Considered Godard's finest film, 'Le Mépris' is a sublime mediation on absurdity, compromise and integrity -in art and marriage. Based on the novel by Alberto Moravia and starring Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli and Fritz Lang. (-DVD cover)
(The house in the picture had been built for Italian writer Curzio Malaparte and known as "casa Malaparte" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Malaparte)



When aspiring playwright Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is called in as script doctor on a film of 'The Odyssey', he is caught between a director (Fritz Lang) who wants to capture the reality of Homer's world, and crass producer Prokosch (Jack Palance) who just wants more mermaids. As his artistic integrity gradually succumbs to the power of Prokosch's cheque book, his wife Camille (Bardot) regards him with increasing contempt. (-DVD cover)



Paul Javal, a writer, is hired to work out a script for the new movie about Ulisses, directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Prokosch. Because he let his wife Camille drive with Prokosch, and he is late, she belives, that he uses her as a sort of "present" for Prokosch to get get a better payment. So the relation breaks up. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/plotsummary)



On Capri, an Italian crew makes a German film of Homer's Odyssey; Fritz Lang directs with American money. Prokosch, the producer, with his sneer and red Alfa, holds art films in contempt and hires writer Javal to help Lang commercialize the picture. Against this backdrop, we watch the breakup of Javal's marriage to Camille, a young former typist. It opens with the couple talking in bed, she asking assurance that he finds her attractive. Later that day he introduces her to Prokosch, and, unawares, blunders unforgivably. The rest of the film portrays her, in their apartment and in public, expressing her hurt and change of heart and his slow grasp of the source of her contempt. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/plotsummary)



This is a film about film-making in the 1960's, and about the stresses on personal relationships provoked by the pursuit of cinema's world of illusion.[the presence of the great Fritz Lang playing himself authenticates the theme]. Paul Javal (his constant wearing of a hat is the clue to his partial representation of Godard) is a man whose artistic sensibility and individuality have yet to be shaped, and who uses Camille as an instrument to achieve self-identity. But Camille is a goddess, a force of nature, and her total love for Paul slowly disintegrates in the course of the creative "mind games" he selfishly makes her endure (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/usercomments)



This is a profound film which needs to be viewed many times, with increasing understanding and appreciation of its complexities. The photography is stunning (esp. the Capri shots), and the wonderfully haunting score by Georges Delerue only increases our viewing pleasure. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/usercomments)



Here are what Contempt, by French director Jean-Luc Godard, made in 1963, is about--an examination on a relationship in jeopardy, which has been one of the most universal themes in cinema, and which is probably inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni's trilogy; a struggle in film-making as a side-theme, which may be Godard's self-reflective expression; the international star cast including Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, and Jack Palance, along with the cameo appearance of legendary German filmmaker Fritz Lang; well-choreographed long takes, which are sometimes several minutes in length, and which could be also influenced by Antonioni; inclusion of three montage sequences that comprise sliced flashback and flashforward clips, which create a remarkable contrast to the long takes; beautifully photographed sceneries, especially of the sea; and the memorable orchestral score with sentimental arpeggio by Georges Delerue. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/usercomments)



One of the great masterpieces of the 20th century, a supreme synthesis of form, content and performance. Arguably the most beautiful too, with its found locations, sets, colour, lighting, music, decor and costume. The straightforward elegance of Godard's shooting masks a story of great complexity and formal rupture, but underneath the philosophy, semiotics and allusion is a portrait of marriage and its decline. The tension between icy irony and resigned emotion results in Godard's most perversely moving film. It is also very funny, which is too little remembered (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/usercomments)



Memorable Quotes from "Le Mépris" :
Jerry Prokosch: Whenever I hear the word culture, I bring out my checkbook. (To his assistant) Come here. (He places his checkbook on his assistant's back and writes out a check.)
Fritz Lang: Some years ago - some horrible years ago - the Nazis used to take out a pistol instead of a checkbook.
.......
[after viewing film shot by Fritz Lang]
Jerry Prokosch: You've cheated me, Fritz. That's not what is in that script.
Fritz Lang: It is! He pulls the script away from Jerry, who is attempting to grab it out of his hand. Oh, no!
Jerry Prokosch: Get the script, Francesca. He reads the script and then changes his tone... Yes, it's in the script. But it's not what you have on that screen.
Fritz Lang: Naturally, because in the script it is written, and on the screen it's pictures. Motion picture, it's called.
.......
Paul Javal: There's nothing like the movies. Usually when you see women, they're dressed. But put them in a movie, and you see their backsides
.......
Camille Javal: I like you better without the hat and cigar.
Paul Javal: I'm just imitating Dean Martin in "Some Came Running."
Camille Javal: Very funny. You don't remind me of Dean Martin, but of Martin and the ass. Don't you know the story about Martin and the ass?
Paul Javal: No.
Camille Javal: One day Martin went to Baghdad to buy himself a flying carpet. And a merchant sold him a very pretty one. Martin sat down on the carpet, but it didn't fly. "Well," said the merchant, "that's not surprising." Are you listening to me?
Paul Javal: Yes.
Camille Javal: "That's not surprising. The carpet will never fly if you think of an ass." "All right," Martin said, "I just won't think of an ass." But then he couldn't stop thinking of an ass! And the carpet wouldn't fly.
Paul Javal: I don't see what that has to do with me.
Camille Javal: That's exactly what I mean.
(http://imdb.com/title/tt0057345/quotes)






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