HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Vivre sa vie'' (french: Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux, lit=To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes) is a 1962
French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film written and directed by
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as FranĂ ...
. The film was released in the United States as ''My Life to Live'' and in the United Kingdom as ''It's My Life''.


Plot

Nana Kleinfrankenheim, a beautiful 22-year-old Parisian, leaves her husband Paul and her infant son, hoping to become an actress. The couple meet in a café and play pinball one last time before deciding to end their marriage. Now working in a record store, Nana struggles to earn enough money on her own. She tries to borrow 2,000
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
from several co-workers, but they all refuse. To make matters worse, Nana's landlady kicks her out of her apartment until she can pay rent. The next day, Nana meets with Paul, who gives her pictures of her son to keep for herself. Paul invites her to dinner, but Nana declines and explains she is seeing a film with another man. They watch ''
The Passion of Joan of Arc ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (french: link=no, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne F ...
'', moving Nana to tears. After the film, Nana ditches her date to meet with a man who promised he would take photos to promote her acting career. When asked to undress for the photos, Nana reluctantly complies. Nana is questioned in a police station for trying to steal 1,000 francs from a woman on the street, who dropped the money in front of her. Nana returned the money out of guilt, but the woman still pressed charges. Walking down a street, Nana notices a female prostitute. A man asks Nana if he can join her, assuming she is also a prostitute; she agrees and they go to a hotel room. Nana asks him for 4,000 francs. He gives her 5,000 and says she can keep the change. Nana is visibly uncomfortable as he attempts to kiss her on the lips. Nana runs into a friend, Yvette, and they go for lunch at a diner. Yvette reveals that she became a prostitute after her husband abandoned her and her children, as it was the easiest way to make money without him. Yvette introduces Nana to her pimp, Raoul, who is also at the diner. Nana impresses Raoul and the three play pinball when, suddenly, a police shootout ensues outside. A bloodied man who has been shot runs inside, prompting Nana to flee the diner. Sometime later at a restaurant, Nana writes a letter asking for work (presumably as a prostitute) to an address Yvette gave her, describing herself and her physical features. Raoul sits down next to her and advises her to stay in Paris, where he can help her make more money. Nana agrees to work for him and they kiss. She quits her job at the record store and abandons her dream of becoming an actress. Raoul explains the basics of prostitution to Nana, including how to conduct herself, how much she charges and earns, when and where she works, the laws and what to do if faced with an unintended pregnancy. Nana soon begins to attract several clients. On one of Nana's days off, Raoul takes her to meet his friends at a bistro, where she dances to a song playing on a jukebox. The men are mostly uninterested, except for a young man playing at a billiard table who buys her a pack of cigarettes. While on the street, Nana picks up a client and takes him to a nearby hotel. The man requests she ask other prostitutes in the hotel to join them, but once one does, the client no longer wants Nana to join, so she sits on the edge of the bed and smokes. Nana is now a seasoned prostitute and blends in with the others on the streets. She is in a hotel room with the young man she had met earlier at the bistro, who reads aloud a passage from "
The Oval Portrait "The Oval Portrait" is a horror short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, involving the disturbing circumstances of a portrait in a château. It is one of his shortest stories, filling only two pages in its initial publication in 1842. Plo ...
" by
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
. As Nana and the young man express their mutual adoration, she decides she wants to live with him and quit prostitution. When Nana confronts Raoul, they argue, as he was planning to sell her to another pimp. Raoul forces Nana into his car and drives her to the pimp's meeting place. However, the transaction falls through and Nana ends up being killed in a gun battle. The pimps flee the scene, leaving Nana's body lying on the pavement.


Cast


Production

The film was shot over the course of four weeks for $40,000.


Style

In ''Vivre sa vie'', Godard borrowed the aesthetics of the ''
cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or high ...
'' approach to
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
-making that was then becoming fashionable. However, this film differed from other films of the
French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...
by being photographed with a heavy Mitchell camera, as opposed to the light-weight cameras used for earlier films. The cinematographer was
Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the Nouvelle Vague period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard. Coutard also shot films for New Wa ...
, a frequent collaborator of Godard.


Influences

One of the film's original sources is a study of contemporary prostitution, ''OĂą en est la prostitution'' by
Marcel Sacotte Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian ...
, an examining magistrate. ''Vivre sa vie'' was released shortly after ''
Cahiers du cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...
'' (the film magazine for which Godard occasionally wrote) published an issue devoted to
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
and his theory of '
epic theatre Epic theatre (german: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creati ...
'. Godard may have been influenced by it, as ''Vivre sa vie'' uses several alienation effects: twelve
intertitle In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
s appear before the film's 'chapters' explaining what will happen next;
jump cut A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...
s disrupt the editing flow; characters are shot from behind when they are talking; they are strongly backlit; they talk directly to the camera; the statistical results derived from official questionnaires are given in a
voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...
; and so on. The film also draws from the writings of
Montaigne Michel Eyquem, Sieur de Montaigne ( ; ; 28 February 1533 â€“ 13 September 1592), also known as the Lord of Montaigne, was one of the most significant philosophers of the French Renaissance. He is known for popularizing the essay as a liter ...
,
Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
,
Zola Zola may refer to: People * Zola (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * Zola (musician) (born 1977), South African entertainer * Zola (rapper), French rapper * Émile Zola, a major nineteenth-century French writer Plac ...
and
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, to the cinema of
Robert Bresson Robert Bresson (; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson contributed notably to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, Ellipsis (narrative device), ellipses, and s ...
,
Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent film, silent era to the end of the 1960s. ...
and
Carl Dreyer Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his movies are noted for their emotional aus ...
. French critic
Jean Douchet Jean Douchet (; 19 January 1929 – 22 November 2019) was a French film director, historian, film critic and teacher who began his career in the early 1950s at ''Gazette du Cinéma'' and ''Cahiers du cinéma'' with members of the future French N ...
has written that Godard's film "would have been impossible without ''
Street of Shame is a 1956 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It is the personal tales of several Japanese women of different backgrounds who work together in a brothel. It was Mizoguchi's last film. The film is based on the novel '' Su ...
'' (1956), enjiMizoguchi's last and most sublime film." Nana gets into an earnest discussion with a philosopher (played by
Brice Parain Brice Parain (10 March 1897 – 20 March 1971) was a French philosopher and essayist. He appeared as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's 1962 film ''Vivre sa vie''. In Éric Rohmer's film ''My Night at Maud's'' (1969), conversations about Pascal's W ...
, Godard's former philosophy tutor), about the limits of speech and written language. In the next scene, as if to illustrate this point, the sound track ceases and the images are overlaid by Godard's personal narration. This formal playfulness is typical for the way in which the director was working with sound and vision during this period. The film depicts the consumerist culture of Godard's Paris; a shiny new world of cinemas, coffee bars, neon-lit pool halls, pop records, photographs, wall posters, pin-ups, pinball machines, juke boxes, foreign cars, the latest hairstyles, typewriters, advertising, gangsters and
Americana Americana may refer to: *Americana (music), a genre or style of American music *Americana (culture), artifacts of the culture of the United States Film, radio and television * ''Americana'' (1992 TV series), a documentary series presented by J ...
. It also features allusions to popular culture; for example, the scene where a melancholy young man walks into a café, puts on a juke box disc, and then sits down to listen. The unnamed actor is in fact the well known singer-songwriter
Jean Ferrat Jean Ferrat (born Jean Tenenbaum; 26 December 1930 – 13 March 2010) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. He specialized in singing poetry, particularly that of Louis Aragon. He had a left-wing sympathy that found its way into a few songs. ...
, who is performing his own hit tune "Ma MĂ´me" on the track that he has just selected. Nana's bobbed haircut replicates that made famous by
Louise Brooks Mary Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the Jazz Age and flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helpe ...
in the 1928 film
Pandora's Box Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's c. 700 B.C. poem ''Works and Days''. Hesiod reported that curiosity led her to open a container left in the care of her husband, thus releasing phys ...
, where the doomed heroine also falls into a life of prostitution and violent death. One sequence shows a queue outside a Paris cinema waiting to see ''
Jules et Jim ''Jules and Jim'' (french: Jules et Jim ) is a 1962 French New Wave romantic drama film, directed, produced and written by François Truffaut. Set before and after World War I, it describes a tragic love triangle involving French Bohemian J ...
'', the new wave film directed by
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
, at the time both a close friend and sometime rival of Godard. In 2014, the film was remade as ''She Lives Her Life'' by director Mark Thimijan.


Reception

The film was the fourth most popular movie at the French box office in its year of release. It won the
Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...
at the 1962 Venice Film Festival.


Critical response

Author and cultural critic
Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...
described it as "a perfect film" and "one of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works of art that I know of." According to critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
in his essay on the film in the book ''
The Great Movies ''The Great Movies'' is the name of several publications, both online and in print, from the film critic Roger Ebert. The object was, as Ebert put it, to "make a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema." ''The Great Movies'' was pu ...
'', "The effect of the film is astonishing. It is clear, astringent, unsentimental, abrupt."
Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next fifty ...
of ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'' described ''Vivre sa vie'' as "empty and pretentious". On the
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Anna Karina's arresting performance provides a humanizing anchor to Jean-Luc Godard's stylistically explosive portrait of a prostitute."


References


Further reading

*


External links

* *
''Vivre sa vie'': An Introduction and A to Z
(episodic essay on watching this film, with a selection of stills), ''
Senses of Cinema ''Senses of Cinema'' is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, ''Senses of Cinema'' publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career ...
'', issue 48, August 2008
Critical essay
on ''Vivre sa vie'', ''Senses of Cinema'', April 2000
"(Post) Modern Godard: ''Vivre sa vie''"
– critical essay on the modern and postmodern aspects of ''Vivre sa vie''.
''Vivre sa vie: The Lost Girl''
– an essay by Michael Atkinson at
The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize 1962 films 1962 drama films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films 1960s French films 1960s French-language films Films about prostitution in Paris Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Films scored by Michel Legrand French avant-garde and experimental films French black-and-white films French drama films Venice Grand Jury Prize winners