Vivre sa vie

Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
The Karina-Godard couple has been publicised a lot at this time and the buzz around the Nouvelle Vague was still echoing in 1963. Their relationship was very hazardous and they loved/hated each other so much it made their collaborations tough to deal but always pushed them to be at the top of their "game".

Vivre sa vie is a film that besides being very dark in its essence, is very sad. The way the film is shot, it tells fifteen facts about the life of a young woman who chose to become a prostitute to survive. Her life is ponstuated by the men she encounters and how she chose to live her life. And the end it wasn't her life anymore. Sold by a pimp to make a little profit on a simple whore. The sadness of Vivre sa vie is very heavy but never too much, the cinematography is touching and takes all the depth needed for the story. Karina's performance is one of her best ever not only in a Godard film but in her entire career. She is no longer the little girl in the body of a teenager but she is a little girl in the body of a woman. We can feel her strenght but also how fragile she is inside.

Discovering Godard's films is like discovering cinephilia: when you see one film you want to see ten new ones. You get excited by what you've just seen and you want to see what else this director could have offered. For Godard's films you feel like you'll never see them all, he has made so much cult and respected films that it's like he lived more than one life!