Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux (1962)

France 85m, B&W
Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Cast: Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, André S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger, Gérard Hoffman

My Life to Live is the documentary-like story of a young woman who turns to prostitution as a means to earn a living. A highly descriptive story, we follow Nana through twelve short chapters of her life in this study of prostitution in France. Styled in her bobbed haircut, Karina’s character seems to have found inspiration from Louise Brooks in her portrayal of Lulu in Pandora’s Box (1928). Shot on location in Paris, Vivre sa vie has an authenticity as does Nana, who seems aware of her eventual fate while attending a showing of The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), in which she weeps with Maria Falconetti’s character when learning of her impending death (Klaus Ming April 2016).