Director Jean-Luc Godard’s film Vivre Sa Vie (1962) follows a young woman, Nana, who turns to prostitutions after she fails to gain a career in acting. The film is divided into twelve tableaux, which are presented as title cards without sound, in the style of classic novels. The titles of the scenes give us insight into the characters, as in the scene where Nana dances to the juke box, where the title card has cued us that she is wondering if she is really happy.

The opening credits are superimposed of close up shots of Nana from front and side angles. Accompanying this is the musical score that becomes a motif throughout the film. It fades in and stops abruptly, creating dynamic changes in loudness as the music is suddenly replaced with silence. This creates a jarring effect, as we are used to hearing a continuous musical score.

Most of the sound in Vivre Sa Vie was recorded naturally at the same time as the visuals were recorded. This meant that the only mixing was during the addition of the musical score I mentioned earlier. Although this is a natural way of recording, it does not sound naturalistic as audiences are used to hearing the polished soundtracks of films, like Hollywood films, where audio was mostly recorded during post-production, for example Foley and ADR. This also means that the sound not perfectly polished in Vivre Sa Vie, notably in the opening café scene, where some of the dialogue is almost lost amongst the background sound of the café. The background sound also cues us into the setting of the scene, as many shots are medium close ups and close ups and focus on the characters, without any establishing shots to tell us where the scene takes place.

I really enjoyed this film, perhaps that’s because I have a soft spot for anything French and I miss Paris dearly.