Starring Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot. Written and directed by Jean-Luc
Godard. 85 min. July 20-22 at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor W).
Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman puts a song on the jukebox and shimmies through the diner? Quentin Tarantino filched it out of Vivre Sa Vie. But seeing as Jean-Luc Godard himself quoted liberally from Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc elsewhere in his story of a young Parisian prostitute, it’s not like there wasn’t a precedent for Quentin’s homage.
Godard’s cinephilia is just as evident here as it was in Breathless two years and three films earlier, but Vivre Sa Vie — screened in a limited run at the Bloor in a brand-new 35mm print — is the first of his masterpieces to contain a beating heart. Though the heroine, Nana, may play at being callous, it’s easy to see through her façade thanks to Anna Karina’s beautifully nuanced performance and the genuine sensitivity Godard displays for Nana’s worsening lot. The relatively warm emotional temperature stands in compelling contrast with the coolly stylish views of early-’60s Paris and the precise division of this quotidian tragedy into 12 disconnected tableaux. Godard’s movie still feels so vital, you’ll wish it were imitated more often.