The Calgary Cinematheque presents the third in a series of screenings celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the French New Wave. Bursting onto the scene in 1959, young filmmakers like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard changed the landscape of cinema immediately and indelibly. Even five decades later, independent films still reverberate with their influence. Our series of films will screen on the first Tuesday of each month, with a repeat screening and lecture the following Saturday. This series is presented in collaboration with the Alliance Française of Calgary and the French Embassy.

In conjunction with our French New Wave series, we present a monthly series of short lectures by film experts. These lectures will take place on Saturday afternoons and be followed by a film screening and discussion. The series continues on Saturday January 9 at Noon with "Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave" presented by Bart Beaty (Associate Professor of Communications, University of Calgary) and a screening of Godard's 1962 film Vivre Sa Vie.

A simple tale told in twelve Brechtian tableaux, Vivre Sa Vie is one of Godard's most deeply felt films, anchored by Karina's astonishing lead performance and Nouvelle Vague favorite Raoul Coutard's breathtaking cinematography of street-level Paris. Faced with a failed relationship, a dead-end job, and potential homelessness, young Parisienne Nana Kleinfrankenheim (Anna Karina) turns to "the life" - that is, prostitution.