Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) (aka Every Man For Himself) (1980)

Three protagonists struggle with their relationships, their professions and existence in an increasingly indifferent world: a TV director (Jacques Dutronc), his soon to be ex-girlfriend (Nathalie Baye) and a prostitute (Isabelle Huppert). The iconoclastic Jean Luc Godard returned to "mainstream" (though has he ever been mainstream?) film making with this experimental puzzle of a movie. Like most of his films, Godard isn't interested in a conventional narrative technique in telling his story. This one is no different as he uses sound, editing, slow motion and seemingly irrelevant fragments to create a reflective if unsettling sense of disorientation. What is it about? I haven't a clue, not really unless it's that we're all whores to some extent. But it is a challenging, provocative anagram of a movie. One doesn't necessarily think of performances in a Godard film, but Isabelle Huppert is really wonderful here. It's amusing that Godard names the male protagonist after himself since Dutronc's character is a real jerk. I don't love it the way I love some of his other films like BREATHLESS, CONTEMPT or VIVRE SA VIE but it's not a film you can shake off.