Popular reviews

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  Review by James Healey ★★★ 31

  Godard didn't deserve Anna Karina.

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  Review by MadZack ★★★★★ 20

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiXADCFQhjU&t=12s

  Jean-Luc Godard can be a real son of of a bitch.

  Vivre Sa Vie is about attempting to navigate an unfeeling world. It's about the beautiful Anna Karina and it's about tragedy. It is Godard's Pandora's Box and it unfolds rhythmically in a brilliant parade of pathos. Vivre Sa Vie is a cocoon of complex love. It is Godard studying his lover. He is trying to envelop her in his spirit. He's trying to capture her. He's trying to understand.

  The film rests on the natural talents of Anna Karina. It relies solely on the power of her presence. This is not the study of Karina's character, it's an examination of the inexpressible beauty of her. It's about watching…

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  Review by karsten ★★★★ 10

  Clearly liked it a lot more than Breathless. At the end of the day I’m still pretty conflicted on how I feel. Like I love everything about this, the visual language, the editing, the performances, the philosophy in that 11th story. The only thing it’s missing is me giving any sort of shit about this woman. I will say, that final shot is absolutely tragic in the context of the entire film but that can’t be the only time I care about her. Ya know? Still though, I’m sure there’s a Godard for me that I’m gonna love, we’re getting closer.

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½ 5

  Oh my God in heaven the machine gun pan.

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  Review by Terése Flynn ★★★★½ 4

  In Vivre Sa Vie we get to know Nana; a woman that dreams of becoming an actress and has one man for every occasion. She believes that mankind is free and are responsible for every action and emotion, and that's a belief that is put to the test as she starts to work as a prostitute...

  Vivre Sa Vie has everything I love with Godard films. The melancholy, the fantastic dialogues, the innovative camera work, the social political commentary, beautiful music, beautiful women and last, but not least; tons of references to movies, literature and philosophy. In the case of Vivre sa vie Godard is very straight forward with what he's trying to say, what existential thoughts he's trying to…

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  Review by LinusMxx ★★★ 3

  Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie bitterly shows the sad reality on what it's like to be a woman in a man's world.

  The subject of this film: Anna Karina, Godard's own wife. She plays Nana, a young Parisian woman who leaves her unhappy marriage in an attempt to pursue a life of fame and acknowledgement. But over the course of twelve episodes, we see Nana’s spiralling descent into prostitution instead.

  I liked how this film didn't treat its theme of prostitution in overly dramatic fashion; but then again, Vivre sa Vie isn't really about prostitution. This is about Nana and her search for existential truth and happiness.

  Throughout its 84 minutes runtime, we are completely drawn to Nana, not just…

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  Review by Sarah ★★

  am convinced Godard has never met a woman

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  Review by Shawn Palmquist ★★★½ 5

  76/100

  Okay…I admit, this is only my second Godard film. That being said, both films I’ve seen of his (Breathless and now Vivre Sa Vie) have left me feeling a bit cold and uninvolved. With Vivre Sa Vie I feel as if I can admire the parts but not the sum. The acting, dialog, camerawork, story, etc…all pretty wonderful…yet when I step back at the end I don’t feel connected or moved by these characters at all. There is this almost unexplainable coldness to the way Godard portrays the characters, which leaves me feeling like I’m on the outside looking in. It’s hard to put a finger on why or how this happens, maybe it’s just a personal thing and…

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★★★ 29

  "I'm telling you my life story—how awful."

  I apologize in advance not only for the lengthiness but also for the scattershot nature of this review. My best excuse is that Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre sa vie is as elliptical as anything by Pound or Eliot and thus makes for a slippery target. Nevertheless I'm given to ramble, and this is my favorite of the twenty Godard films I've seen so far. Many thanks are due for vital contextual assistance from Richard Brody's invaluable biography.

  As with any film by Godard, Vivre sa vie is intimately tied to the director's personal life. Early 1962 found Godard's fortunes in a mixed condition. His undervalued third feature A Woman Is a Woman had failed…

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  Review by Luke McCarthy

  A stranger talks about the importance of words, when suddenly, Godard jump-cuts to a shot of Anna Karina's piercing eyes looking directly into camera. Afterwards, a man reads aloud a barrage of elegant, lustful prose, and yet all we see is an isolated Karina, framed like a monument against Godard's flat mise-en-scene. Words, images and sounds can only communicate so much. One must combine them to find the soul.

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  Review by Zegan ★★★★★ 1

  ANNA KARINA. that's it; that's the review.

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★★ 1

  Jean-Luc Godard’s French new wave drama Vivre sa vie communicates a tragic inevitableness to men’s insensitive coveting and subsequent neglect of women. Told in twelve brief vignettes which continually shift style, Godard’s direction expresses his typical scope for a steep cinematic vision yet there's an uncommon tenderness in the movie where the thresholds imposed on the leading character Nana Kleinfrankenheim, portrayed by Anna Karina, are cared for sympathetically.

  The film exemplifies an unbound attitude to filmmaking, as can consistently be anticipated from Godard, and there are some interesting discussions contemplating art and philosophy. Components of an assortment of diverse genres spring forth erratically, and the occasional termination of the sound associated with the close-ups of Karina’s face recalls some of the masterworks of silent cinema. It's rather gloomy material, but it touches down in a feminist territory that spotlights the unreasonably restrictive options available to women in the early sixties.