A lovely joke on Hollywood - viva Jeunet!

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2000)

Every time I perceive this marvelously disgusting, erotic, hilarious, and pretty film I enjoy it more than before. Yet its undeniably different character from the first three films in the series begs addressing. After my ninth screening, I propose that _Alien Resurrection_ is actually Situationist-influenced cinema.
The essence of the 1950s-60s French-based Situationist movement is "constructing situations" , a constructed situation defined as:
"A moment of life, concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of unitary environment and the free play of events." --From the journal /Internationale Situationniste/ #1, June 1958

Of course that might describe every film ever made; the distinguishing factor methinks lies in both the character of the individual scenes, and their attitude toward the narrative. The idea of "constructing situations" includes the notion of free play of events in a carefully arranged environment. As far as I can tell, the purpose is to break out of the Spectacular trance by appreciating life in an immediate, sensual way confounding to the intent of cultural or ideological scripts. An example of Situationist-influenced daily life would be anarchists rearranging billboard messages to expose the advertiser's evil intent, going out for a walk and intentionally getting lost, etc.
In _Alien Resurrection_ , the scenes were the thing. The scenes often seemed directionless, haphazard, the acting even a bit fake, as if a troupe of really good improvisation actors had been given a particular situation, setting, music, costumes, and roles, and were told to work out what would happen, stretching it out to fill a particular time. The cinematography lends a glow to the surroundings, like an aura of meaningfulness, that prettifies everything. The score undulates unpredictably, imbuing piecemeal *deja vu. In other words, it's as if they have, in a Situationist sense, constructed various situations out of which beauty unfolds, and the actors themselves experience this necessarily. Indeed, from the various actors' commentaries, describing, for instance, the vaunted underwater scene, or the thrill of working with famous actors in a celebrated film series, it seems as though it was as much if not more fun and interesting to actually act in it as it is to perceive it on the screen. The final product proceeded without flowing, scenes appeared interchangeable, the plot primarily an excuse for generating a series of well-done Situations. In doing so, it's natural the work dismantles the "ideology" as it were of the first three films, and rearranges the elements to its own liking, for its own ends, in the service of situations.
In this light, the disjointedness of the film becomes a focussing device, a hint of where not to look. The joys of the film, as both apologists and reluctantly won over fans in varying degrees realise, flow from appreciating the various impressive situations, not from an elaborately engaging plot. Contrast with the intense, simple plot of A1, the well-rounded helping of plot and character in A2, and the muddling of both qualities for the sake of a well-stirred mood in A3. Perhaps this degrades A4, or perhaps not. If my proposition is correct, this not only paints the Alien Saga in a more subversive colour than hitherto appreciated, but also plays one of the largest jokes in cinematic history on the film studio that made it. If _Alien3_ was a fifty-five million dollar art film, _Alien Resurrection_ must be nothing less than an eighty million dollar Situationist film. (!) As such, of course, the title gains another significance...that of "resurrecting" Situationist ideas into the popular imagination, nested within the heart of the spectacle itself. If it's true that, in keeping with rumour, Jean-Pierre Jeunet will never make another Hollywood film, it's certainly no wonder why not!