Vivre sa Vie
In the last days, I have been playing with the idea of watching this movie quite a lot, and finally I did so (pretty much 5 years after I got to know about it for the first time). Anna Karina is indeed the goddess of the Nouvelle Vague indeed, and this is the film about her and her relationship with Godard. More than Alphaville, even more than Pierrot le Fou, this film is all about Godard’s view of Anna Karina. Even if I didn’t know that they were in love, this is absolutely fascinating. Anna Karina’s Nana is the Anna Karenina of today.
All painters make studies of women; of their face, their movements and their lives. More than anything else, this film is a study like that. In all his films with Anna Karina, Godard seems to be studying her, but this one is the most obvious and to some degree also the most honest. „À bout de souffle“ might be his best movie, but this one is even more beautiful and with a hint of honest depth, especially in her dialogue with the unknown philosopher. Much more than „Le Mépris“ even, the film has so many citable lines and while there doesn’t seem to be an overarching storyline, everything seems to fit marvelously in this movie.
Another scene that stuck in my mind is Anna Karina’s dance. As always, her dances are somewhat weird, making it impossible to qualify her as a good dancer despite her somewhat cute style.
Compared to that, I was not too impressed by the famous Jeanne d’Arc scene. However, I am extremely interested in Dreyer’s „Passion of Joan of Arc“ now, because what they showed in „Vivre sa Vie“ completely drew me in by its intense atmosphere.
Nana’s short hairstyle is slightly un-Karina-ish, but the bangs are somewhat typical for her again and frame her face beautifully. I wish my bangs would look like that on me!
Despite all the character’s wonderfully clear French, I was unable to understand everything. That’s what I get for not wanting to watch non-French subtitles. I just read a wonderful synopsis of the film here. There are so many references and details in the film! It’s quite lovely; I wish such websites existed for all movies.
Personally, I am not entirely sure what to think about this film. I am in love with the distinct episodic style, but at the same time, it’s comparably less fun than Godard’s other films. In general, it is amusing to see that Godard’s best movies (the aforementioned „À bout de souffle“ and „Le Mépris“) actually are not with Anna Karina.
PS. Matthieu Kassovitz’s father is pretty cute!
PPS. Her name is Nana Kleinfrankenheim – why the heck is the German title „Die Geschichte der Nana S.“?