# Vivre sa vie
**Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux** (released in English as *My Life to Live* or *Vivre sa vie*) is a 1962 French black-and-white drama directed by [Jean-Luc Godard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-luc-godard), told in twelve tableaux, about Nana, a young Parisian woman who leaves her partner, fails to build an acting career, and drifts into prostitution.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) It stars Godard's wife and muse [Anna Karina](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-karina), with Sady Rebbot, André S. Labarthe, and Guylaine Schlumberger, and won the Special Jury Prize at the 1962 [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival).[2](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/vivre-sa-vie/267679)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | Vivre sa vie: film en douze tableaux; English release title My Life to Live[3](https://www.search-criteria.com/films/3009?from=double_feature) |
| Director and writer | Jean-Luc Godard; produced by Pierre Braunberger for Les Films de la Pléiade[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html) |
| Cast | Anna Karina (Nana), Sady Rebbot (Raoul), André S. Labarthe (Paul), Guylaine Schlumberger (Yvette), Brice Parain (the philosopher)[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vivre-sa-vie) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Raoul Coutard; music Michel Legrand and Jean Ferrat; editing Agnès Guillemot[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html) |
| French release | 20 September 1962; CNC-registered length 80 min (2,270 m)[6](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=25982) |
| Awards | Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival 1962[2](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/vivre-sa-vie/267679) |
| Standing | Ranked =157 in the Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll of the greatest films[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) |
## Spoilers
### Story and structure
The film follows Nana, a shopgirl in a Paris record store who aspires to be an actress. After breaking with Paul, she struggles to make her rent; short 2,000 francs, she is expelled from her apartment and sells herself for the first time. She falls under the control of the pimp Raoul, meets a man in love with her and then a philosopher, and dies by a stray bullet at the moment Raoul is trading her for money.[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html) • [7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Vivre_sa_vie/10629)
**Twelve tableaux.** The story is divided into twelve episodes, each announced by a silent title card in the manner of chapter headings in classic novels; the cards also comment on the characters, as when the card before Nana's jukebox dance tells the viewer she is wondering whether she is really happy.[8](https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jasmijn-van-houten/2016/04/26/sound-in-vivre-sa-vie/) Time Out describes the twelve tableaux as Brechtian, moving from a documentary treatment of prostitution to a stylized gangster ending, with the gangster elements functioning as a distancing device.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vivre-sa-vie) [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker)'s Richard Brody, a film critic, traces the tableau-like structure loosely to "The Threepenny Opera" and notes that Godard built the film mainly as a series of poised, artful long takes that frame Karina's performance.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/vivre-sa-vie)
## Production and style
Godard shot the film in black and white with his regular cinematographer Raoul Coutard. The BFI highlights one of Coutard's most celebrated shots, showing Nana and a customer in the record store before the camera turns to look out of the window.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) The score is by [Michel Legrand](https://www.edgepedia.org/michel-legrand), with [Jean Ferrat](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-ferrat) also credited as composer, and the editing is by Agnès Guillemot.[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html) The soundtrack is deliberately unpolished in places; in the opening café scene some dialogue is nearly lost in the background noise of the room, and the musical motif fades in and cuts off abruptly rather than running continuously.[8](https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jasmijn-van-houten/2016/04/26/sound-in-vivre-sa-vie/)
The film borrows the aesthetics of cinéma vérité documentary, an approach fashionable at the time, and its long takes and frontal framing give what the Larousse film dictionary calls a totally exterior approach to Nana that lets the viewer grasp her interior.[10](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-vivre-sa-vie-1962-online) • [7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Vivre_sa_vie/10629)
## Godard and Karina
Vivre sa vie was made as a vehicle for Anna Karina, Godard's wife at the time, and it is the third of the seven features they made together.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/vivre-sa-vie) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) The BFI calls it the high point of their collaboration and of their short-lived marriage, a paean to the actress's beauty that links her to the silent-era stars [Louise Brooks](https://www.edgepedia.org/louise-brooks), whose bobbed haircut Nana shares, and Maria Falconetti; in one of the film's most striking sequences a tearful Nana watches Falconetti in Carl Dreyer's *The Passion of Joan of Arc* (1928).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) Time Out reports that Godard later described the film as the first stage in the dissolution of the marriage, with the director-star relationship mirrored in the film's client-prostitute dynamic.[5](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vivre-sa-vie)
## Release and reception
The film opened in Italy on 28 August 1962 and in France on 20 September 1962, followed by releases in [West Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-germany), the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, and Denmark over the following year.[11](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401072/) At Venice it won the Special Jury Prize, Godard's first major recognition at that festival, two years after the international success of *Breathless*.[2](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/vivre-sa-vie/267679) • [12](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/vivre-sa-vie/)
Its critical standing has held up. In the 2022 Sight & Sound greatest-films critics' poll it was ranked joint 157th, with votes from critics including James Schamus and Ariel Schweitzer and from directors including [Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson) and [Béla Tarr](https://www.edgepedia.org/bela-tarr).[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie) The Criterion Collection released it on home video as spine number 512, and on [Letterboxd](https://www.edgepedia.org/letterboxd) it holds a rating of 4.01 out of 5 from about 148,100 users.[3](https://www.search-criteria.com/films/3009?from=double_feature) The Larousse dictionary calls it Godard's first fully accomplished film.[7](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Vivre_sa_vie/10629)
## Place in Godard's work
The film is widely treated as a turning point in Godard's career. Eye Filmmuseum describes it as such and notes that it has reached the status of a classic.[2](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/vivre-sa-vie/267679) [Prostitution](https://www.edgepedia.org/prostitution) as a subject, which Godard saw as a crystallization of the relations between the individual and consumer society, recurs in his later films *Masculin féminin* (1966), *Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle* (1966), *[La Chinoise](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-chinoise)* (1967), and *Sauve qui peut (la vie)* (1979).[13](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D68681.html) A restored digital version, repaired by Les Films de la Pléiade with Les Films du Jeudi and the support of the CNC, circulates for theatrical and home viewing.[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html)
## References
1. [Vivre sa vie (1962), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/3491247e-1c8f-5442-a087-1b31bc8ebba6/vivre-sa-vie)
2. [Vivre sa vie, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/vivre-sa-vie/267679)
3. [Vivre sa vie (1962), Criterion Collection listing, search-criteria.com](https://www.search-criteria.com/films/3009?from=double_feature)
4. [Vivre sa vie (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962), La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/48873.html)
5. [Vivre sa Vie, directed by Jean-Luc Godard, Time Out film review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/vivre-sa-vie)
6. [Visas et Classification, visa n° 25982, CNC](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=25982)
7. [Vivre sa vie, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/Vivre_sa_vie/10629)
8. [Sound in Vivre Sa Vie, Jasmijn van Houten, RMIT Media & Communication](https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jasmijn-van-houten/2016/04/26/sound-in-vivre-sa-vie/)
9. [Vivre Sa Vie, Richard Brody, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/vivre-sa-vie)
10. [Watch Vivre sa vie online, BFI Player](https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-vivre-sa-vie-1962-online)
11. [Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/401072/)
12. [Vivre sa vie, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/vivre-sa-vie/)
13. [Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962), AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D68681.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license