For all its influence, Alphaville still looks and feels like no other movie. More than a prophecy, it is poetry.

| Dec 18, 2023

It's so archly intellectual that you fear it might splinter if you poke it in the ribs. It's also endlessly playful in its worship of American movie tropes, and deeply resourceful.

| Original Score: B | May 29, 2014

Nothing about this strange, moving work of agit-pop has ever seemed out of date. If anything, "Alphaville" moves closer to relevance with every passing year.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 1, 2014

A bracing salute to American gangster pics, with a jumpy European post-war uncertainty thrown in.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 25, 2014

Despite its age it's that rare science fiction film that doesn't seem to have dated at all.

| Apr 24, 2014

It's one of the great cinematic works of romanticism, as well as a sort of filmed revelation of the very essence of science-fiction movies and German silent classics -- their blend of social critique, emotional liberation, and paranoia.

| Apr 1, 2014

Although this is drastically different compared to the rest of Godard's oeuvre, it has without a doubt had a lasting impact with its ground-breaking visuals.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 1, 2014

No movie, not even Breathless, better exemplifies the syncretic quality of Godard's early genius.

| Apr 1, 2014

Iconic in its very grain, the film toggles effortlessly between toast-dry farce and vogueing postwar hipitude, and like the balletic swimmers performing mid-pool state executions, it's a thing of insensible beauty.

| Feb 4, 2014

Karina proves to be the beating heart of the movie, getting its piercing last line (no spoilers here). Yet it's Constantine's ravaged mug that you remember.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 4, 2014

Godard again shows his uncompromising, intellectual, unorthodox methods for a pic that is both piquant and sketchy.

| Mar 26, 2009

It remains an outstanding example of the filmmaker's power to transform an environment through the selection of detail: everything in it is familiar, but nothing is recognizable.

| May 29, 2007

One of Godard's most sheerly enjoyable movies, a dazzling amalgam of film noir and science fiction.

| Jun 24, 2006

Mr. Godard's conclusion that love -- good old love -- conquers all is a curiously disappointing finish for such an initially promising film.

| May 9, 2005