CONTEMPT/ LE MEPRIS
France, 1963, 102 minutes, Colour.
Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang, Georgia Moll.
Directed by Jean- Luc Godard.
Contempt/ Le Mapris is a significant film in the development of the career of Jean- Luc Godard.
He began direction in the late 1950s and became famous with his feature film, Breathless. He also experimented with social themes in the context of filmmaking with A Woman is a Woman (1961). By the mid-1960s, he was making narrative films like the science-fiction Alphaville but also moving into sociological studies, Masculin- Feminin. He was continuing in all these veins well into the second decade of the 21st century, with over 120 credits in a career spanning more than 60 years.
This film is based on a novel by Alberto Moravia. It is set on the southern Italian coast and Capri, the making of a feature film based on the works of Homer, themes of the Odyssey. The film was also a star vehicle for Brigitte Bardot, by this time one of the best known, as well is one provocative, French stars. Michel Piccoli is the writer of the film. Jack Palance is an arrogant an American actor. Famous director Fritz Lang appears as a director – with Godard himself appearing as the director’s assistant.
The film is shot in colour, capturing the sunlight of Italy as well as the film sets. The various strands and the narrative focusing on the central characters and their interactions, the making of the film, the difficulties in writing, the demands of directors…
The film is very strong on dialogue – and is noted for a 20 minute sequence during the film in which the writer and the actress interact in all kinds of ways with each other, strong dialogue, strong drama and melodrama.
The film has many interesting features from the work of the director himself to an adaptation of Moravia, to the very strong cast.
1. A film of the 1960s? France, Italy, the film industry? Personal stories?
2. The Roman setting, the city, the studios, the beaches? The Isle of Capri and its beauty? The musical score?
3. The work of the director, his narrative period, his later cinema essays? Relationships between men and women?
4. The cast, the status of Brigitte Bardot, the career of Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance – and an Oscar 30 years later, the classic work of Fritz Lang in Germany, Hollywood?
5. The personal story and the film story? The introduction to Camille and Paul, the long bedroom sequence, Camille referring to the beauty of her body, the mirror? Paul and his affirmation? The later knowledge that she was a typist working for Paul? Whether he married below him or not? The expectations of the marriage? Meeting Jerry, not liking him, the challenge to Paul and even humiliating him? Her tantrums, travelling in the car with Jerry? Expectations of Paul? The impact of the long sequence in their rooms, the dramatic development of the dialogue, the breaking down of the relationship, the effect on Camille, black wig, cooking, bedroom, sexual provocation, Paul, trying to respond, marriage and career? The breakdown of the marriage? The issue of going to Capri? Her not wanting to go, finally going? The filmmaking, her leaving Paul, travelling with Jerry, the rapport between them – and the drama of the crash?
6. Paul, age and experience, playwright, hired to write the screenplay, the marriage to Camille and his response to her? His listening to the comments about the Odyssey, Jerry and his opinions, wanting Paul to write, Jerry’s tantrums and breaking things? The meeting with Fritz Lang, respect for him? The decision to do the alterations? The long sequence of the interaction between himself and Camille? The result? On the film set? Camille leaving – the impact of her crash and death? His going back to the theatre?
7. Jerry, the American star, narcissistic, tantrums? His interpretation of the Odyssey, of Ulysses, of Penelope and fidelity? His wanting rewrites? The discussions with Paul, with Fritz Lang? On the set, the impact of the statues, the gods, reflections on God and the absence of God? The film, his ambitions, the encounter with Camille, the initial clash, finally going off with her, death?
8. Jerry is interpreter, his treatment of her, her work, interventions?
9. Fritz Lang and his reputation, the Nazis, Goebbels, his leaving Germany, his career in Hollywood? Later career? In Rome, directing this film?
10. The film story and the interpretation of filmmaking in the early 1960s, in Europe, Hollywood presence?
11. The personal story, the exploration of the development of contempt?
