Rent Vivre Sa Vie (1962)

Her Life, His Camera - Vivre Sa Vie review by griggs

Twelve chapters, one woman, and enough cigarette smoke to make Godard's philosophising look almost medicinal. Vivre Sa Vie watches Nana drift into sex work, one café conversation at a time, and the chopped-up structure actually works — her life gets smaller with every chapter, which suits someone running out of options.

Anna Karina is basically the whole film. She can go from playful to bored to genuinely frightened inside one scene without it feeling like whiplash, which is impressive, considering barely anything else here moves that fast. The standout is the cinema scene: Nana alone in the dark, crying at Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc. It's the one moment where Godard's cleverness finally gets out of its own way and just lets you feel something.

I'll admit I went back and forth on this one. My first reaction was that Godard's a bit paternalistic — he gets to film Nana like a work of art while insisting the film is really about how she shouldn't be treated like one. Handy trick, if you're the one holding the camera.

The more I sat with it, though, the less convinced I was. Nana isn't written as simply helpless. She makes choices, argues philosophy with a stranger and keeps insisting on her own independence even as her options shrink. The film never treats her desires as something she deserves punishment for. Godard's less interested in saving her than in catching you looking. Whether that's clever filmmaking or just a clever man dodging the question, I honestly can't decide.

Sharp, sad, and just a little too pleased with itself.

Unjustly famous - Vivre Sa Vie review by LA

This hasn't aged well, may have been daring at the time, but now just seems posturing and ends abruptly without establishing a reason.