Vivre Sa Vie

"The many faces of a woman trying to find herself."

1962 1h 24m FR

🙌

7.7

BANGER

🔥

92%

CERTIFIED FRESH

⭐

7.8

IMDB

★7.7TMDB · 723🍅92%Rotten Tomatoes★7.8IMDB · 37,268

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

“The many faces of a woman trying to find herself.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Anna Karina
Nana Kleinfrankenheim
Sady Rebbot
Raoul
André S. Labarthe
Paul
Guylaine Schlumberger
Yvette
Gérard Hoffmann
Chef
Monique Messine
Elisabeth
Paul Pavel
Journalist
Dimitri Dineff
Dimitri

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Writers: Jean-Luc Godard
Languages: French
Countries: France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

84 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 38% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

64 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, shot by Raoul Coutard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michel Legrand. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jean-Luc Godard shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Anna Karina and Sady Rebbot and André S. Labarthe carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jean-Luc Godard directs. Raoul Coutard behind the camera. Michel Legrand scores. Jean-Luc Godard cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in France. Dialogue in French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

184 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Earned back only 38% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
464 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
5Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, shot by Raoul Coutard. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Michel Legrand. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Jean-Luc Godard shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Anna Karina and Sady Rebbot and André S. Labarthe carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The many faces of a woman trying to find herself.".
10IMDB entry: tt0056663 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 10 themes, including "prostitute", "paris, france", "philosophy", "pimp".
12Released under 41 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Original score: Michel Legrand
Editing: Jean-Luc Godard
Costume design: Christiane Fageol
Makeup / hair: Simone Knapp
Runtime: 84 min · 1h 24m
Status: Released
Budget: $64,000
Box office: $24,517
Return: 38% of budget
Original language: FR
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
Rotten Tomatoes: 92% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.8/10 · 37,268 votes
MPAA: Not Rated

Awards

3 wins & 1 nomination total

Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Jean-Luc Godard

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CRCulver2018-09-02
★ 9/10
<i>Vivre sa vie</i> was Jean-Luc Godard's fourth feature film. The protagonist Nana (Anna Karina) is a young Parisian woman who is not especially bright, but full of life and endowed with great beauty. Unable to make ends meet by working at a record shop, and unable to break into films as she dreams, she starts to work as a prostitute. Postwar French law permitted prostitution, with certain rules and regulations that the film explains in a documentary-like segment. Nana, who yearns to live her life according to her own desires, initially thinks that this new profession has set her free from cares. In fact, Nana's liberation from penury through prostitution only subjects her to new constraints imposed by her pimp and clientele. The film, divided into twelve tableaux with fade-to-black transitions that quicken as it goes on (which one commentator compares to breathing faster and faster) brings us to one of the most shocking endings I have ever seen. This is a superlative film. Clocking in at 85 minutes, it lasts exactly as long as its story demands, with not a single moment that feels superfluous. Everything fits together, perfectly even things that ought to seem extraneous, the overindulgence of the auteur. Early in the film Nana goes to see Carl Dreyer's 1928 silent film <i>La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc</i>, and this is not a mere gratuitous tribute to earlier cinema as is common in French New Wave films. Nana speaks with an elderly philosopher in a café, who is in fact the real-life philosopher Brice Parain whose dialogue here consists of his own writings, and yet this is not shallow intellectualism. Rather, these scenes increase the three-dimensionality of Nana as a character: not very intelligent and with negligible education, an easy woman since long before the film begins, but feeling strongly that there must be more out there. The believability of Nana as a character is increased all the more by Anna Karina's masterful performance. When coming to Godard's films, after the filmmaker has taken a beating from some circles, one might think that Karina was simply a beauty with no especial talent that enchanted the director due to her looks and foreign origin. Nope, the Danish actress here presents a completely believable Parisian airhead who is so easily moved by sentimental art.
badelf2022-10-11
★ 9/10
It's Jean-Luc Godard at the avant-garde of filmmaking. It's a brilliant film with so many new ideas for early the 60s. What else is there to say?