Vivre Sa Vie [DVD] [1962]

We move to the record shop where Nana (Anna Karina) works. We see her arguing with the concierge, losing her home. She is interviewed by the police. She walks the streets, embracing her first client in functional, emotionless commerce. She seeks life, she seeks love, she seeks escape, but all the while her world is being shaped by the men in her life. All the while her options are closing down, all the while she is destined to reach the end of the film. She has to take responsibility for her own decisions and actions, yet she is merely an actress at the whim of those who would script and dress and direct her life, her images and self-images contrived and devoid of intrinsic personality.

The film juxtaposes these twelve blocks of Nana's life - we understand a person by following a narrative. Change the order of the narrative and we change our understanding of the individual. Godard deliberately fragments Nana's life, presenting her as an unreality: he breaks away from an artistic tradition of inviting the viewer to suspend disbelief and enter into the story, become absorbed by it. Here, he consciously reminds us that we are watching a piece of cinema, that we are viewing a construction, something unreal, yet something which relies on the naturalistic imagery of the Paris in which it is filmed.

Godard, here, is capturing images on film. Nana is compared, visually, to the actress Louise Brooks, to Jeanne d'Arc, to other images which appear upon the screen. He consciously sets out to capture poses and postures, to expose the way film represents people ... and how people remodel themselves after images from film. Godard was fascinated by Karina's image (the pair were married at the time), so "Vivre Sa Vie" has a reflexive quality, with the filmmaker making the character's life come alive.

Godard constantly makes references outside the film - it begins with a quote from Montaigne, it contains stage-managed images of posters, paintings, photos, readings from books, music, etc. It takes on a documentary quality, a stylised reflection of real Parisian life. It becomes a moving image to hang on the wall of a cinema (or TV), to be absorbed by and referenced, even revered, by its observers. The nature of modern life has become so visually intensive that it is impossible to separate reality from image. Godard lures the viewer into recognition of this enigma.

Anna Karina is extraordinarily beautiful and utterly captivating, yet plays the role in almost frumpish fashion. She is entirely self-centred and self-contained, barely noticing the life around her, seemingly unaware that she could snap her fingers and have men running after her. The fragmentation and disjunction of her character and of the role of film goes right to the heart of her life. She lives her life.

An extraordinary movie which may well change the way you experience film, this is an exceptionally rewarding film despite its bleak themes and tone.