfrom the south" "You come from the Outlands?" "Why did he ask if you'd commit suicide?" "There's quite a few..." "There's quite a few who do" "One can't adapt to this place" "It's the method the Chinese invented about thirty years ago in Pekingville" "Dissuasion is their strong point" "What about those who won't adapt, or commit suicide?" "Those... they're executed." "Yes, the authorities" "But one can hide, you know." "There aren't many left" "Dick Tracy, is he dead?" "And Guy Leclair?" "Why didn't we hear from them, or from you, Henry?" "I'm sorry." "These things happen" "And what's Alpha 60?" "A giant computer, like they used to have in big business" "New York..." "lBM..." "Olivetti..." "General Electric..." "Tokyorama..." "Alpha 60 is one hundred and fifty light years more powerful" "I see." "People have become slaves of probabilities" "Their ideal here, in Alphaville is a technocracy, like that of termites and ants" "I don't understand" "Probably one hundred and fifty light years ago" "One hundred and fifty, two hundred there were artists in the ant society" "Artists, novelists, musicians, painters" "Today, no more" "Nothing." "Like here" "Has Professor Von Braun organized it all?" "He obeys logical orders" "Then why didn't you kill him?" ""Why"... what does that word mean?" "I forgot..." "You know his daughter, Natasha?" "Who is she really?" "It was he that they sent to Los Alamos" "His name wasn't that then" "Answer!" "That wasn't his name in those days" "Listen, Henry" "We'll get out together; you'll be O.K. But first you must..." "It's a terrible secret, but..." "Come in, Madame la Marquise" "My coat, Madame Recamier" "Thank you, Madame Pompadour" "Madame Bovary, Marie Antoinette" "Madame Lafayette" "Madame, it's love" "I'll say it in Russian" "So young and me" "Lemmy... conscience..." "Alpha 60... make... self destruct..." "Tenderness..." "Save those who weep" "Yes, yes, that's it" "The Capital of Pain" "14, Light Radiation. Institute of General Semantics" "You know where it is?" "You prefer I pass through the North Zone or the South?" "What's the difference?" "There's snow in the North and sun in the South" "Anyway, it's my journey to the end of the night" "So, it doesn't matter" "It was my first night in Alphaville but it seemed to me that centuries had passed" "I'm very well, thank you so very much" "Miss Natasha Von Braun" "Which section?" "Programming and memory" "The Central Memory is thus named because of the primordial role that it plays in the logic-organization within Alpha 60" "But no one has lived in the past and no one will live in the future" "The present is the form of all life" "This quality cannot be changed by any means" "Time is like a circle which turns endlessly" "The descending arc is the past" "The arc that climbs is the future" "Everything has been said provided words do not change their meanings and meanings their words" "Is it not obvious that someone who customarily lives in a state of suffering requires a different sort of religion from a person habitually in a state of well-being?" "Before us, nothing existed here" "No one" "We are totally alone here" "We are unique, dreadfully unique" "The meaning of words and of expressions, is no longer grasped" "An isolated word, or a detail of a design can be understood" "But the meaning of the whole escapes" "Once we know the number one we believe that we know the number two because one plus one equals two" "We forget that first we must know the meaning of plus" "I'm going" "The acts of men carried over from past centuries will gradually destroy them logically... I, Alpha 60 am merely the logical means of this destruction" "Good night, Comrade" "I thought I'd never see you again" "Shall we go?" "I'll get the keys" "I left because I couldn't understand a word he was saying" "But it's very simple" "We learnt this evening that death and life are found within the same circle" "Are you afraid of death?" "Of course not." "Why?" "We took the tangent to the center districts" "Traffic bulletins on the radio as Natasha spoke to me in her pretty sphinx voice" "Pretty sphinx..." "Foreign ambassadors usually attend or delegations from the districts" "Why does everyone look so sad, somber?" "You ask too many questions" "Because they lack electricity" "The essence of the so-called capitalist world or the communist world is not an evil volition to subject their people by the power of indoctrination or the power of finance but simply the natural ambition of any organization to plan all its actions" "In a word, to minimize unknown quantities" "This dump of yours isn't Alphaville, it's Zeroville" "What are we going to see?" "I don't know, light and sound" "Where is everyone?" "I believe; it's already begun" "Hurry." "We're late" "It's already begun" "Don't they electrocute them any more?" "Darling, you know the provisions of 17th Plan took a plunge" "You see, I told you so" "Stay here" "lntroduce me." "I told you to stay there we're with very important people" "Can I take a photo?" "I'll ask" "Yes" "What have they done?" "They've been condemned" "Only men?" "There's usually a ratio of fifty men executed to one woman" "But what have they done?" "They behaved illogically lsn't that a crime in the Outlands?" "Say, I know him." "He wept when his wife died" "He was condemned for that?" "Evidently" "We must advance to live" "Aim straight for those you love" "Listen to me, normals" "We see the truth you no longer see" "The truth is that the essence of man is love and faith courage, tenderness, generosity and sacrifice" "The rest is the obstacle created by the progress of your blind ignorance" "One day..." "One day..." "Sorry, Professor, but I must speak with you" "I never speak to journalists" "I'm not a journalist." "Can't we talk somewhere quieter?" "Goodbye, sir." "Mr." "Nosferatu" "That man no longer exists" "Are you crying?" "No, because it's forbidden" "Occupied" "Occupied" "Free" "Sit there and answer when you're spoken to" "I haven't done anything" "Newcomers must be interrogated" "Alpha 5" "What is your name?" "Where were you born?" "New York" "How old are you?" "I don't know... 45" "What make is your car?" "What do you love above all?" "Gold and women" "What are you doing in Alphaville?" "An article for Figaro-Pravda" "You seem afraid" "I'm not afraid... not the way you think" "Anyway, you wouldn't understand" "Rest assured that my decisions always have in view the ultimate good" "I shall now ask you some test questions as a security measure" "No, go ahead" "You have come from the Outlands" "What were your feelings when you passed through galactic space?" "The silence of infinite space appalled me" "What is the privilege of the dead?" "To die no more" "Do you know what illuminates the night?" "Poetry" "What is your religion?" "I believe in the inspirations of conscience" "Do you make any distinction between the mysterious principles of knowledge and those of love?" "In my opinion, in love there is no mystery" "You are not telling the truth" "I don't understand" "You are hiding certain things" "I admit I might have reasons to lie but how can you differentiate between lies and truth?" "You are hiding certain things but I do not know yet what they are" "For the time being, you are free" "I should like you to visit the Control Complex" "Come with me, Mr. Johnson" "Where are we going?" "To the Chief Engineer" "Ah, the day breaks" "Sit down, Mr Johnson" "A momentous occasion" "Y es, we spent three years looking for Grand Omega Minus" "Well, Mr. Johnson..." "How do you find Alphaville?" "Not bad, if I knew where I was" "You are in the center of Alphaville, inside Alpha 60" "The task of Alpha 60 is to calculate and project the results which Alphavillewill subsequently enjoy" "Why?" "No one ever says "why"; one says "because"" "In the life of individuals, as in the life of nations all is linked, all is consequence" "That's the famous theory of Professor Leonard Nosferatu" "Leonard Nosferatu no longer exists, Mr. Johnson" "The Outlands expelled him in 1964" "Today there is only Professor Von Braun" "I remember." "He was sent to a village in the desert to perfect his invention" "He was exiled, you mean" "Now the Outlands wring their hands, wishing him back" "They flood us with spies." "Perhaps you are a spy, Mr. Johnson" "You know I'm only a free man" "A meaningless reply." "We know nothing" "We record, calculate, draw conclusions" "An hour ago, one of Alpha 60's 1.4 billion nerve centres questioned you" "Your replies were difficult and sometimes impossible to codify" "We deduce an above-average intelligence" "We are sometimes in mortal need of superior intelligences" "At other times we have a no less mortal distrust of them" "So what will you do with me?" "For the moment, we're ordered to show you Alpha 60" "Who ordered you?" "Professor Von Braun?" "Absolutely not" "An order is a logical conclusion" "One must not be afraid of logic." "Simply that." "Period" "The circuit elements... of 183 Omega Minus... malfunction" "Calculating or memory elements?" "Memory" "Professors Eckel and Jeckel" "I'm very well, thank you, pleased to meet you" "Me too" "I'd like to know what Grand Omega Minus is" "Our 17th electricity plan is inadequate" "Sooner or later, the Outlands will declare war on us" "Therefore, we decided to invade them" "Directed by Professor Von Braun, Omega Minus will be victorious over anti-matter" "I see, it's ideal" "We can perhaps use men like you to tell us the weak points of the Outlands" "Your tendency to dwell in the past could be useful to us" "We send those properly brain-washed to provoke the other galaxies the strikes, revolutions, family rows, student revolts" "That's us:" "Grand Omega Minus" "Where now?" "The invisible part of Alpha 60" "You think more of what has been than of what will be" "It's old, your camera" "The technical..." "I don't believe in it" "Yes, of course" "Jeckel asked why I shot the individual in my bathroom when the whole thing was just a psycho-test" "I replied, because I'm too old to argue." "So I shoot" "It's my only weapon against fatality" "What's this?" "Central lnterrogation Station" "Here Alpha 60 sets itself problems" "The forms and references used by Alpha 60 are too complex for human understanding" "What sort of problems?" "Train and airplane departures... movement of people and goods electricity distribution... crime suppression... war operations" "Element Seven, Malfunction" "What's happening?" "It's war with the Outlands" "A simple instruction is usually insufficient to put into execution a task set by Alpha 60" "Do not think that it is I who initiate this destruction nor the scientists who have accepted my plan" "Ordinary men are unworthy of the positions they hold in the world" "Analysis of their past automatically leads one to this conclusion" "Therefore they must be destroyed" "That is to say: transformed" "I don't need anyone to draw it for me" "During these years, under the direction of Von Braun and his assistants  Alphaville had developed by leaps and bounds guided by electronic brains that developed themselves by conceiving problems that the human imagination couldn't grasp" "Foreigners were gradually assimilated  especially the Swedes, Germans and Americans" "The others, the unassimilatables were purely and simply killed" "I walked through the threaten of executions" "Usually, we would seat them in a room  and electrocute them in their chairs as they watched a show" "Then we'd dump them into huge rubbish bins  and the theater was ready for the next batch" "If an individual showed hope of reclamation  he was sent to a chronic illness hospital where  mechanical and propagandistic treatments soon cured him" "I felt that my existence here  was becoming a distorted, twilight memory  and without a doubt, a terrible destiny" "I was left only one solution" "It would not be logical to prevent superior beings from attacking the other galaxies" "344" "Put in one token" "Thank you" "Going up, sir?" "No, I'll shine my shoes." "Please, sir" "This man has the key." "This way, sir" "You're tired, sir?" "You'd like to sleep, sir?" "Yes, to sleep: perchance to dream" "What are you exactly?" "I'm a seductress, third class" "Has your colleague gone?" "Who?" "Beatrice?" "I don't know; a blonde with long legs" "She's working in the peripheral flats" "We're only replacements" "Ever heard of the Outlands?" "Never" "Get out of here!" "Why?" "If anyone asks, say you don't know" "I'm very well, thank you so very much" "If it isn't the little princess" "I was forbidden to come, but I wanted to see you again" "Not me!" "Since you're here, order breakfast for me" "Yes, sir" "Pardon, I'm very well, thank you so very much" "Me too" "Bow your head" "What is it?" "Nothing." "Just a thought" "What about my breakfast?" "I want to tele-order breakfast" "What is your number?" "You have a number?" "They didn't give me one at Alpha 60" "Not your control number, your room number 344" "Ever heard of this book?" ""The Capital of Pain"" "Some words are underlined" "We live in the void of metamorphoses" "But the echo that runs throughout the day  that echo beyond time, anguish or caress..." "Are we near to our conscience, or far from it?" "These are words I don't understand" "Conscience..." "And this: death in conversation" "And this?" "Your eyes have returned from a despotic land  where no one has known the meaning of a glance" "You've really no idea what this is?" "It reminds me of something" "I don't know what" "Naked truth" "I know it well" "Despair has no wings, nor does love" "No face, they don't speak" "I don't look at them, I don't speak to them" "But I am as alive as my love and despair..." "And this:" "Dying is not dying" "And this:" "The beguiler beguiler" "This:" "Men who change" "Never heard of secret messages, Miss Von Braun?" "A secret message?" "Don't you know what a secret is?" "Y es." "Secrets of planning, atomic secrets, secrets of memory" "Now what are you looking for?" "This town is driving me nuts!" "I'm looking for a Bible, to see if it's in it" "Are you a complete idiot?" "The word I'm looking for, obviously..." "Where is it?" "There's always one for every room" "I'm becoming afraid" "Since you've come, I no longer understand what is happening" "Me, I think I'm beginning to understand" "Here it is" ""Conscience"... it's not in it" "I'm very well, thank you" "It's no longer there." "So no one here knows the meaning of the word conscience any more" "Too bad" "1 sugar or 2?" "2" "That's not a Bible, it's a dictionary" "lsn't it the same in the Outlands, Mr. Johnson?" "Answer me now, what's it for?" "Nearly every day words disappear, because they are forbidden" "They are replaced by new words expressing new ideas" "In the last two or three months some words I was very fond of disappeared" "Which words?" "I'm interested" "Redbreast, weeping autumn light" "tenderness too" "When I'm with you I'm afraid" "They ordered me not to see you again" "Who?" "The Alpha 60 engineers?" "Yes." "What are you afraid of?" "I'm afraid because I know that word without ever having seen it or read it" "Which word?" "Le conscience" "La conscience" "You've never been to the Outlands?" "No" "Are you sure?" "Yes" "You're lying" "Why are you cross with me?" "I believe you mustn't say "why" but "because"" "I said "why"?" "And if enemy ears are listening, they heard you, too" "Well, then, I was careless, because it's forbidden" "Perhaps it's all right for you to use it" "When did I say "why"?" "Another question first: where were you born?" "Here in Alphaville" "Another lie." "Perhaps you don't know, but you're lying" "I must know the truth: where were you born?" "Here." "I told you" "No, in Tokyorama the Land of the Rising Sun" "Go on, say it" "In Tokyorama, in the Land of the Rising Sun" "Or in Florence, perhaps... where try to remember it for yourself, Natasha." "Where?" "Where?" "I don't know" "Where the sky's as blue as the South Seas" "Florence, where the sky's as blue as the South Seas" "Or in New York" "Where the winter..." "Broadway glitters in the snow like a fur coat" "You see, you do know the Outlands" "Your father was chased from New York in '64" "He brought you here, so you are not from here" "I know what this book is" "A man who came with us from New York, he wrote these books" "I don't know what became of him" "They live in the forbidden quarters here; they commit suicide" "I know that Alpha 60 uses them sometimes" "It controls them." "How come?" "Because they write incomprehensible things" "Now I know: it used to be called poetry" "It's believed to be secrets, but really it's nothing" "When Control has an hour or so free it codifies such stuff" "Like everything else, one never knows" "It can always prove useful" "Absolutely." "We're highly organized" "I'd like to leave with you for the Outlands" "But I'm afraid" "Now that I've seen you I'm no longer normal" "When did I say "why"?" "Why?" "Because... you know very well, Mr. Johnson" "No, I don't" "At which moment?" "Tell me" "Quite often." "Last night in the corridor, for instance" "This time you're lying" "When I said I was falling in love with you" "In love?" "What's that?" "This" "No, I know what that is: it's sensuality" "No, sensuality is a consequence" "It cannot exist without love" "So what is love, then?" "Your voice, your eyes your hands, your lips..." "Our silences, our words..." "Light that goes light that returns" "A single smile between us" "In quest of knowledge, I watched night create day while we seemed unchanged" "O beloved of all, beloved of one alone  your mouth silently promised to be happy" "Away, away, says hate." "Closer, closer, says love" "A caress leads us from our infancy increasingly I see the human form  as a lovers' dialogue" "The heart has but one mouth" "Everything by chance" "All words without thought" "Sentiments adrift" "Men roam the city" "A glance, a word" "Because I love you" "Everything moves" "We must advance to live" "Aim straight ahead toward those you love" "I went toward you, endlessly toward the light" "If you smile, it enfolds me all the better" "The rays of your arms pierce the mist" "Capital of Sorrow" "I must know how the chief engineer will use me" "As an inter-galaxy double agent, I think" "So it's true what Eckel said." "What?" "You send spies to sabotage the rest of the world" "Of course, you learn that in school" "Are you going to betray me?" "You can't talk or don't you want to" "Can I communicate with the Outlands from this hotel?" "Just ask for Galaxy Service." "You want me to do it?" "The Outlands..." "I want to telecommunicate ... telecommunications are suspended for some days" "What were you going to say?" "An atomic attack on Alphaville" "I'll explain later, Princess, but now let's get out of here" "We must find the Professor... where does he live?" "Come with us!" "Where?" "Residents Control." "No kidding" "When he doubles up, get him" "Story 842, Miss" "One day a tiny man entered a North Zone cafe and said, "l want a cup of very hot, sweet coffee..."" "adding: "l shan't pay, because I fear no one"" "He drank his coffee" "He left" "He drank his coffee and didn't pay" "The cafe owner said nothing, he was afraid of a scandal" "But when the tiny man repeated the trick a few times the cafe owner said: "I've had it, I'll get a tough guy to beat up this tiny man if he comes back"" "So, on the fourth day when the tiny man said, "l want a cup of very hot, sweet coffee..."" "the tough guy goes to him and says:" ""So you're afraid of no one?"" ""That's right"" ""Well, neither am I"" ""Well", says the tiny man, "Make that two cups of coffee very hot and sweet."" "Meet you outside Residents Control" "You'll stay here, Miss Von Braun" "Last night you lied" "You organized Dickson's death." "Why?" "Your name may be spelled  Ivan Johnson but it is pronounced Lemmy Caution secret agent number zero zero three of the Outlands" "You are a menace to the security of Alphaville" "I refuse to become what you call normal" "Those you call mutants form a race superior  to ordinary men  whom we have almost eliminated" "Unthinkable" "An entire race cannot be destroyed" "I shall calculate  so that failure  is impossible" "I shall fight so that failure is possible" "Everything that I project shall be accomplished" "Don't be so sure;" "I have a secret, too" "What is your secret?" "Tell me, Mr. Caution" "Something which never changes, day or night" "The past represents its future, it advances in a straight line yet it ends by coming full circle" "I cannot trace it" "I won't tell you" "Several of my circuits  are looking for the solution to your riddle" "I will find it" "If you find it, you will destroy yourself simultaneously because you will become my kin, my brother" "Those who are not born, do not weep  and do not regret" "Thus it is logical to condemn you to death" "Fuck yourself with your logic" "My judgement is just  and I am working for the universal good" "If you plan to drive us from the other galaxies, you'll fail" "You will not leave; the exit is blocked" "We'll see" "Professor Von Braun - do you know where he lives?" "Central Palace, South Zone, behind Raw Materials Station" "Let's go" "Don't budge" "That way I'm sure you will keep your word" "Out!" "Out!" "No journalists!" "You know "journalist" and "justice" both begin with the same letter?" "Tell your boss" "What can I do for you, Mister Caution?" "News travels fast here" "Because we're very rapidly entering Light Civilization" "At about 300.000 kilometers per second" "I'm returning to the Outlands." "Come with me" "Stay with us, Mister Caution" "When the war's over I'll put you in charge of another galaxy" "You will have gold and women" "We are mastering a science so fantastic that the old American and Russian control of atomic force will seem pathetic" "I see" "You oppose my moral, even supernatural, sense of vocation with a simple physical and mental existence easily controllable by technicians" "Your ideas are strange, Mr. Caution" "Some years ago, in the Age of ideas yours would have been called sublime ideas" "Look at yourself." "Men of your type will soon be extinct" "You'll become something worse than dead" "You'll become a legend, Mr. Caution" "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" "You never want to see the Outlands again, Professor?" "Goodbye, Mister Caution" "Such people will serve as terrible examples to those  who see the world as theater  when technical power and its triumph  is the only act in their repertoire" "I was running a straight line  which, like Dickson's Greek labyrinth  and philosophers were lost, as a secret agent was too" "In many respects  your reactions and your modes of thought  differ   from present normality" "The inhabitants of Alphaville are not normal" "They are the product of mutation" "Do you accept our proposal?" "Answer silently   with yes or no" "I'll never betray the Outlands" "The present is terrifying   because it is irreversible, and because it is of iron" "Time is the substance of which I am made" "Time is a river which carries me along" "But I am time" "It's a tiger, tearing me apart; but I'm the tiger" "Look at her and me, there's your answer" "We're happiness, and we're heading towards it" "It is our misfortune that the world is reality" "And I  it is my misfortune that I am myself, Alpha 60" "Natasha, quick think of the word love" "Here" "Not all the inhabitants died, but all were stricken" "Those not asphyxiated by the absence of light   circled crazily, like ants" "It was 23.15, Oceanic Time   when Natasha and I left Alphaville by the peripheral roads" "A night drive across intersidereal space, and we'd be home" "Don't look back" "Do you think they're all dead?" "Not yet" "They may recover, and Alphaville will be happy, like Florence" "Like Angouleme-city, like Tokyorama" "You can't go back" "Have I slept for long?" "No, the space of an instant" "Where are we?" "In the Outlands?" "Not yet" "You're looking at me with an odd face" "You're waiting for me to say something" "I don't know what to say" "They're words I don't know" "I wasn't taught them" "Help me impossible, Princess." "You must get there yourself" "Then you'll be saved." "If you don't you're as lost as the dead of Alphaville" "I" "you" "love" "I love you"