Jean-Luc Godard - Vivre sa vie (1962), 8/10

Vivre sa vie reveals its brilliance with time and attention. Godard’s forward-thinking approach to filmmaking and visual storytelling is immediately unique and tells a worthwhile story in creative ways. It is self-aware of this uniqueness but transcends pretension through genuinely ingenious style and a grounded story. The narrative shell of the film is less engaging than the picture itself but provides ample substance, along with an utterly engaging muse, to avoid detracting from its cinematography and philosophical reflections. The believability of Nana’s story and the way her character unfolds complements the style in presentation, and this becomes substantially clearer when returning to the film a second or third time. While some of the dialogue itself is forced, particularly in its second half, this is an exception that becomes permissible in conjunction with the questions being asked by the picture. Particularly the recitation of Poe’s “The Oval Portrait” feels misguided, yet Nana’s dialogue in the café with the philosopher and her breaking of the fourth wall should crowd the narrative but instead feel utterly natural and pointed. Perhaps this is a combination of Karina’s strength in performance and Godard’s already established subversion of visual tradition, but it elevates an already thoroughly engaging picture. The experimentation with perspective and framing in conjunction with a particularly strong screenplay make Vivre sa vie one of the strongest iterations of French cinema.