S3E11.5: Vivre sa vie
Added 2024-01-25 15:34:37 +0000 UTCThis week, November brings us a movie that means an immense amount to her in another installment of the Cerebral Hour- Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave masterpiece, Vivre sa vie! A young woman feels her life is not going in the direction she wishes, and tries to take control of it.
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Comments
I think part of Nana’s whole thing about wanting language to be precise, comes from watching movies and seeing the things she feels, articulated *better* than she feels able to express by herself. As an autistic woman who’s recently developed a special interest in romance novels, I can relate to the frustration of having to vaguely muddle through things socially, bc neither you nor the other person has bothered to organize your messy feelings into a form intelligible to others- the way films and books are made deliberately intelligible to the reader. However, it’s important to note that only part of that is a communication issue- the other half is that real people often don’t HAVE easily intelligible or resolvable feelings, the way fictional characters would.
Sophia ocker
2025-11-02 05:21:47 +0000 UTCSomething that I'm getting hung up on is that even though Godard is making a film with a deeply sympathetic portrayal of women and women's suffering at the hands of men in a patriarchal society, by the very nature of being a male director making a film about women he himself is participating in this exploitation and harm being done to women. When the conversation got to the topic of the Poe poem and the painter becoming so enamored with the portrayal of his wife at the expense of her neglect and how this is Godard jerking himself off about how he's doing the same thing, I'm just thinking "dude, you already know that you are doing something harmful and are sabotaging your marriage by obsessing over the image of your wife rather than your wife herself as a person, just stop", and I think that demonstrates a lot of how this film misses the mark. Godard as a filmmaker is more interested in the image and the idea of women and their suffering than he is the actual women and suffering. He is disconnected from the reality of the situation, and as an artist participates in the control and exploitation of women, even if they are fictional. Something that I've often thought about is that an author is entirely responsible for the suffering they put their characters through, and that if it wasn't for them wanting to tell an interesting story or explore these ideas which would lead to the characters suffering, then they wouldn't suffer. So essentially, Godard has taken the place of the patriarchal system, reproducing it in film form as the director, and subjecting Nana to this. Even if the film is sympathetic to Nana, Godard is ultimately at fault for her misery, and my extension us the audience. He could have given her a happy ending, but he thought it more fitting that the woman died as a victim and a failure to communicate his male ideas. I feel like a woman director would have let her live.
NowhereMan661
2025-05-05 01:23:52 +0000 UTCI’m a little late to comment here but what does Abbi say around 34:12 “all that shit that wasn’t as good as *what?*”
John Wayne
2024-06-14 19:05:14 +0000 UTCI kid, of course, Alphaville is among my favorites, I hold a special place in my heart for Contempt for stereotypically lesbian reasons...
The MILF Formerly Known as Tzippi
2024-02-14 12:46:53 +0000 UTCAh, Godard... the ur-example of why critics should on no account be allowed to make movies.
The MILF Formerly Known as Tzippi
2024-02-14 12:43:50 +0000 UTCHave you considered watching ’The Villainess’? An absolute banger of an action film with women assassins and EXCELLENT cinematography and fight scenes, Shin Hakyun really brings his A game
Tako
2024-01-31 10:45:26 +0000 UTCIt’s been really depressing with all the anti trans stuff happening in the world and locally, and Abi’s rant on the difference between going quietly into the night versus raging against the dying of the light helped me immensely.
Adria Reed
2024-01-29 18:32:59 +0000 UTCI don’t know if this is an idea from philosophy or an Abi original, but when she said “if the universe is trying to kill you then it’s an act of self defense to destroy the universe” I screamed. I was driving home from work and this line fucking stun locked me.
Adria Reed
2024-01-29 18:31:57 +0000 UTC
