Vivre sa vie
1962 film by Jean-Luc Godard
Vivre sa vie (French: Vivre sa vie : film en douze tableaux, lit. 'To Live Her Life: A Film in Twelve Scenes', pronounced [vivʁ(ə) sa vi]) is a 1962 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film was released in the United States as My Life to Live and in the United Kingdom as It's My Life. It was met with critical acclaim for Anna Karina's performance and Godard's direction. It has been regarded it as one of Godard's best films and one of the greatest films of all time.
Plot
The film is divided into 12 "episodes", each preceded by an intertitle.
Nana Kleinfrankenheim, a beautiful 22-year-old Parisian, leaves her husband Paul and her infant son, hoping to become an actress. The couple meet in a café and play pinball one last time before deciding to end their marriage. Now working in a record store, Nana struggles to earn enough money on her own. She tries to borrow 2,000 francs from several co-workers, but they all refuse. To make matters worse, Nana's landlady throws her out of her apartment for not paying rent.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Vivre sa vie” is 1962 film by Jean-Luc Godard. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Vivre, film and Jean-Luc, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1962 film by Jean-Luc Godard” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1148491. The Library of Congress control number is no2008003101. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Vivre sa vie”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Vivre sa vie primary sources, Vivre sa vie archive and Vivre research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Vivre sa vie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.