My Life to Live

Audience Reviews

View More

Dylan T @ThatGuyDylan Aug 27, 2026 What seems like the ur-example of the pretentious French film trope is also a voyeuristic glance into the life of a downtrodden, yet sentimental woman—that is both thoughtful and poignant. See more Alain E @AlainE Aug 2, 2025 It feels sacrilegious to grade so low a film that has entered the canon, but today in my opinion, its saving grace is Anna Karina’s beauty that dominates almost every frame. This is not a discourse on prostitution. Not every underpaid sales girl decides to turn tricks instead. The discussion on philosophy and so forth hardly feel profound today. Amongst this period of Godard I prefer Breathless and later on, Hail Mary. Voila! See more Will G @Wgoodeve Feb 22, 2025 A great French film. This is my favorite Jean Luc Godard film. It is about a woman in Paris who wanted to be an actress, but she becomes a Prostitute. Lots of great scenes of France. See more Ben D @RT87620530 Nov 2, 2022 This is the movie on which so many parodies of French cinema are based. It's a story about a disaffected young French woman (Anna Karina) who leaves her husband and infant son to pursue an acting career, but quickly realizes the difficulties inherent in her decision and resorts to prostitution on the Paris streets. Nana (Karina) at first works in a record store on the Champs-Élysées, always has a cigarette in her hand, went to watch The Passion of Joan of Arc in theaters, and always seems to have a shot of the Seine framing her profile in the background while she sits, woefully, on the edge of a boutique hotel bed — okay, maybe that last part was only one scene, but it was so perfectly Gallic that the only thing that would've made it more French would've been the "John" actually wanting to have the ménage a trois. Raoul (Saddy Rebbott) explaining the ins-and-outs of the business to Nana while scenes of her showcasing her experiences as a prostitute was the first time the film really grabbed my attention. I found it cumbersome to constantly be looking at the back of characters' heads while they talked to each other in cafes and bars. The ending, where Nana is suddenly shot and killed during a transaction gone wrong (Nana was the transaction, from one pimp to another) and "FIN" flashes on the screen, is the cherry on top of the French New Wave sundae. Vivre Sa Vie is definitely a must-see for a cinephile (or Francophile), as it is a bedrock for one of the most influential movements in cinematic history, but it lacks a certain je ne sais pas for the average viewer; I couldn't help but roll my eyes when our protag-prostitute begins discussing philosophy a propos of nothing with a stranger (Brice Parain) in a café. Oh, the French. See more william d @acsdoug Feb 27, 2022 Back in 1962 I suppose this was considered avant garde. For me, sixty years later, it was just boring. See more renaldo d @RT30888824 Dec 1, 2020 Godard, has a unique storytelling technique, although he considers his way of representing his scenes to be radical, this is one of the best films he made See more Read all reviews

My Life to Live

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING