To Live Her Life

MOVIE #1,951 • SCORE 9/10 • 09.06.24
SERIES: JEAN-LUC GODARD DIRECTOR FOCUS

I feared that, after not totally gelling with Breathless, that I might be in for a long and toilsome road here as I tackle the extensive Godard filmography, but I have been pleasantly surprised by both these subsequent entries. Each film is so unique and fresh. They’re all quite different from one another, though they seem to be tackling similar themes. I love how messy and immediate they all are, as well. The film is, in part, about freewill. It’s presented in 12 chapters that let the audience know what’s about to happen in text — so, is there really freewill? Maybe not at the movies, at least.

He again breaks the fourth wall and there's something about Anna Karina looking directly into the camera — those are powerful eyes looking right at you. He deploys countless other tricks that let you know this isn’t real: jump cuts to disrupt the editing flow, characters shot from behind when they are talking, and a letter-writing scene that plays out in real-time over the course of three minutes when it could have taken seconds with narration, and so on. Godard’s anti-capitalist leanings are fully on display here within the plot and story structure, but it’s just as clear in the subtext that he’s commenting on the very business of filmmaking too. These are films that you can simply enjoy at face value or dissect and interpret in myriad ways.

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Vivre sa vie (French: Vivre sa vie : film en douze tableaux, lit. 'To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes') is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as My Life to Live and in the United Kingdom as It's My Life. It was released on August 28, 1962.