Descriptive Chapter Titles In Vivre Sa Vie example essay topic

People Magazine Vivre Sa Vie Let's Rate It: Vivre Sa Vie, a film coming just two short years after Godard's highly regarded Breathless, is a stark and moving cinematic work which shows, in 12 chapters, how the life of Nana spirals tragically downward from her days of Paris window shopping to street prostitution. The film, which includes an interesting blend of intimate close-ups, gangster shootouts, and French existentialist ideas, captures all the important elements and informal liberties of the French New Wave. Godard's knack for innovation in form and style in Vivre Sa Vie is as mind-blowing as it was over four decades ago. Anna Karina, in the role of Nana, lends natural style and lulling beauty to the film. Overall Rating: A; Run and grab a copy from your local video store. Be sure to grab a handkerchief, too!

A must-see!! In-depth Review: Vivre Sa Vie, or My Life to Live, is a story told in twelve chapters. The movie is filmed in the midst of Parisian civilian life -the Paris streets, cafes, and hotel rooms- and functions as both a portrait of "the city of love" and a documentation of prostitution and gangster violence in the early 1960's. Nana (Karina), the film's protagonist (and Godard's wife) is a young, pretty Parisian girl whose recent divorce leaves her lonely and financially troubled. After being evicted from her apartment, Nana strives desperately to make ends meet. Slowly, she is driven towards a life of prostitution in the Paris streets where she meets pimp Raoul (Reboot).

Raoul helps Nana learn all the tricks of the trade. However, when Nana falls in love and tries to escape her lowly work, Raoul is simply not ready to let her get away. Exploring both French prostitution and French existentialism, Vivre Sa Vie rises above some of those weepy-eyed chick flicks. Serving as a potent illustration of French society in the 1960's, the film is remarkable as a documentary and as a thoughtfully emotional tear-jerked. The film gives weightiness to many French existentialist ideas and philosophies through the characters in the film (for example, Nana's line, "I think we " re always responsible for our actions, we " re free"). Vivre Sa Vie also sits near the forefront of a dynamic "genre" of French Films: the French New Wave.

Audiences of this cinema are still struck today by New Wave authenticity with its honest portrayal of people on the fringe. In Vivre Sa Vie, Godard's authenticity radiates brilliantly. The surprising but enjoyable combination of Godard's cinematic styles ultimately leaves film-goers wondering just what type of film they are watching. Vivre Sa Vie is multi-dimensional; there is no single way to read or follow the film. Many of the scenes in the movie, departing from Classic Hollywood style, are discontinuous and broken up. Also, the film does not carry out a consistent mode of presentation; there are several shifts in perspective throughout the film- documentary, fiction, novel, etc.

It also seems Godard enjoys holding his audience at bay, leaving them to guess about his peculiar stylistic idiosyncrasies. It is often hard to pinpoint many of the functions of the devices that Godard uses in Vivre Sa Vie. For example, the bleak, descriptive chapter titles in Vivre Sa Vie serve to divide the film up into twelve chapters and give the film a literary quality, and yet, the chapters don't really structure the work at all. Vivre Sa Vie even leaves out, at times, many stylistic rules which are used to build the foundation of the cinematic feel: the film gives up causal continuity, avoids over-the-shoulder shots, and, in typical M'eli " es theater-like fashion, films its characters straight on from a distance. Godard does not always play the illusive cinematic magician however. In fact, the directional and stylistic choices that Godard makes in this film are ultimately intended to illuminate his characters and their situation.

Visual motifs such as the many backlit shots of Nana's profile create a visual representation of Nana's character, conveying the shame and sadness that Nana feels as a prostitute. This repeated motif of Nana's profile also gives the film a degree of continuity despite its somewhat disjointed feel. Pop culture and historical references also make this film very expressive, especially the clip from Dreyer's Passion of Jeanne d'Arc, in chapter three. The clip singles out an important parallel between the two films: both use fragmented shots of their actors and sets.

Also, the poster of Kubrick's Spartacus associates prostitution with slavery, prodding viewers to apply the maxim that "the slave's only freedom is death", to Nana. Cultural references, along with dialogue cutting, motifs and some improvisation also become key elements in creating audio and visual collage in the film, another defining characteristic of Godard's style. Vivre Sa Vie is a film that truly tests the limits of film language. Through Godard's inventive techniques, the audience is privy to a film that is truly unlike the rest. Vivre Sa Vie is landmark for its ingenuity in form and style and has proven that cinema can be approached in an entirely different way. Ultimately, through its variation in feel, the film takes on many different meanings for its audience.

Vivre Sa Vie can be interpreted through a multi-layer of perspectives: it is at once a documentary film, a work of fiction, an essay, a philosophical exploration, and perhaps even a sociological analysis of Parisian life.