My Life to Live

A great French film. This is my favorite Jean Luc Godard film. It is about a woman in Paris who wanted to be an actress, but she becomes a Prostitute. Lots of great scenes of France.

This is the movie on which so many parodies of French cinema are based. It's a story about a disaffected young French woman (Anna Karina) who leaves her husband and infant son to pursue an acting career, but quickly realizes the difficulties inherent in her decision and resorts to prostitution on the Paris streets. Nana (Karina) at first works in a record store on the Champs-Élysées, always has a cigarette in her hand, went to watch The Passion of Joan of Arc in theaters, and always seems to have a shot of the Seine framing her profile in the background while she sits, woefully, on the edge of a boutique hotel bed — okay, maybe that last part was only one scene, but it was so perfectly Gallic that the only thing that would've made it more French would've been the "John" actually wanting to have the ménage a trois. Raoul (Saddy Rebbott) explaining the ins-and-outs of the business to Nana while scenes of her showcasing her experiences as a prostitute was the first time the film really grabbed my attention. I found it cumbersome to constantly be looking at the back of characters' heads while they talked to each other in cafes and bars. The ending, where Nana is suddenly shot and killed during a transaction gone wrong (Nana was the transaction, from one pimp to another) and "FIN" flashes on the screen, is the cherry on top of the French New Wave sundae. Vivre Sa Vie is definitely a must-see for a cinephile (or Francophile), as it is a bedrock for one of the most influential movements in cinematic history, but it lacks a certain je ne sais pas for the average viewer; I couldn't help but roll my eyes when our protag-prostitute begins discussing philosophy a propos of nothing with a stranger (Brice Parain) in a café. Oh, the French.

Back in 1962 I suppose this was considered avant garde. For me, sixty years later, it was just boring.

Godard, has a unique storytelling technique, although he considers his way of representing his scenes to be radical, this is one of the best films he made

Many films once considered dangerously radical gradually find their potency fade with time, as tastes evolve and the medium finds new ways to innovate. Godard is one director who still seems to have never fallen into this trap; his films still retain a distinctly modern taste more than half a century later. It feels like one of his more accessible films (revolving virtually entirely around a single focal character and her independence, or inability to maintain it), but I can't shake the notion that there is plenty more to dissect. With continuous references to cinema, literature, and philosophy, Vivre sa Vie seems ripe for subtext, though its continuous stream of references almost make the film seem unsure about itself, as if referencing a library by only reviewing the titles on the spines of the books (given Godard's critical background though, I doubt this is the most likely scenario). I do take issue with the ending, in which Karina's Nana is struck by bullets from two different gunman in an exchange gone wrong, possibly indicating her ultimate inability to control her destiny despite superficial authority over her own, small actions. What her stumbling ends up looking like instead is a bizarre parody of a Three Stooges skit. (4/5)

Stylish and heartbreaking. Godard tells the story of a woman who never loses her beauty or confidence in the face of her downfall. Sometimes you love her. Sometimes you hate her. She is always fascinating.

It is quite fascinating how Godard injected this film with philosophical inquiries. even the quietest scenes were contemplative. this is certainly my favourite of all of Godard's films.

There is a bleakness to this movie, which has a pretty and thoughtful young woman (Anna Karina), living in beautiful Paris, and yet descending into prostitution following a break-up. Director Jean-Luc Godard gives us twelve vignettes that are intentionally simple and unassuming to paint the picture. It's worth seeing, but at least for me, there are better French New Wave pictures, and certainly less depressing ones. Anna Karina is lovely but I don't think she delivered a lot of range in this performance. One major exception early on in her new job is when she desperately tries to avoid a customer's kiss on the mouth. The look in her eyes as she squirms around is heart-rending, and disabuses us of any ooh-la-la fantasies we may have about her in this role. Another nice scene is when she dances to a jukebox song with awkward cuteness, trying to entice the few men watching her. To his credit, Godard is unflinching in his honesty, and there is no sentimentality here. I loved the thoughtful scenes, the one where she's in the theater watching the 1928 Carl Theodor Dreyer film 'The Passion of Joan of Arc', and then later picking an older man's brain about philosophy in a café. The street scenes in Paris were nice to see, though sometimes the film comes close to descending into a home movie project. Godard was making a point about the realities of life, and employing new filmmaking techniques while telling the story. It doesn't always make for great entertainment though, such as the section that's almost a mini-documentary on prostitution in Paris at the time. The ending is also ridiculously abrupt; it is a grand statement but to me borders on pretentiousness. Is it over-compensating for not showing some of the more painful aspects of prostitution along the way? (STD's, being beaten up, being degraded, etc?). Until then, with the exception of the attempted kiss scene, the 'insight' we get is mostly just a beautiful model being bored by her tricks. From Godard, I much preferred 'Masculin Feminin' (1966), so if you're new to him, I would start there instead. You may also try the Truffaut film we see on the marquee of a theater towards the end, 'Jules and Jim' (1962), which was a nice little tip of the cap to his fellow director.

Every shot choice every camera movement every edit decision. Perfection.

This fascinating film explores a prostitute's life. Its exploration of how men and women perceive one another is made more stark by the experimental use of sound and lengthy dialogue. Its obscurity undermines 'watchability' at times.