Drama

Vivre Sa Vie

- The many faces of a woman trying to find herself.

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

Release Date : 1962-09-20

Language :French

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Pathé Consortium CinémaLes Films de la Pléiade

Production Country : France

Alternative Titles : My Life to LiveTo Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes

Cast

Character Name : Nana Kleinfrankenheim

Original Name : Anna Karina

Gender : Female

Character Name : Raoul

Original Name : Sady Rebbot

Gender : Male

Character Name : Paul

Original Name : André S. Labarthe

Gender : Male

Character Name : Yvette

Original Name : Guylaine Schlumberger

Gender : Female

Character Name : Chef

Original Name : Gérard Hoffmann

Gender : Male

Character Name : Elisabeth

Original Name : Monique Messine

Gender : Female

Character Name : Journalist

Original Name : Paul Pavel

Gender : Male

Character Name : Dimitri

Original Name : Dimitri Dineff

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Man

Original Name : Peter Kassovitz

Gender : Male

Character Name : Luigi

Original Name : Eric Schlumberger

Gender : Male

Character Name : Philosopher

Original Name : Brice Parain

Gender : Male

Character Name : Arthur

Original Name : Henri Attal

Gender : Male

Character Name : First Customer

Original Name : Gilles Quéant

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Cafe Waitress

Original Name : Odile Geoffroy

Gender : Male

Character Name : Policeman

Original Name : Marcel Charton

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Man in the Cinema

Original Name : Jack Florency

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Alfred Adam

Gender : Male

Character Name : Italian (uncredited)

Original Name : Mario Botti

Gender : Male

Character Name : Concierge (uncredited)

Original Name : Gisèle Braunberger

Gender : Female

Character Name : Man Near the Jukebox (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean Ferrat

Gender : Male

Character Name : Soldier (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean-Paul Savignac

Gender : Male

Character Name : Injured Man (uncredited)

Original Name : László Szabó

Gender : Male

Character Name : The Lover Reading Poe (voice) (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean-Luc Godard

Gender : Male

Reviews

CRCulver

@CRCulver

2021-06-23

Vivre sa vie was Jean-Luc Godard's fourth feature film. The protagonist Nana (Anna Karina) is a young Parisian woman who is not especially bright, but full of life and endowed with great beauty. Unable to make ends meet by working at a record shop, and unable to break into films as she dreams, she starts to work as a prostitute. Postwar French law permitted prostitution, with certain rules and regulations that the film explains in a documentary-like segment. Nana, who yearns to live her life according to her own desires, initially thinks that this new profession has set her free from cares. In fact, Nana's liberation from penury through prostitution only subjects her to new constraints imposed by her pimp and clientele. The film, divided into twelve tableaux with fade-to-black transitions that quicken as it goes on (which one commentator compares to breathing faster and faster) brings us to one of the most shocking endings I have ever seen. This is a superlative film. Clocking in at 85 minutes, it lasts exactly as long as its story demands, with not a single moment that feels superfluous. Everything fits together, perfectly even things that ought to seem extraneous, the overindulgence of the auteur. Early in the film Nana goes to see Carl Dreyer's 1928 silent film La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc, and this is not a mere gratuitous tribute to earlier cinema as is common in French New Wave films. Nana speaks with an elderly philosopher in a café, who is in fact the real-life philosopher Brice Parain whose dialogue here consists of his own writings, and yet this is not shallow intellectualism. Rather, these scenes increase the three-dimensionality of Nana as a character: not very intelligent and with negligible education, an easy woman since long before the film begins, but feeling strongly that there must be more out there. The believability of Nana as a character is increased all the more by Anna Karina's masterful performance. When coming to Godard's films, after the filmmaker has taken a beating from some circles, one might think that Karina was simply a beauty with no especial talent that enchanted the director due to her looks and foreign origin. Nope, the Danish actress here presents a completely believable Parisian airhead who is so easily moved by sentimental art.

badelf

@badelf

2022-10-11

It's Jean-Luc Godard at the avant-garde of filmmaking. It's a brilliant film with so many new ideas for early the 60s. What else is there to say?