Sauve qui peut... la vie
France
, 87 min
Shown in 1980
CREDITS
- dir
-
Jean-Luc Godard
- prod
-
Jean-Luc Godard, Alain Sarde
- scr
-
Jean-Claude Carrière, Anne-Marie Mieville
- cam
-
William Lubchansky, Renato Berta
- cast
-
Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye
- prod co
-
Sara Films-MKZ
-
COMMENTS
Jean-Luc Godard appeared in person.
OTHER
The long-awaited return of Jean-Luc Godard to feature filmmaking reveals his exploratory genius for original screen narrative. Every Man for Himself contains as much surprise and emotional unpredictability as one might expect from a summer exile in Sikkim. Godard has “composed” his film into specified movements: the imaginary, fear, commerce and music. Each applies to the three major protagonists. Denise seeks escape from her television job and leaves for the mountains; her lover, ironically named Paul Godard, wants to leave the city and fears a reconciliation with his ex-wife and young daughter, as well as being afraid of losing Denise forever. Isabelle is a country girl who has come to the city, eventually accepting prostitution as her personal style of liberation. The music signifies the way in which these three lives are interwoven, and along the way, Godard does not hesitate to dazzle the spectators with camera and sound; he also explains nothing, really. He has said that for him, the screen is an X-ray machine where one displays one’s health or one’s sickness. Godard has always delighted in cinematic puzzles, and Every Man for Himself should be permitted to remain somewhat open and mysterious, just as the lives of these three displaced characters really appear to be—one is born and learns to move; the surer movements are called life. One discovers sex, moves on; one dies. But along the way, has anything been felt?
—Albert Johnson
FACTOID #222
The SFIFF has honored some of cinema’s best lensers with tributes, including James Wong Howe (1974), Gabriel Figueroa (1984), Nestor Alemendros (1986), Ernest Dickerson (1991) and John Alton (1994). Cinematographer Haskell Wexler received a tribute as a featured filmmaker in the New Directors series, when he appeared with his directorial debut, Medium Cool.
