My Life to Live

A series of poised, artful long takes, which highlight Karina’s vulnerable, tremulous performance and serve up the copious text as if in a picture frame.

Godard frames and edits his shots, moves the camera, uses music, and deploys his actors in ways that still seem radical -- even as several generations of directors since have cribbed and stolen from him.

Godard mixes titles, unusual use of sound, and long scenes of dialog. He is brilliantly served by his wife, Anna Karina, in this film. Karina gives the girl a ring of truth and depth.

Star Anna Karina was in the brutal early rounds of marriage to her director, who was never more doting and egghead-condescending than in this showpiece.

This 1962 film isn't the most stimulating of Godard's early work, but it does show him beginning to pull away from traditional cutting patterns and sequence arrangement.

Vivre Sa Vie seems to me a perfect film. That is, it sets out to do something that is both noble and intricate, and wholly succeeds in doing it.

Anna Karina is a mesmerizing expression of energy, wonder, and reality. Surround her with intoxicating style, layers of cultural references, and a grounded story and you have “My Life to Live”

Jean-Luc Godards fourth film marked a significant new direction for young turk director, away from the impassioned sketchiness of his furiously directed first films and into the realm of carefully composed scenes and formal visual strategies.

Where Breathless and Une Femme est une Femme were full of tumbling life, this one is studiously frozen.