My Life to Live

My Life to Live
by Jean-Luc Godard

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DVD Reviews of My Life to Live

DVD Review: "After all, things are what they are."
Summary: 5 Stars

"My Life to Live" is part crime drama, part B-movie, but, most of all, the story of a young Parisian woman's descent into prostitution and existential trauma. It offers little or no overt explanation for events or for the choices and actions made by its characters. It proceeds largely through dialogue. And it features the kinds of jump cuts and self-referential awareness common to this style of cinema (not to mention the references to other sources of culture, including a shot of a movie theater playing Francois Truffaut's "Jules and Jim," another exponent of the French New Wave). Viewers raised on Hollywood movies who have not had much exposure to this style of filmmaking will find "My Life to Live" difficult and, to an extent, somewhat unsatisfying, only because it does not conform to American narrative or cinematic conventions. It is both formally groundbreaking in its visual style and unique in its narrative structure.

That narrative structure is based upon twelve tableaux, each with its own chapter reference. If Godard had admitted that this was to make the film more understandable, it was also to give it a pseudo-documentary feel. In that sense, "My Life to Live" blends reality and fiction, film drama and documentary, into a cohesive experience. The camera embodies Godard's approach. Its movement means several things at one time: a visual language that defied the standards of traditional film photography (watch how Godard films conversatins in "My Life to Live"); a sense of documentary, as if Godard was portraying a non-fictional account of a woman's descent into prostitution in post-war Paris; and a technique in which it seems that the camera is always aware of what it is doing.

And what is the camera doing? Most of all, it is obsessed with its protagonist, Nana, played by the chic, mesmerizing Anna Karina, who was Godard's wife at the time. "My Life to Live" is as much a study of her as it is of its fictional subject. Godard's camera lingers on her face, producing some of the most staggeringly beautiful moments in cinematic history and also allowing Karina's outward image to tell exactly what she is experiencing internally. In one of the film's most celebrated passages, Karina's face, eyes wide open and full of tears, fills up the entire screen as she watches Carl Dreyer's equally groundbreaking silent film "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Karina's close-up replaces Maria Falconetti's and becomes just as enigmatic.

"My Life to Live" is a film of multiple artistic merits, one of Godard's finest achievements, and an emblem of the French New Wave. Serious film buffs should not be without it.

Now, a few words about the DVD. Fox Lorber is notorious for producing poor digitial transfers of their films, and "My Life to Live" is no exception. The transfer is actually better than most of their products and is quite passable, with some noticeable image spoilation here and there and with a relatively mediocre audio track. Having said that, most viewers should not have too much of an issue with this disc's quality. The aspect ratio is 1.33:1, the same as a standard television screen, so this looks like a pan and scan version. I do not know if this is the same aspect ratio of the original theatrical print, but if you are expecting widescreen, you won't get it here (although this should not preclude viewers from purchasing this fantastic film).

(And, last but not least, a somewhat related jibe: if you are coming to Godard because you are a Quentin Tarantino fan, you will find that many of the ideas and techniques Tarantino employed in "Pulp Fiction" were lifted right out of this film, in addition to others by Godard. Seeing both, you will realize that Tarantino really isn't that original after all and that Godard was far superior.)

Description of My Life to Live