Vivre sa Vie
September 22, 1940-December 14, 2019
Although Anna Karina had a career beyond Godard, much of what she embodied as an actor is concentrated in her collaborative works with him, beginning with
Le Petit Soldat (1960) that was released following
Une femme est une femme (1961). With
Vivre sa vie (1962) Karina became an icon of the French New Wave. The film is a modernist fallen-woman melodrama, and Karina’s ability to draw one into her character’s search for freedom in a society that oppresses women is central to the film. For example, the close-up of Nana’s tear-stained response to Dreyer’s Joan of Arc is more than a film reference; her authentic expression of empathy is breathtaking. Nana’s free-form dance around the pool table in the café, succinctly communicates the impulse and desire freedom so central to the character. Karina’s Nana embodies a strong sense of personal agency within a restrictive social world marked by a fatalism that overrules indi