Livet skal leves
I guess
Godard and I will never really be friends. And if we do, it will not be through
“Vivre sa vie” (“My Life to Live”).
“Vivre sa
Vie” is a movie about a girl, Nana (Anna Karina), who works in a record store in
Paris and owes some money. She meets a pimp who sets her up as a prostitute and
later she gets killed when the pimp tries to sell her to some other pimp. In between
she watches movies (Jeanne d’Arc), listens to poetry and talk with a
philosopher.
That is
about it.
Oh, and the
presentation is as twelve small stories, almost vignettes, which sometimes,
sometimes not, fit chronologically together.
The story
is so thin and apparently pointless that there must be a deeper story behind.
Especially with the references to Dreyer, Poe and the philosopher dude.
However, I am obviously too stupid to get that story. Or maybe this movie was
just too boring for me to care to find the deeper meaning. The Book describe it
as a masterpiece so, clearly, I am way off-track.
Frankly I
have little more to say about the movie. As usual it is nice going around in
Paris in 1962 and see what it looked like and then of course there is Anna
Karina herself.
Anna Karina
is a bit of a discovery. She was, it appears, a famous actress in the sixties
and seventies and an accomplished singer as well, but I do not recall having encountered
her before, except for an early review of “Alphaville”. This is quite
surprising because she happens to be Danish, originally called Hanne Karin
Blarke Bayer, and we tend to take credit for any success achieved by anybody
with the most tenuous connection to Denmark. Alas, in Denmark she is
practically unknown. Or maybe I am just too young.
She does
have a captivating appearance and she is the one thing that makes this movie
bearable. Likely I am going to see her a lot more because she was used by
Godard as Sternberg used Dietrich and the List just loooves Godard…
If anybody
has a clue what this movie is actually about, do drop me a line.
No clue here. I think it's just an empty exercise in style personally. At least we get to look at Karina.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're about to finish with 1962. I've got a week or two to go myself.
An exercise in style, yes, I can agree to that.
ReplyDeleteI just have one more movie to go and then I am done with 62. This year has taken longer than usual. 63 looks like a lot of experimental movies. I am not sure I am looking forward to that.
I have some off-list recommendations if you are tempted to go that route again.
ReplyDeletePlease. The three off-list movies I included for 1962 were all excellent. What do you suggest?
DeleteThe big miss for the List in 1963 is Kurosawa's High and Low. The other two are British films: Billy Liar and This Sporting Life. The protagonist is pretty unlikeable in This Sporting Life but it's some of the best acting you will ever see. On the science fiction front, Day of the Triffids is listed by IMDb as a 1963 film and I think you will love it.
ReplyDeleteSounds super interesting. I think the Kurosawa movie and the Triffids moovie could be good additions. I will have to look up the British films an see what they are about. Thank, Bea.
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