In a series of recent papers, Martel and Merle solved the long-standing open problem on the existence of blow up solutions in the energy space for the critical generalized Korteweg- de Vries equation. Martel and Merle introduced new tools to study the nonlinear dynamics close to a solitary wave solution. The aim of the talk is to discuss the main ideas developed by Martel-Merle, together with a presentation of previously known closely related results.