Vivre Sa Vie

• How can the French New Waves encouragement to think not feel be found in Vivre Sa Vie (3) - By only seeing Nana and Pauls back at the start - As nana writes the letter we are forced to watch her write in real time so we can process it - Dissatisfactory ending with ;lack of exposition throughout, a goal is established at the start, yet nana doesnt achieve, not fights to achieve the goal by the end
• How does the French New Waves distancing from the audience apply to Vivre Sa Vie - Death of Nana we dont see her face or receive a close up, she simply falls to the floor with little emotion , so we dont empathise with the character
• How do French New wave films foreground film techniques (4) - We watch nana watching the passion of Joan of arc by Dreyer in tableaux 3 , reminding us we are watching a film, nana also develops an emotional attachment to the film - Breaking the fourth wall - Fragmented audio and muting - Title cards
• How does the French New Wave characteristic of fragmenting the narrative with devices that disrupt the flow apply to Vivre Sa Vie (2) - Discontinuity editing - Use of 12 tableaux's giving the film an almost documentary style
• Describe technology in terms of vivre sa vie - Despite Cheaper, lightweight cameras like the Arriflex allowing directors to move out of the studio by 1962, godard chose to use heavier, but still portable, mitchell cameras, and to use more expensive film stock, which forced godard to more accuratley plan each of his sequences
• How is the representation of Prostitution glamorised in Vivre Sa Vie (2) (tableaux 8) - Casting Anna Karina for the role (beautiful) - Although Tableaux 8 a list of the poor reality and facts about prostitution is narrated followed by a montage of Nana's discomfort with clients
• How does the film challenge how we interpret the world (2) - In some scenes we cannot see the characters faces, hence we cannot connect their emotions with what they are saying - Spectator is forced to experience the dissassociation of image from dialogue
• Titles and Tableaux One: Cinematography (4) - Mid-shots of the back of Nana and her husband defying film conventions in terms of shooting a conversation - Godard is trying to hide the story - Shots are framed to restrict the sight of Nana's face implying she can never be truely knowable (like in the film) - Shots of her staring at the camera in the title sequence are unconfortably intimate - Whole of Tableaux one is really just two shots
• Titles and Tableaux One: Mise-En-Scene (2) - Mirror above the counter gives spectator a glimpse of Nana's face - forces spectator to grasp onto this look - After the opening we can see her full face in detail allowing audience to develop a connection, but keeping us distant at the same time
• Titles and Tableaux One: Editing (2) - Godard praised editing in US films in Cahiers yet this sequence adopts the complete opposite style - Shot reverse shots dispersed between long takes - avoids fast paced editing depsite praising Hollywood for continuity editing and how it creates emotion, he is not trying to create emotion so does the opposite
• Titles and Tableaux One: Sound (2) - Dialogue introduces the films theme - Nana repeatedly states 'What do you care' presenting a conflict between her and her husban, later the philosphical quote 'the more we talk the less words mean' echoes how nana's words may be meaningless at this stage
• Nana Dances Sequence: Cinematogaphy (3) - Floating Camera becomes more mobile as nana dances around the pool table almost as if the audience is released from the restictive nature of the film - draws influence from the american style musical - Use of POV shots emphasises her freedom which is later broken by the mid shot of her smoking against the wall - The final shot in the pool hall of nana embracing the pole acts as a visual metaphor for her position in reality, a prostitute
• Nana Dances Sequence: Mise-En-Scene (2) - Pool Hall and Jukeboxes are popular american commodities, Godard wanted to pay homage to hollywood film and how americanisation of culture is infiltrating paris - In 'A bout de Souflle' michels hero is humphrey bogart so he explores this a lot
• Nana Dances Sequence: Editing (2) - One of the most energetic scenes developed through the editing - The cut to the POV shot of nana as she is genuinely enjoying herself is juxtaposed by the next scene where Nana is back outside and smoking against a flat wall reminding audience of her position in society
• Nana Dances Sequence: Sound (1) - An example of Godard's auterial signatures is the narrative and sound pausing In this case it allows the character to indulge in a dance routine, inspiring many directors now adays like Tarantino
• Cinematography in the closing sequence (4) - Use of unusual framing, we only see the tops of raols head just before nana goes to hug him - hence godard is making us active spectators through reminding us of the process of filmmaking through nonconventional framing - Use of handheld camera defies classicist conventional cinema by providing a documentary style element - In the lead up to nana being shot godard uses a single take with camera panning instead of using hollywood style quick cuts to build emotion - hence no intensity is developed, and we dont emotionally attatch to nana, and we are n...
• Mise-En-Scene in the closing sequence - Use of on location shooting, a classic french new wave aesthetic
• Editing in the closing sequence (2) - When nana hugs raoul we see a sequence of jump cuts and overlapping editing replaying the hug over again suggestive of how nana is rethinking what she is about to do (telling raol she doesnt want to be his prostitute anymore), she is later killed through this decision - this makes us think about why she is killed, but not attatching us emotively to the sequence - After nana tells raoul she doesnt want to be his prostitute godard does dip into classicist editing elements using a fade to black connoting the passing of time
• Sound in the closing sequence - Jarring use of sound with the non-diagetuc soundtrack frequently fragmented rmeinding the audience consistently to disassociate thei feelings from the film by making us aware of an edit
• Describe the style of french new wave films in terms of the contexts of vicre sa vie (4) - Emerged from a group of critics from cahiers who wanted to oppose cinema du papa which left them uninspired - French new wave films encourage spectators to think, not enjoy and aims to distance the spectator from the film - French new wave films foreground film form and make the audience aware they are watching a film - French new wave films fragment the narrative with devices that disrupt the flow, like discontinuity editing and breaking the fourth wall, as well as leaving in those 'before the action c...
• Describe Jean Luc Godard and french new wave films in terms of the french new wave as a context for vivre sa vie (2) - Started his career as a cahier du cinema critic and used knowledge from being a critic to challenge the cinematic establishment and purposefully employ what mainstream cinema considere mistakes, like jump cuts, unstructured narrative with lack of exposition and breaking the fourth wall - Vivre sa vie is godards almost melodrama, the first film in which he deliberatley used brechtain narrative techniques to emotionally distnace the spectator from the protagonists journey
• Describe Godards Auterial techniques (Specialist study area) (6) - Blurring fact and fiction - Fragmenting techniques - Brechtian techniques of alienation - Modernist references and encouraging philosphical thought - Latest technology - Musical sequences
• Describe how godard blurs fact and fiction in terms of godards auterial techniques (2) - Anna karina stars in roles playing out scenes based on their rocky marriage - The use of the Poe's oval portrait in the final tableaux as nana and the man from the pool room are now lovers, with godard voicing over an extract from the book acts as an allegory to their relationship as the book describes an artist so in love with the intensity of his wifes beauty that he ends up killing her
• Describe Modernist style in terms of godards auterial techniques - Experiments with film form, like the tableaux structure and intertextual references, foregrounding film form, with frequent breaks in the fourth wall and leaving in elements that would traditionally be cut out, like the actress pausing before action, suggesting godard opts for a self reflexive style
• Describe use of latest technology in terms of godards auterial techniques - One of the first films to have full onlocation sound recording and full handheld camera
• Describe godards use of narrative formalism (2) - Godard challenges conventional narratives through brechtian techniques of alienation - Optimises a meandering elliptical story with a lack of exposition, a goal is set out at the start, but nana niether achieves or frequently pursues this goal to become an actress
• Describe the use of brechtian techniques to challenge narrative conventions in terms of the narrative in vivre sa vie (3) - Brecht sought to show everyday moments in the life of ordinary people - Deliberatley alienated audiences emotional engagement to threatre through the V effect, which made the audience very aware they were watching a play - Godard optimises a episodic tableaux structure, the film lacks exposition and we as the spectator are frequently distanced from the characters like in the closing sequence
• Cinematography in the tableaux three passion of joan of arc sequence - Lack of shot diversity, and lack of shot reverse shots as nana watches joan of arc foregrounds film form linking Dreyers Joan of Arc to Nana, forcing an active spectatorship
• Editing in the tableaux three passion of joan of arc sequence - Godards optimisation of intertitle cards, mirrors the use of intertitles in 1928 Dreyers passion of joan of arc which uses the cards to portray dialogue, godard on the otherhand uses them in a way to create a meandering and abstract narrative
• Sound in the tableaux three passion of joan of arc sequence (2) - Godard cuts all sound in the cinema sequence, this is abstract as even silent films like 1928 passion of joan of arc would of had some sound even if it came from within the cinema - This forces the spectator to focus on the proceedings by developing an abstract situation in which audio is disassociated with image encouraging an active spectatorship
• Performance in the tableaux three passion of joan of arc sequence - Nana appears emotional watching joan of arc, demonstrating a connection to film godard is trying to subvert, hence we are drawn into a position of judging nana's response and comparing it to our own in vivre sa vie
• Two elements of meaning and response in vivre sa vie - Representation and aesthetics
• Describe aesthetics in terms of meaning and response in vivre sa vie (3) - Conventions of close ups, mid-shots and shot reverse shots are continuously challenged - The film challenges the way we interpret the world by disassociating dialogue with image in some cases (like in the opening and tableaux 3) - Godard moved away from using the newer lightweight cameras and decided to use their heavier counterparts with more expensive filmstock, hence godard wanted each shot to be planned accuratley
• Describe the representation of gender in terms of meaning and response in vivre sa vie (2) - Glamorisation of prostitution by casting anna karina for the role, a traditionally beautiful woman, however this can be limited through how tableaux 8 lists the poor reality and facts surrounding prostitution followed by a montage of nana's discomfort - Reference to Joan of Arc combined with nana being forced into prostitution by being stricken by poverty forces the audience to empathise with nanas suffering, however godard repeatedly infers that nana is responsible for everything that has happened to ...
• Define experimental film (3) - Characterised by the absense of classical narrative structure, use of distracting techniques like foregrounding of film form, intertitles and fragmentation editing - It may be a micro or low budget film, often created by an auteur out of passion rather than profit - Draws attention to the medium of film and tends to be challenging towards mainstream, conventional beliefs
• Describe a film movement - A group of films that follow a similar style and structure, a group of directors who work together on different films for some type of purpose
• Cinematography in the interrogation sequence (Tableaux 4) (3) - Framing of the sequence makes it hard to place characters within the setting - The spectator for most of the sequence is position looking directly at nana, an unconventional way of shooting a conversation, nana proceeds to break the fourth wall multiple times inferring we are the ones interrogating and judging nana, referencing the philosphical messages in vivre sa vie - Distinct lack of fill light usage, a backlight is still used throughout the sequence, this shrouds nana in metaphorical secrecy and reinforces the idea that she c...