Slow Motion (1980, Jean-Luc Godard) aka Every Man for Himself

Prostitution is certainly a key theme among much of Godard's work in its relationship to capitalism. First seen in Vivre sa vie, & more directly related to consumerism in 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, Godard's recycling of such themes always produces a different different yet very Godardian & there's something of a clear arc of cinematic approaches, ideas & concerns running through his work.

Prostitution isn't an exclusive theme of Slow Motion, but it is a partially dominant one in how it looks at social power/sexual relations (moving away from exploring its relation to capital), which end up playing out in often scathingly funny ways, particularly during some lengthy & ironically desexualized role-playing. It's also worth noting that this was something of a "comeback" for Godard being that he grew far less prolific after the fallout of what went down in 1968. The film hints more at the serious side of Godard (despite the fact that I think this in particular is very humourous as well) which would unfortunately become a dominant tone of his later work. That is not to say that his earlier work wasn't serious in what it had to say or that its concerns weren't serious, but there's a playful & often giddy visceralness to much of that work that stands in contrast to the cranky stuffiness of something like In Praise of Love, but I digress. What marks the more serious strands of Slow Motion is its concern with film itself (i.e. the other dominant theme of the film) especially w/r/t reinvention & the function of film as largely expressed by a Godard surrogate naturally also sharing his last name (I generally roll my eyes at such overt self-reference, but yet I didn't mind at all here) as played by the always great Mr. Francoise Hardy himself, Jacques Dutronc. Elsewhere the film's use of slow motion (thus its apt UK title) in relation to narrative & altering time & motion becomes an effectively engaging mode for exploration of ideas as opposed to the tiresome visual gimmickery we so often see in film nowadays.