Vivre sa vie tells of Nana (Anna Karina), a naive shopgirl, at the brief, flickering moment when she takes responsibility for her life. Leaving her husband and child, Nana takes to the streets, becoming a prostitute and a student of human emotions. Brechtian in its use of tableaux, each introduced by a heading describing what will follow, Vivre sa vie is as intensely personal as it is cinematically eclectic. Like The Passion of Joan of Arc, to which it pays homage, Vivre sa vie functions as a many–sided profile of its actress/protagonist: made–up like Louise Brooks, Nana/Karina is nevertheless laid bare by her own choice(s). In the memorable movie theater sequence, Nana's rapt attention to the Dreyer film is a profound tribute to the "microphysiogomy" of the silents: we see through the face of Falconetti's Joan to the soul of Nana.