Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Art Vandelay It took me until halfway through this pointless, dull film to figure out why Godard shot so many scenes with the camera pointed at the back of his actors' heads -- his lead actress couldn't act worth a d**n, and many of the males weren't much more convincing. Was there a single establishing shot in the entire film? The whole film seems to be shot 6 inches to 3 feet from the actors. So boring. What's the lead character's motivation? Boredom? Lack of imagination? Stupidity? Greed? I can watch Breathless over and over again. Maybe Godard just ran out of steam the more movies he made.

adrin-65078 See Adrin Neatrour crits at www.crinklecut.co.uk After the opening title sequence Godard's Vivre sa vie cuts to a long durational close shot in which the camera, tracks between a couple who are seated beside each other on bar stools at the counter of a café. They are talking about the nature of their relationship and its break up. As the camera tracks back and forth across the space between them, only one of them is ever in frame, and the shot set up is from behind, so that as they talk, we see only the back of a head.The what is said by this shot is in itself both witty and analytic. It allows the camera to express the opening concepts of alienation, separation within a context of movement. The wit lies in emotionally de-saturating the dialogue from faciality as Nana and her ex talk about the failure of their relationship her beef about his attempts to control her and his economic angle as Nana's ex signs off with the observation that as a musician, Nana is leaving him because he is poor. The ultimate deficiency in a culture based on consumption rather than production.With Anna K playing the role of Nana Godard's film is in content, a modernist rephrasing of Zola's eponymous novel charting the transformation of a young operetta star into a high class prostitute, whose allure and cold blooded exploitation of her sexuality destroy all the men who become infatuated with her.The power of Nana's presence is described by Zola as a psychic emanation that irresistibly attracts male desire. Godard's transposes elements of the Zola story. But because this is now an image driven culture, his Nana in the form of Karina, exists as an object of desire for the camera. It is Godard's camera that loves her image embraces and devours her. When Nana leaves her job in the record shop and takes up prostitution, her male clients barely seem to notice her. Throughout the film the men are self absorbed, as if playing pinball or engaging in masturbation, they barely notice Nana. She is simply someone they pay. Unlike their wives or girlfriends they have to shell out coin.The ethos of cool detachment pervades Vivre sa vie. The guys all wear coats turned up at the collar as they move through a world of artefacts, cafes, and automobiles. The women, immaculately coiffed and kitted out with couture outfits and shoes. It is a world without emotion, the world of advertising, where there are settings backdrops and product display.But Godard fixes his movies with pure concept. To oppose Nana's image defined world he uses a number of cinematic devices, simply interpolated that he cuts into the body of the film. Like the chapter headings they comprise a breaking up of flow, an opening up different idea spectra about what we are seeing.The inter cutting of a section of Dreyer's The Passion of Jean d'Arc. Godard uses a scene with Artaud, theoretician of the theatre of cruelty who plays the monk, Massieu questioning Falconetti's Jeanne. The Material grilling the Spiritual. A section of Edgar Allen Poe, the master of unnameable dread (uncool) is read on camera and later during one of Nana's assignations with a client, the results of the statistical survey of Parisian prostitution are intoned as voice over.There are two more extraordinary interpolations inserted of the body of the film. The scene where a guy mimes the process of a little boy blowing up a balloon. As performance it is intense funny and suddenly in its intensity and power feels like a transposition of male ejaculation. A hyper parody of in-existent sexuality. In a nondescript section of a cafe, Nana and a Philosopher talk about life specifically focusing on 'love' (uncool) at the end of their discussion. Unlike the tracking two shot at the front of the movie, this is shot full face with and pans from Nana to the Philosopher, with the Philosopher finally concluding, in response to Nana's question that love is real "…on condition it is true." In a culture of image how to find what is true and be able to distinguish it from what is not true? In a world of mirrors….Eddie Constantine appears as a spectre throughout Vivre sa vie. His presence as an image inside Nana's head a constant source of reference. And it is almost as if he were in the film, and if you squint your eyes you may see him.With Godard, film doesn't just think, it lives and breaths a world of unseen possibilities .

jackosurfing14 We, as a modern day audience become overtly excited for blockbuster films. With the use of modern day sources such as the internet, it seems embedded in our culture to give films such hype, whether it be action, comedy or romance, blockbuster films have become the only form of cinema for the mass audience to look forward to. The cinema culture is surrounded by remakes, sequels and prequels mostly motivated from one reason, money and most blockbuster that we see, par some, are underwhelming, due to the fact that these films consist of following generic conventions to just please the modern audience. Imagine if Godard films were the true excitement, imagine if the mass audience lined up to be overtly excited for a Godard film, they would most likely be treated to a highly stimulating and innovative experience. 'Vivre Sa Vie' is a film that highlights audacious filmmaking in every sense. A film that is willing to break the barriers of the cinematic universe. 'Vivre sa vie' can only be described as Purely authentic.The story is divided into 12 episodes of a woman life, Nana, and follows her descent into prostitution.The opening minutes introduces the film's protagonist Nana through three separate shots, portraying her face from the left, right and front. From this opening sequence, we gain a sense of awareness to Godard's innovation, presenting a simple presence that embodies a complexity of emotion, and we hope the music will in some way convey a sense of emotion, however the music abruptly seizes before we form a connection, maybe Godard is simple telling the audience to let go.The first episode consist of Nana wanting to breakup with her lover. They engage in a simple conversation, however the way Godard presents the conversation is simply audacious and astonishing. Firstly the characters are facing backwards to the camera, they talk to each other while not in the same frame and they only exist in their individual frame. This scene, as i said, is extremely audacious, as Godard breaks the rules of cinematic discourse, while brilliantly conveying the stages of their relationship, as the separate frames highlights the loss of connection and their love only exist through the reflection of a mirror. It is most definitely one of my favourite scenes of all time.Through the next episode, we see Nana at her work, i presume. The episode is short and simple, however the camera movements are once again brilliant, as the camera sweeps through the store continuously following Nana, it's as if the film is conscious of itself being a film. Furthermore, at the end of the episode the camera moves from Nana position to a view of the street that consist of no characters, it is simply a view, while a character speaks "You attach to much importance to logic". Superb.As the story unfolds we see Nana become more subordinate to men, as the homage to 'the passion of Joan of arc' and the disturbing 'first man', it seems inevitably of Nana descent into prostitution. As Nana is talking to her pimp, the camera moves once again to present two faceless faces, both in line with each other. The camera slowly pans left and right to reveal Nana reaction to the pimp. Once again the camera takes on a life of it's own, only concerned with the emotions of Nana rather than other characters. Furthermore, the simply vision of Godard to establish a shot like this, and the blocking of people is amazing to watch.Through this review i have simply interpret 'Vivre sa vie' as purely subjective, my interpretations could be completely wrong or right, but it doesn't matter, because that's the beauty of this film, it's beautifully ambiguous, it offers multiple subjective views, and the innovation is amazingly authentic. For the audience that appreciate the cinematic boundaries Godard has created, you cannot miss this.

Nuno Duarte By Jean-Luc Godard, Nana (Anna Karina) left her life to become an actress in Paris. As expected, she does not succeed and finds it very tough to make a living. She eventually ends up in despair and when a friends tells her that she prostituted to get easy money, Nana reconsiders her job at a record store and gets a pimp. It's easy too understand why Vivre Sa Vie does not show up between Godard's most famous movies. Firstly, the point of dividing the movie in twelve scenes is quite odd. Tough the story has some continuity the scenes aren't expressly combined. Not saying the movie is boring, it's just easy to lose interest. The best feature lies on some dialogues. Mostly two, at first between Nana and Yvette(Guylaine Schlumberger) and the latter with le philosophe (The philosopher - Brice Parain), especially the last one, where its reconsidered the difference between thinking and talking, as well as its necessity, between other very interesting topics. Very inspiring scene indeed. Anna Karina, who also performed Odile in Bande À Part, showed a great versatility though it wasn't very captivating despite her lovely fairness. 7/10