Alphaville is a sci-fi detective story, a kind of proto-Blade Runner, with French New Wave charm (the kind which makes your favorite electronica artist be in love with it). The film is both visionary and naive, stylish and gauche, but the plusses far overmaster the negatives. This is the type of film where you can see how good it is by noticing its flaws, and thinking: "Ah, but so what, this is still such a good movie." The one exception is the love story, there really is not much of any chemistry there, and it is a kind of anti-Casablanca in that respect. (Yet even this flaw works because it meshes with the themes of the film in a very ironic, and probably intentional, way, if you think about it a bit.) But in the final analysis, Alphaville is a definite must-see for lovers of art and film.

4.5 / 5.0