‎Vivre Sa Vie (1962) directed by Jean-Luc Godard • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Vivre Sa Vie

1962 ‘Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux’ Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

The many faces of a woman trying to find herself in a world of men.

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

Anna Karina Sady Rebbot André S. Labarthe Guylaine Schlumberger Gérard Hoffman Monique Messine Brice Parain Peter Kassovitz Paul Pavel Eric Schlumberger Henri Attal Odile Geoffroy Alfred Adam Gisèle Braunberger Jean Ferrat Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Paul Savignac László Szabó Gilles Quéant

84 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by James Healey ★★★ 13

Godard didn't deserve Anna Karina.
Review by MadZack ★★★★★ 13

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…
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…
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½ 4

Oh my God in heaven the machine gun pan.
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.
Review by Shawn Palmquist ★★★½ 5

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 there…

Recent reviews

Review by d_or ★★★★

godard should've said fuck it and filmed a titty scene or somethin
Review by KJKnow ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"You just vanished. Poof!"

I liked the movie, but a kid did not write the poem that ends part one: no way. There's some great camerawork, and Anna Karina is great as expected, though the letter writing scene could have been handled more efficiently. For most of the film, I loved the overlap with The Passion of Joan of Arc and Poe's "The Oval Portrait." However, the end is meant to be abrupt and shocking while also reflecting those references... but Godard and I clearly look at those works and how they resemble Karina's Nana a bit differently. Still, the rest of the film's great.

Part of my 2019 New Year's Resolution.
Review by NathCheng ★★★★½

This movie is really great and very depressing, despite the fact that the main character is deceptively happy. It's split into 12 chapters, which isn't 100% necessary, but the titles do give further insight into the characters.

In terms of filmmaking, the way the camera moves, it feels like it was dictated by the characters, instead of the director/cinematographer. Which is very interesting because it's really unlike anything I've ever seen and works extremely well.

My only issue with it is that it should have ended about five minutes before it did. Five minutes before the actual ending ways without a doubt my favourite moment of the movie, and the actual ending feels very forced and off beat, so either take longer to set that up or end it earlier.
Review by Dan K ★★★½

GUYS I ACTUALLY FOUND A GODARD FILM I LIKED!

(Except for that ending, I have no idea what the hell that was.)
Review by Diogo Rocha ★★★★

I think I'm finally getting into Godard. My favorite part, text was stolen from another review:

"Because in it, Porthos. This is really in Twenty Years Later. Porthos, tall, strong, a little stupid. He's never thought in his life. He has to place a bomb in a cellar to blow it up. He does it. He places the bomb, lights the fuse, then he runs away, of course, but suddenly he begins to think “What about?” How it is possible to put one foot before the other? You must have thought about that, too. So he stops running. He can`t go on, he can't move forward. The bomb explodes, the cellar falls on him. He holds it up with his shoulders, but after a day, or maybe two, he is crushed to death. The first time he thought, it killed him."
Review by Topher Vrijenhoek

Our Most Secret Self retrospective
Review by Matthew Gill

An examination of the ways that, since the beginning of time, societies have built around intellectually fortified and singularly masculine systems of oppression. Language, sex, and capitalism are Nana's (Anna Karina, icon) everyday socialized violences, but her singular, almost alien optimism is a thing of magic that nothing in the world could erase completely.

A rare example of filmed intense academic conversation gliding along with the magic of jazz and, of encountering for the first time, a beautiful and strange idea.
Review by Eduardo ★★★★

El diálogo en el capítulo 11 "Nana filosofa sin saberlo" me ha dejado mucho tiempo pensando.
Review by dan dinary ★★★★★

Insult her. If she gets offended, she’s a tramp. If she smiles, she’s a lady.

empathetic filmmaking at its most heartbreaking and profound.

---

INCLUDED IN: RANKING MY FAVOURITE FILMS, JEAN-LUC GODARD RANKED, and DAN WATCH THESE RANKED