Everyman for Himself (Sauve qui peut--la vie) December 18, 2004

Three lives--those of Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc), his erstwhile girlfriend Denise Rimbaud (Natalie Baye), and hooker Isabelle Riviera (Isabelle Huppert)--casually cross in a nameless Swiss city. Signaling Jean-Luc Godard's successful return to filmmaking after nearly a decade of work in video, Sauve qui peut--la vie is a lyrical and visually beautiful, if quietly pessimistic, essay about selling oneself. "With its wonderfully wry script, each character becomes a cipher for a myriad of ideas," wrote one critic, "with the central metaphor a Rube Goldberg-like human configuration conceived by a businessman for three prostitutes..." (1979, 87 minutes).

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