Vivre sa vie

[MichaelB]

A classic of French new wave cinema, Vivre sa vie has been described as “a perfect film” by Susan Sontag and “astonishing” by fellow critic Roger Ebert. Director Jean-Luc Godard’s critically-acclaimed drama tells the story of Nana (Anna Karina), a young Parisian woman who works in a record shop but finds herself disillusioned by poverty and a rapidly failing marriage. Available on DVD and presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

[rockysds]

Special features:

Newly remastered High Definition presentation
British theatrical release version: alternative presentation incorporating English language intertitles
Audio commentary by Adrian Martin
Leslie Hardcastle introduces Vivre sa vie at the National Film Theatre (3 mins, 1980, audio only)
Anna Karina in conversation with Alistair Whyte(1973, 33 mins): long unseen archival interview filmed by the University of London Audio Visual Centre
Three short films by Jean-Luc Godard: Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick(1957, 21 mins); Une Histoire d'eau (1958, 18 mins); Charlotte et son jules (1958, 13 mins)
Fully illustrated booklet with new essays and full film credits

France | 1962 | black and white | French, with optional English subtitles | 83 minutes | BD50 | 1080p | 24fps | aspect ratio 1.66:1 | PCM mono audio (48k/24-bit) | Cert 15 | Region B Blu-ray

[domino harvey]

1.66? Uhhhhhhhhhhh

[swo17]

Three short films by Jean-Luc Godard: Tous les garçons s'appellent Patrick (1957, 21 mins); Une Histoire d'eau (1958, 18 mins); Charlotte et son jules (1958, 13 mins)

For those unaware, these are available on the Criterion releases of A Woman Is a Woman (OOP and SD), The Last Metro, and Breathless, respectively.

[tojoed]

1.66? Uhhhhhhhhhhh

Me too. I wonder why the BFI have done this, because I don't believe it's ever been shown that way.
Perhaps it's a typo.

[David M.]

Have just checked the master and rest assured, that's a typo!

[Rupert Pupkin]

I've just read the dvdbeaver review and they say that there is 2 cut of the movie (the French one (same than the Criterion (which I have) + the UK (apparently censored from what I understood from DVDbeaver review).
It is said that the only difference apparently is that it is 1 mn shorter.

I really would like to know more : is the editing different ? (different editing) perhaps some alternate takes footage ?
I don't see seriously what the UK release could have edited (unless perhaps some dialogues, but that would be all of the movie). Here's Anna Karina goes to see a Dreyer movie, not the ""Swedish movie"" in Masculin Féminin which could have been censored by the UK theatrical release (at that time).

[David M.]

The edits are the same - the intertitles are different (as is the Passion of Joan scene for the same reason).

[MichaelB]

I suspect there'll be a fair overlap between purchasers of Vivre sa vie and Bande à part - but I thought I'd flag up that the latter includes a 36-minute Easter Egg featuring Anna Karina discussing the former.

It wasn't recorded until after Vivre sa vie had already been released, but it was clearly too important to ignore, hence the BFI quietly smuggling it into the closest disc to a follow-up.

[rapta]

I heard about this elsewhere. Glad to hear it! Really looking forward to this one...in fact it's the BFI disc I'm most looking forward to (other than The Wages of Fear when it eventually shows up). A shame they couldn't produce anything for Farewell My Concubine, but the Watkins disc also looks pretty good.

Do you know if there are any more Godard titles in their sights? I know there probably aren't a huge amount to choose from as the rights will be elsewhere (mostly StudioCanal), but there could still be one or two. I was happy to see them follow up Vivre Sa Vie with an even more notorious Godard title, and once again from what I can tell so far the transfer looks brilliant.

[MichaelB]

The BFI was unable to renew the rights to this, so it's gone OOP with immediate effect, although copies are still floating around here and there. But when they're gone, they're gone.