AGENT/PROVOCATEUR

Eddie Constantine portrayed French secret agent Lemmy Caution at least a dozen times, never more memorably than in Alphaville. Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 movie deconstructs film noir conventions by having our trench-coated hero infiltrate a sci-fi dystopia ruled by the supercomputer Alpha 60. Filming on the cheap, Godard evokes his bleak futurescape without a single special effect (except for the lovely Anna Karina), whipping existential dread and Orwellian paranoia into an often nonsensical soufflé that favors texture over plot. The film’s fingerprints can be seen smudging such later works as Blade Runner, Tron and the Austin Powers trilogy. Alphaville screens tonight at 7 at Tivoli Cinemas (4050 Pennsylvania, 816-561-5222), concluding the Film Noir Showcase series presented by UMKC’s Department of Communication Studies. Admission is $3; it’s free for UMKC students and staff with ID.

Thu., Nov. 13, 7 p.m., 2008