Themes: Midlife Crises, Work Ethics, Crisis of Conscience
Main Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye, Roland Amstutz
Release Year: 1979
Country: FR/CH
Run Time: 87 minutes
Plot
Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie), a pessimistic but visually stunning film, marks Jean-Luc Godard's return to cinema after having spent the 70s working in video. The film presents a few days in the lives of three people: Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc ), a television producer; Denise Rimbaud (Nathalie Baye), his co-worker and ex-girlfriend; and Isabelle Riviera (Isabelle Huppert), a prostitute whom Paul has used. Denise wants to break up with Paul and move to the country. Isabelle wants to work for herself instead of her pimp. Paul just wants to survive. Their stories intersect when Paul brings Denise to the country cottage he is trying to rent and Isabelle comes to see it without knowing that the landlord has been her client. The film is broken into segments entitled "The Imaginary," "Commerce," "Life," and "Music." Each of the first three sections focuses on one character and the last section brings all three characters together. This complex film is often closer to an essay than a story; it uses slow motion and experimental techniques to explore questions of love, work, and the nature of cinema. Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie) was Godard's first film with his frequent collaborator Anne-Marie Miéville, who edited and co-wrote the film. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide
Anna Baldaccini - Isabelle's Sister; Monique Barscha - Opera Singer; Michel Cassagne - Piaget; Claude Champion - Stranger; Dore de Rosa - Elevator Attendant; Catherine Freiburghaus - Farm Girl; Nicole Jaquet - Woman; Roger Jendly - Second Guy; Paule Muret - Paul's Ex-Wife; Fred Personne - First client; Cecile Tanner - Cecile; Marie-Luce Felber - Coach; Bernard Cazassus - 1st Guy
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (released as Slow Motion in the UK, and as Every Man for Himself in the US) is a film directed, co-written and co-produced by Jean-Luc Godard, which premiered at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
Baye won her first César, for best supporting artist, in 1981 for her role in the film.
The film represents a return, of sorts, for Godard to cinema after almost a decade of work in video. It continues many of the themes dominant in Godard's work, including prostitution (Huppert's character) and the director's relentless self-questioning, "What does it mean for me to make a movie?" (Dutronc plays a burned out video film-maker named "Godard.") As with much of Godard's work, the film does not follow a conventional narrative, although many viewers would find this film more accessible than some of his later work.
The film is available in the UK on DVD encoded for Region 2 and issued under the title Slow Motion, a reference to one of the film's most compelling aspects, a periodic slowing down of the action to a frame by frame advancement.
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