Contempt (film)
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Contempt (original French title Le Mépris, Italian title Il Disprezzo) is a film released in 1963, directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
It was based on Alberto Moravia's 1954 Italian-language novel Il disprezzo.
Plot
American movie producer Jeremy Prokosch (played by Jack Palance) hires respected German director Fritz Lang (playing himself) to direct a film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Dissatisfied with Lang's treatment of the material as an art film, Prokosch hires Paul Javal (played by Michel Piccoli), a novelist and playwright, to rework the script. The conflict between artistic expression and commercial opportunity parallels Paul's sudden estrangement from his wife Camille (played by Brigitte Bardot), who is mysteriously silent to him after being left alone with his boss, the millionaire playboy Prokosch.
Marriage and Teamwork
The movie is not only about the breaking up of a marriage, it is also about the breaking up of a movie. Just as a marriage involves contribution and teamwork to make it work, so too does a movie.
Although the first scene in the movie dwells on an item-by-item analysis of the screenwriter Paul Javal's love for his wife, it comes off as a shallow laundry list of the appreciation he has for her physical features, and not for the depth of her soul or intellect. Paul says he loves Camille's feet, her ankles, her knees, and so on - and so the camera pans across her, part by part, never dwelling on her in her entirety as a complete person. The way the camera pans slowly up her body, and then, later, down her body, it appears to avoid anything really sensual or sexual - it's not that kind of film - if Paul, her husband, is not appreciative of her as a complete person, what can that say of the director and producer behind the scenes? Movie critics often talk about the difficulties that a producer gives a director, and it is not hard to read between the lines, and assume that this is the case with Contempt, outside it as well. The director resents having to pander to a producer who wants a sexy movie, both in the movie and behind it, in the real world. In the lingering panning action of the first scene to the movie, Jean-Luc Godard doggedly refuses to give his own producers the kind of a product that he assured them. The first scene is far from sensual; it is analytic to the point of being antiseptic.
Later on in the movie, in a fit of frustration, Paul asks himself why he ever bothered to marry Camille, a 28 year old typist from Rome. But the question he invites the viewer to ask (without actually turning to the camera and saying it), is what does a typist add to a screenplay if the screenwriter is the one that does the typing himself? The question, if it were to be asked out loud, is really a rhetorical one because it contradicts the first scene, where he says he loves her, part by part, but the camera shows us that he never loves her completely as a whole person.
The Middle of the Movie
In service to symbolism as much as reality, the middle of the movie is actually shot from the center of Paul and Camille's apartment. A single camera is positioned in the middle of a fairly large number of interlocking rooms, and rather than have the camera chase the actors around, the camera pivots about on its axis, sometimes catching the actors in motion, coming into frame and leaving it, and sometimes never even catching the actors. Wherever it is pointed, in more or less the right direction, we are led to believe the actors' voices are coming, even though we don't see them.
The middle of the movie, at least in terms of Contempt, is also very symbolically the heart of the movie, and centerpiece to the story. Although it is not clear that Paul and Camille's marriage is ending, or that the movie project is suffering from unequal contribution, and perhaps coming to a close, it is something that reviewers come back to, each time they see the movie. Just as the human heart is dedicated to a very mundane activity, beating to keep things going, the failure of the camera to capture directly the comings and goings of the actors, is what has to be inferred, not from what is shown but from what is not shown.
To go to the heart of the matter, and look for overall fairness as a unifying principle, in both the making of a marriage, and the making of a movie, it is no surprise that the movie falls apart at exactly the same time as Paul's marriage does, and to exactly the same degree.
There is, however, some foreshadowing of the breakup, and we see this in Paul wearing his hat everywhere he goes, even wearing it when he takes his bath. Nearly simultaneously, Camille dons a black wig. Camille complains about Paul's cigar, and Paul complains about her cigarette. She goes to the window to blow her smoke out, as he reclines in the bathtub and puffs on his cigar. As for their head coverings, both partners have elected to change themselves or conceal themselves for the worse, and not for the better, implying an unspeakable change, or rearrangement, in their lives has already taken place.
Has Anyone Really Cheated?
Polite society rarely throws the blame on one individual or another, but equivocates on the issue, finding faults on all sides. A lot of the movie seems to throw the issue before the feet of the viewer, as the partners in the film appear to be contributing equally to making it work, but somebody somewhere has already broken his promise. Somebody somewhere has reneged on a deal that's been entered into sincerely. For instance, the character playing the director (Fritz Lang, playing himself) has clearly cheated the producer after promising him a sexy movie but there's nothing sexy if the actresses playing the sirens tempting Ulysses are immersed in the water, and the cameras are always twenty or thirty meters away.
Yet there is brooding silence, and aside from the producer throwing a fit in the viewing room, it's hard to say who is jeopardizing the filming of a movie already paid for. If the producer abandons the movie, in realization that he's throwing good money after bad, what is going to keep the movie going?
In terms of Paul and Camille's marriage, it is fair to say that somebody has cheated on somebody but it is all behind the scenes, and the viewer has to figure out what must have happened.
Towards the end of the middle of the movie, Camille asks Paul what he would do if she stopped loving him. He tells her he would quit writing the movie - already an onerous task for him, as much of screenwriting involves an endless amount of rewriting, already a difficult thing to do, considering how it was in the days of typewriters and typewriter ribbons. If he quits doing the endless amount of small things that go into making his marriage work, what reason is there for her to return to the bargain she's apparently reneged on?
Closing Scene
The closing scene to Contempt bears a remarkable similarity to the last scene in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive because of the way he uses the word "Silencio" (Italian for Lights, Camera, Action!) to denote both continuity, interruption, and finality, especially as the movie must continue on with the same director but a new producer, bringing the movie to a pregnant close.
Where it was Filmed
Contempt was filmed and takes place entirely in Italy, with location shooting at the landmark Cinecittà studios near Rome and the Casa Malaparte on Capri.
The film is often considered one of Godard's best, and an integral entry of the French New Wave. It was inducted into the Criterion Collection in 2002 as Spine #171.
External links
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