Vivre sa vie

Vivre sa vie : film en douze tableaux is a 1962 French film directed by  Jean-Luc Godard. The title means "To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes", but in the English-speaking world it was released as  My Life to Live (North America) or as  It's My Life (UK). The most recent DVD releases use the original French title.

Plot
The film stars Anna Karina, as Nana, a beautiful Parisian in her early twenties who deliberately leaves her husband and her infant son hoping to become an actress. Without money, beyond what she earns as a shopgirl, and unable to enter acting, she elects to earn better money as a prostitiute. Soon she has a pimp, Raoul, who after an unspecified period agrees to sell Nana to another pimp. During the exchange the pimps argue and in a gun battle Nana is killed. Nana's short life on film is told in 12 brief episodes each preceded by a written resume. Godard introduces other idiosyncrasies to focus the viewer's attention.

The twelve tableaux
The divisions of this film are displayed as intertitles on the screen. These are:


 * Tableau one: A bistro - Nana wants to leave Paul - Pinball
 * Tableau two: The record shop - 2000 francs - Nana lives her life
 * Tableau three: The concierge - The passion of Joan of Arc - a journalist
 * Tableau four: The police - Nana is questioned
 * Tableau five: The outer boulevards - the first man - the hotel room
 * Tableau six: Yvette - a café in the suburbs - Raoul - machine gun fire
 * Tableau seven: The letter - Raoul again - the Champs Élysées
 * Tableau eight: Afternoons - money - wash-basins - pleasure - hotels
 * Tableau nine: A young man - Nana wonders if she's happy
 * Tableau ten: The sidewalk - a man - there's no gaiety in happiness
 * Tableau eleven: Place de Chatelet - the stranger - Nana the unwitting philosopher
 * Tableau twelve: The young man again - the oval portrait - Raoul sells Nana

[edit] Cast

 * Anna Karina as Nana Kleinfrankenheim
 * Sady Rebbot as Raoul (as Saddy Rebbot)
 * André S. Labarthe as Paul
 * Guylaine Schlumberger as Yvette (as G. Schlumberger)
 * Gérard Hoffman as Le chef
 * Monique Messine as Elisabeth
 * Paul Pavel as Journaliste
 * Dimitri Dineff as Dimitri
 * Peter Kassovitz as Le jeune homme
 * Eric Schlumberger as Luigi (as E. Schlumberger)
 * Brice Parain as Le philosophe
 * Henri Attal as Arthur (as Henri Atal)
 * Gilles Quéant as Premier client
 * Odile Geoffroy as La serveuse de café
 * Marcel Charton as L'agent de police