Contempt

Godard's posturing "in spite of everything and everyone", reveling in his own creative, relational and existential crisis, which is as captivating (at first) as it is annoying (after a while). (13/02/2014)

A far more fitting title for this film would be "Indifference." The film portrays a fairly banal case of a relationship that arose from sudden infatuation and sexual desire. The British have a proverb that says that for a marriage, you need more than just four legs in bed. This couple simply doesn't understand that there is a difference between passionate love and a long-term marital relationship, which is based on much more than just sexual desire. The two of them have nothing in common personality-wise, and there is no bond between them in the form of children to keep them occupied and help them overcome crises. They don't understand why the beautiful moments at the beginning come to an end, so they endlessly ask each other if they love them, and if not, why. The word "I love you" appears there almost as often as "fuck" in an average film by Kevin Smith. They search for the reason for the crisis in their relationship, but as it often happens, they can't even find, let alone accept, a completely logical explanation. This situation will be familiar to the viewer after just 12 minutes, and nothing else, except for the tragic ending, will come. There are 2-3 pop culture jokes that are worth mentioning, such as when Fritz Lang uses the abbreviation BB in the presence of Brigitte Bardot, referring to Bertolt Brecht. Considering the minimal plot and banal theme, the film didn't enrich me in any way. A film lover can perhaps admire the formal aspects of Jean-Luc Godard's work, but honestly, I didn't find anything extraordinary there. The famous film star Brigitte Bardot once brought more money to France than the production of any French automaker, but I haven't seen any of her films for more than 20 years and I certainly didn't miss out on anything. Her acting and renowned charms don't make a big impression on me, and I think she very wisely, unlike others, understood the realistic limits of her acting abilities and withdrew from the film industry before she could fade away. Michel Piccoli is more interesting to me because I know him from films mostly about a decade younger. Overall impression: 45%. (08/02/2013)

With its content and outside interference, Contempt is a cynical deconstruction if the relationship between a man and a woman, and between reality and its artificial representations. Just as Camille and Paul’s marriage disintegrates, there is a dissolution of the line separating real life from fictional stories (Piccoli as Odysseus, Palance as Poseidon and Bardot as the faithful Penelope and treacherous siren – see her adaptation of the bathing scene from Lang’s film). The first shot, which ends with the camera looking into a camera, reveals the chosen approach: a film about filming oneself. It’s as if Godard defied the conscientious fulfilment of the task at hand (a widescreen colour co-production with international stars and based on a famous novel) by means of various subversions and attempted to delay for some time the inevitable end of film, which Auguste Lumière had called an invention without a future. He is not docile in his handling of the film’s main star. For no apparent reason, we see the nude Bardot, whose physical assets are first de-eroticised by a precise description, through a red filter, then yellow and finally blue. Later, the director makes her put on a black wig, thus underscoring the key idea of playing different roles. At the same time, we can see the dark-haired actress as Anna Karina and the whole film as Godard’s relationship therapy. In comparison with Godard’s other films, the style of Contempt is remarkably sedate, though the narrative structure is in some ways reminiscent of his unrefined debut, Breathless (suspension of the narrative through a long inner dialogue), to such an extent that I wonder if Godard was using extraordinarily long yet unexpected cutaways to make fun of intellectual relationship films such as those by upper crust Antonioni, for example. The arrangement of the inanimate mise-en-scéne (colours, spaces) often tells us more about the characters and how they relate to each other than the dialogue, which typically runs to more general themes or allusions to Godard’s favourite films and filmmakers. Perhaps in conflict with what he intended, Godard ultimately presents proof that real cinema, whose images are not entirely subordinated to the story or spectacle, isn’t dead yet. 80% (28/07/2013)

A very peculiar film that manages to enchant with the beautiful Brigitte, but also with superb direction that gets lost in a plot that is quite self-centered. I must admit, I was most pleased by the presence of Fritz Lang, who played a character with the same name. It’s definitely interesting, though not necessarily easy to endure. (05/11/2014)