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