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Contempt (1964)
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Synopsis: Jean-Luc Godard's cynical look at the art of filmmaking follows a screenwriter in his attempts to recount Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Full of insights into the compromises required of filmmakers, as well as autobiographical allusions, especially concerning the failed union of Godard and... Jean-Luc Godard's cynical look at the art of filmmaking follows a screenwriter in his attempts to recount Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Full of insights into the compromises required of filmmakers, as well as autobiographical allusions, especially concerning the failed union of Godard and actress Anna Karina, 1964's CONTEMPT is one of the most widely recognized films about the filmmaking process. It is also considered the film that made Godard realize that lavish productions were not for him, sending him back into a lower-budget world where he could maintain complete control over his films. Shot in glorious CinemaScope by Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT is a poignant artistic commentary and a dramatic exposé of a dying marriage. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is struggling with Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), the manipulative American producer financing his big-budget venture, and is frustrated by Fritz Lang (playing himself), the film's egotistical director. Concomitantly, his marriage to his gorgeous wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) founders, and the emotional distance between them weighs heavily upon him. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll, Fritz Lang
Screenwriter: Jean-Luc Godard
Producer: Carlo Ponti, Georges De Beauregard, Joseph E. Levine
Composer: Georges Delerue
DVD Info
Release:
Oct 12, 2002
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- 2-Disc Set
Disc One:
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Audio:
- Stereo 2.0 - English
Additional Release Material:
- Audio Commentary - 1. Robert Stam - Film Scholar
Disc Two:
Additional Release Material:
- Featurettes - 1. CONTEMPT: BARDOT ET GODARD (8 Mins)
- 2. PAPARAZZI (22 Mins)
- 3. THE DINOSAUR AND THE BABY featuring Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang (61 Mins)
- Interviews - 1. Raoul Coutard - Director of Photography
- Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Galleries:
- Print Excerpt - 1. Interview - Jean-Luc Godard - Director (by Francois Chalais)
Reviews
What's the price of selling out? Contempt asks the question of its characters, its audience, and its own director.
Godard has finally dared to get serious, achieving not mock pathos but a perfect tragedy.
It's talky and filled with broken rhythms and a running stream of thoughts, and is boldly told in exaggerated stylized terms.
An expensive international production, but still one of Godard's most personal and most perverse films.
Godard sets interesting scenes, with provocative color combinations and a suggestive pictorial flow. But out of it all comes nothing -- or very little that tells you why this wife is so contemptuous of her husband. Maybe he should be contemptuous of her!
Screw Adaptation and its lack of temerity. Contempt is a meta-movie that places the onus back on the viewer. How are we to sensibly respond, and is there any sense in that at all?
While Contempt is seen by many as Godard’s most "commercial" or "mainstream" film, it is also one of his most emotionally stirring and deeply felt.
A superlative film about many things, including the making of a film, the break-up of a married couple, and the parallels between the contemporary New Wave world (of 1963) and the classical (Old Wave) world of Homer.
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