Vivre sa vie (Braunberger & Godard, 1962) is Godard’s third feature film. It was produced in 1962, which is also the time when existentialism prevailed in Europe after World War II. Existentialism is a philosophy brought up by German philosopher Martin Heidegger and developed by French writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who also established its major principle “Existence precedes essence” (Wu, 2019). According to Xi (2019), Sartre thinks that the essence of human beings is the product formed by people’s independent creation. The existentialist thought was introduced through literary works and has influenced many writers and artists at that time (Smith, 2019). In terms of the film industry, some of the French New Wave films were also deeply influenced by Sartre’s existentialist thought, and Godard as one of the leading directors of the film movement was also to an extent affected (Wu, 2019). The film Vivre sa vie has reflected the philosophical thought of existentialism in the creation of the overall style and the protagonist Nana. By combining with some ideas of existentialism, one can better understand the motivation of Nana and the narrative style of Godard.
Two points emphasized by Sartre’s existentialism is freedom and responsibility. The existentialists believe that a person has complete freedom to choose and become what he wills himself to become (Smith, 2019). This is also what Nana, the young French woman believes and pursues in her life, just as the confident statement she makes to her friend Yvette in the cafe after hearing her complains about her unhappy marriage and how she ended up in prostitution. She says: “We’re always responsible for our actions. We’re free. I raise my hand, I’m responsible… Everything is good. You only have to take an interest in things…” (Sterritt, 1999). Nana thinks that we are free to choose everything in life, we are free to choose where we go, what job we take, and who we stay with… and she tries to exercise her freedom throughout the film: we see Nana leaves her husband, works at a record shop at first and then becomes a prostitute, kisses a man who performs a comedy for her and talks to a philosopher near her coffee table. It seems like everything she does is shown without a specific reason, and there is a lack of cause in Nana’s motivation. For example, we are given no clues about how Nana steps into the path of prostitution. Unlike Yvette, Nana does not have much of a worry about being a prostitute, in her tone, she chose to be a prostitute because she is free to, for her, it is just a job, and she just happens to be interested in it. She might be making excuses for her failed life, but we do see a girl who seems to be acting on a whim and instinct all the time, and she values her freedom over her responsibility. She says: “I forget I’ m responsible, but I am.” She chooses to be a prostitute but refuses to kiss her client on the mouth, and in the end, she protests to Raoul, her pimp, that it is degrading to receive all those who pay. She does not follow the rules of the industry, in other words, she forgets the “responsibility” of a prostitute, and the statement she made turns out foreshadows her tragic end.
The existence in existentialism is first of all “self” existence, if I do not exist, then everything does not exist (He, 2006). Sartre believes in absolute freedom and individuality and emphasizes that human consciousness is governed by forces inside oneself (Liu, 2010). The existentialists value the independence and uniqueness of individuals. In Vivre sa vie, Nana cares about whether others think she is someone special. She thinks her ex-husband loves her but does not think she is unique, and she asks Raoul if he places her in a special category of women. Nana considers herself a unique person and wants to be an actress rather than work in a record store, and the film also makes her special in the eyes of the audience. Cannon (1996) argues that throughout the film, Nana is created as an object to whom things happen rather than as a conscious subject, which is the opposite of what I feel, and I cannot agree with him. Nana is not a spectator or a receiver of things, on the contrary, she is so active and unpredictable that forces us into knowing more about her. For example, we see her describing her height when writing a cover letter in a bistro, then suddenly stands up and measures herself from feet to head with her hand. This movement still surprises me with her audacity and spontaneity even when I already know that she is a free-spirit person. Also, when she is questioned by a police officer in the fourth tableau, we see the close-up of Nana’s face and our focus is still on her story rather than the interrogation. Moreover, occasionally she breaks through the fourth wall and looks at the camera, without warning and almost surreptitiously. The impact of it on the audience is huge. It is like we are peeping at her all the time, and she suddenly spots us, and displays her pure, fragile, and lost soul to us without any disguise.
Just like the “bird essay” her ex-husband tells her, Nana also has an outside and an inside. Remove the outside, there’s inside. Remove the inside, you see her soul. On the screen, she is something we examine carefully, and her unique personality makes us eager to dig deeper into her. As Conley and Kline (2014) state, the shot of Nana playing a pinball machine is rich with a desire to know something of the soul of her, even while we remain outside.
Nana creates her essence through her choices, and we give the film its essence according to Nana’s choices and results. As Bazin, another leader of the New Wave movement, once said, each influence in a film seems to be just a fragment of reality, its existence precedes its content (Wu, 2019). This is also what Godard usually does in his films, he takes pieces that are not very story-telling and connects them to make the audience think. In terms of Vivre sa vie, he gives us the “reality” fragments of Nana’s life and let the audience give its essence, and let our thoughts make the fragments into a meaningful picture.
Reference List:
Braunberger, P. (Producer), & Godard, J. (Director). (1962). Vivre sa vie [Motion Picture]. France: Panthéon Distribution.
Cannon, S. (1996). “Not a mere question of form”: the hybrid realism of Godard’s “Vivre sa vie.” (analysis of 1962 film by Jean-Luc Godard) (100 Years of French Cinema). French Cultural Studies, 21, 283.
Conley, T., & Kline, T. J. (2014).A companion to Jean-Luc Godard. Wiley Blackwell.
He, S. (2006). 世界的荒谬与个人的孤独——浅析存在主义文学观. 成都电子机械高等专科学校学报 / JOURNAL OF CHENGDU ELECTROMECHANICAL COLLEGE, 4, 97–100. 10.3969/j.issn.1008-5440.2006.04.026
Liu, Y. (2010). 个人自由的追寻——论《法国中尉的女人》一书存在主义自由的主题构建.
Sterritt, D. (1999). The Films of Jean-Luc Godard: Seeing the Invisible.
Smith, T. (2019). Existentialism. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Wu, W. (2019). 荒谬·孤独·抗争——李沧东《燃烧》中的存在主义. 艺术评鉴 / Time and Space in Music,2, 150–146.
Xi, Y. (2019). 从自由到责任——浅析萨特存在主义哲学. 今传媒（学术版） / Today’s Mass Media, 5, 28–30. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1672-8122.2019.05.011
