MOVIE · 1967

The Oldest Profession

ComedyDrama119 min

Prostitution is the thread running through this French anthology, which hops from the Stone Age and ancient Rome to the French Revolution, fin-de-siècle Paris, the present day, and a futuristic finale. Michèle Mercier appears in the prehistoric sketch, Jeanne Moreau turns up in the revolutionary chapter, and Anna Karina anchors the closing segment about an outer-space visitor being introduced to human ideas of love and sex. Built as a series of comic vignettes, the film shifts its costumes, manners, and targets from one era to the next, using each period to satirize how desire and money change hands.