Comic strips seem to represent many things for Godard: first, a source book for the contemporary collective subconscious; secondly, a dramatic framework derived from modern myth—in much the same way as Joyce used the Ulysses myth; thirdly, a reaction against the subtleties of the psychological novel; finally the attraction of comic strip narrative with its sudden shifting of scene, its freedom of narration, its economy.

The plot of Alphaville is pure comic strip…. (p. 164)

Just like a [Roy] Lichtenstein painting ("Oh, Brad, (gulp) it should have been that way"), the dialogue often echoes the balloons: "Let this serve as a warning to all those who try to …" etc. Characterisation, too, has been reduced to a minimum….

But Alphaville doesn't look like a comic strip, and this is where Godard diverges from the true pop artist, who has been defined as "a man who offers a coincidence of...