CONTEMPT
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1997 David N. Butterworth
Rating: *** (Maltin scale)
Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film "Contempt" ("Le Mépris") has been hailed by many as one of the greatest films ever made. Others have referred to it as one of the greatest films ever made about the actual process of filmmaking. Few if any have called it the best film to illustrate that the Trojan War was "just a good excuse for Odysseus to get away from his wife."
Most of Godard's films are experimental in nature, but with "Contempt," his experimentation is on a different level from that which defined his film school texts, the iconoclastic delights of "Alphaville," "Pierrot le Fou," or "Weekend." "Contempt" sees Godard experimenting with another medium--big stars, a big budget, and big expectations. The result might have satisfied the critics but it didn't satisfy the filmmaker, and he returned to making seminal, evocative anti-films, from the sublime (1983's "First Name: Carmen," for example) to the ridiculous ("Hail Mary" two years later).
The re-released "Contempt" follows the trials and tribulations of Paul Jamel, an aspiring screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) who is hired by a vulgar producer, Jerry Prokosch (played, on the edge, by Jack Palance) to resurrect the script of an adaptation of "The Odyssey." The film is currently being shot by famed director Fritz Lang (played with gusto by the German filmmaker himself), who wants to remain faithful to Homer's vision. Jerry, a yes/no man who quotes from a little red book ("the wise man does not oppress others with his superiority"), likes Greek gods and claims to know *exactly* how they feel. He wants to spice up the production with "not just sex, but more!" but you get the feeling he means "more sex."
Further conflicts arise when Paul suspects that his wife Camille (a dazzling Brigitte Bardot) has designs on the producer, which leads to a marital argument that unleashes the contempt of the title.
Greeks and Trojans apart, this central struggle is clearly the most interesting aspect of the film. Godard frames Paul and Camille's discord in their apartment like a documentarian, panning from room to room as their pathetic dialogue unfolds. (This is just one reason why you should see this CinemaScope version; who knows how this sequence would look on video.) Paul and Camille interact wrapped in towels like nervous new lovers, not comfortable old friends. It's totally involving: pitiable, sad, and true.
Visually the film is a treat. Run down, rust-colored storefronts splashed with posters for "Hatari" and "Psycho" form an art deco backdrop. Jerry's villa on Capri is an outrageous wedge-shaped residence set high atop a cliff overlooking the cool blue Mediterranean. The little we see of the film-in-progress is reduced to rotating alabaster statues with their features colored in. It's Godard the stylist in top form.
An early comment in the movie is that cinema represents a world that conforms to our desires. While Godard's motives might have differed from those of his producers, "Contempt" is still a fine film about the pressures of filmmaking. And it's an even finer film about the tragedy of marital dissolution.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@mail.med.upenn.edu
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