Watch Vivre Sa Vie For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Memorable, crazy movie

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I usually try to form my opinion about films based on how entertaining or interesting or enriching or none of these I felt that they were during the time spent watching them. Only afterwards I try to understand why I liked or disliked the film, what caused me to find it funny, what I had learned from it, whether I exited as a better being (or not) at the end of the film. In the case of 'My Life to Live' (the original French title is 'Vivre sa vie' - 'Living her own life') going back to the roots of the pleasure of watching this movie also means placing it in the context of the cinema at the beginning of the 60s, and the extraordinary revolution brought by a handful of French directors Jean-Luc Godard was part of, in the way movies are made and the way spectators watch movies and relate to them.The story in 'Vivre sa vie' is pretty straight-forward and there are no explicit social or political messages as in other films by Godard or his colleagues. Nana (Anna Karina) is a young woman trying to build a path for herself in the Big City, failing, and sliding slowly on the slope of prostitution. The film follows her unsuccessful attempts to meet ends, followed by a decision that mixes innocence and reluctance to engage in the oldest profession, while keeping alive her ingenuity and desire to live her life. There is no moral hesitation and no risks assessment in what she does. Godard approaches what can be otherwise described as a descent in hell with an apparent phlegmatic approach, almost as in a documentary or as in what we call nowadays a docu-drama. This is reflected in the places he is filming (more or less chic areas of Paris) and in the selection of his actors - the pimps and the customers of the sex trade look no different than any of the other guys next table in the brasserie. There is only one violent incident in the story that could have been a warning about the dangers ahead, but it is dully ignored. The desire to live a good life prevails.The choice of the actress may have been quite obvious, as Godard had married Anna Karina the year before the film was made. The role may even have been written for her, but the way he directs the young actress is part of his manner of telling the story. Karina's Nana is beautiful and ingenue, she just makes her choice about the way she wants to live her life without awareness about the price to be paid. Is there a final realization of her mistake? Maybe she gets it in the last second of the film, but it's mostly to the viewer to draw the conclusions.There are so many cinematographic innovations in this film made at the beginning of the 60s that any list risks to be partial. Filming some of the dialogs without seeing the faces of the actors, using live and sometimes hand-held camera on the streets of Paris, inserting legal and documentary book texts to illustrate the decision of Nana at the key moment when her destiny takes a turn, using close plans of the actors faces to emphasize their feelings (some times with help from the wonderful music of Michel Legrand) are only part of these. I especially loved two scenes: the film in film screening of 'Jeanne d'Arc' which is a fascinating declaration of love for cinema, and the dance scene which predates by more than three decades what John Travolta will do in Pulp Fiction. No wonder, as Quentin Tarantino lists Godard as one of his idols. One element which may seem today experimental was not such actually - it's the black-and-white film - that was the period of transition to color, which still was expensive and - luckily - the young French new wave directors and their producers could not afford it.The final of the 12 chapters of the film includes a glimpse on the streets of Paris where people stand in line at the cinema house to see François Truffaut's Jules and Jim. A reverence to his colleague of generation who broke through a few years before, and whose fame Jean-Luc Godard was soon to equal.

Godard's third feature film tells the story of Nana (Anna Karina) in 12 chapters. Nana leaves her husband, and is desperate for money. She gradually descends into a life of prostitution. This sounds like a dark bit of social realism, and while it has some aspects of that, this is really a film infused with Godard's early love of cinema. He strains against the limits of acceptability, trying things because he can. He shoots dialogue scenes from behind the speakers's heads, he pans his camera to look at seemingly irrelevant things, his cops up the score and drops snippets in at unpredictable moments. I know this makes the film sound insufferably pretentious, but this is not that Godard ... not yet. This film has joyous energy and I love it.

"Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux" is another one by Godard ("A bout de suffle" was the previous) about wasted youth, going down and losing any sort of control (plans, dreams, perspective, whatever) over life.In this case it is a brief and intense story of a young beautiful woman (Nana) confused whether to pursue the acting career and at the same time desperately trying to make the ends meet and therefore opted to prostitution instead.Youth is a time when we are particularly fragile and vulnerable, when lifetime opportunities are mixed with risks of failing big time, and many factors, events, acquaintances may influence our choice and chances. Yet we are fully responsible for what we do and the current state is the consequence of our actions. In one scene Nana says the more or less same thing.She is not dumb, spoiled and empty-headed chick, on the contrary, however her choice and actions led her to the downfall and no one cared or tried to help her like it usually happens in life, sad and sometimes cruel and ordinary thing. And the genius of Godard revealed in making it rather disturbing and thought-provocative in the minimalistic and very expressive way. One might also find it especially poignant as we all have our moments wasted perhaps not so dramatically. Anna Karina is absolutely stunning in this film, her yearning eyes filled with melancholy, confusion and sadness and fragile beauty are captivating.

'Vivre sa vie' has been my favorite film for a long time and I do not feel the need to write a long review explaining why I like this film so much. Instead, I would just like to say that for me, there are two ways of watching it: with subtitles and without subtitles. As I do not speak French, I need to use subtitles to follow the story, but I also like to watch it without the subtitles. Mainly because of its brilliant cinematography. The camera angles, the sets, the use of music/sounds and Anna Karina's undeniable beauty make this film interesting to watch even without paying any attention to the story at all. That said, the story is not worth any less than the visual beauty of the film.