October 3: Sauve qui peut (la vie)

Thursday, October 3 2019 | 8PM Sauve qui peut (la vie) aka Every Man For Himself France 1980 d. Jean-Luc Godard with Jacques Dutronc, Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Cécile Tanner and Anna Baldaccini. Colour. In French with English subtitles. 87 m

“That quest [for light and composition] begins here, with Godard’s “return”—at least, his return to the French film industry and his confrontation with its new generation of stars (Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, and Jacques Dutronc)—and his self-conscious struggle, aided by new equipment (fast film, fast lenses), toward a new cinematic grammar. Indeed, struggle—romantic, economic, artistic—is at the heart of the movie, but Godard films it with a bracing new serenity that also depends on the light of the Swiss landscape, to which he had also returned.” Richard Brody

Every Man for Himself opened up endless new possibilities. The revolutionary theses of the late sixties had condemned both narrative and representation. This film showed how one could move beyond a simple rejection of story and spectacle while remaining wary of both. If Godard had lost his faith in revolutionary politics, he had rediscovered his faith in cinema.” Colin McCabe

Links: IMDB Wikipedia

See Also: Vivre sa vie aka My Life To Live (Godard, 1962), Numéro Deux aka Number Two (Godard, 1975), Le Camion aka The Lorry (Duras,1977), Le Dernier Métro aka The Last Metro (Truffaut, 1980), Loulou (Pialat, 1980)