Saturday, April 29, 2017
119 - Every Man for Himself, 1980, France. Dir. Jean-Luc Godard.
I want to stop naming things and start doing them.
Paul, Denise, and Isabelle.
Paul is married and has a 12-year old daughter.
He does not live with them.
He works at a Swiss television station. He is a TV host. We are in Switzerland.
He works with Denise.
He lives with Denise.
Denise, however, is restless.
Part of her job is to collect celebrities when they arrive in town.
She no longer wants to do that.
And Paul is not working out.
She wants to get away.
She wants to write a novel.
She tells Paul.
She decides to move to the country and stay at a dairy farm.
She goes.
On her bicycle.
Through the countryside.
In Slow Motion.
Wait!
She forgot to pick up a celebrity at the local college.
Marguerite Duras. Writer. Filmmaker. Coming to speak.
She asks Paul to do it.
Paul does it.
Duras does not appear.
We never see her.
We hear her.
Duras speaks.
Paul speaks.
We hear her voice. We see him talk. We hear his voice.
She tells us she makes movies.
Because if she does not, then she has nothing to do.
He agrees. He feels the same way.
He does not seem to enjoy working. He just needs to have something to do.
His name happens to be Godard. In this case, Paul Godard. Godard is Paul's last name.
As Denise moves from the city to the country, Isabelle moves from the country to the city.
She becomes a prostitute.
She meets Paul at a bar.
They spend time together.
We follow her story.
The film contains moments of encounters and close encounters.
A bellhop with Paul. Paul with Denise. Paul with Isabelle. Paul with his daughter in his mind. Isabelle with her pimp. Isabelle with her mack. Isabelle with her john. Isabelle's sister. A group.
Critics found in this film a return to form.
Godard had been spending years playing with video. Making political statements. Not making films.
Now he has made a film again. And he will continue to do so throughout the 1980s.
Godard is good at naming things.
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