Contempt (film)

{{Short description|1963 film by Jean-Luc Godard}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = Contempt | image = 1963 Le mepris 1.jpg | alt = | caption = French theatrical release poster | native_name = {{Infobox name module|fr|Le Mépris}} | director = Jean-Luc Godard | producer = {{Plainlist| * Georges de Beauregard * Carlo Ponti * Uncredited: * Joseph E. Levine }} | screenplay = Jean-Luc Godard<br />(uncredited) | based_on = {{based on|''Il disprezzo''<br />1954 novel|Alberto Moravia}} | starring = {{Plainlist| * Brigitte Bardot * Jack Palance * Michel Piccoli * Giorgia Moll * Fritz Lang }} | music = {{Plainlist| * Georges Delerue (France/US) * Piero Piccioni (Italy/Spain) }} | cinematography = Raoul Coutard | editing = Agnès Guillemot | production_companies = {{Plainlist| * Rome Paris Films * Les Films Concordia * Compagnia Cinematografica Champion }} | distributor = {{Plainlist| * Marceau-Cocinor (France) * Interfilm (Italy) }} | released = {{Film date|df=y|1963|10|29|Italy|1963|12|20|France}} | runtime = 101 minutes<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bbfc.co.uk/releases/contempt-1970-0 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721202538/http://bbfc.co.uk/releases/contempt-1970-0 | url-status=dead | archive-date=21 July 2015 | title=''Contempt'' (AA) | work=British Board of Film Classification | date=20 April 1971 | access-date=20 July 2015}}</ref> | country = {{Plainlist| * France * Italy }} | language = {{Plainlist| * French * English * German * Italian }} | budget = $1 million<ref>{{YouTube|pDmpt-1GcmU|Moviedrome – ''Le Mépris'' (Alex Cox)}}</ref><ref name="far">{{cite news|title=France's Far Out Filmmaker|first=Eugene|last=Archer|newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 September 1964|page=X11}}</ref><ref name="var">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1963-08/page/n78/mode/1up?q=%22carlo+ponti%22|magazine=Variety|title=Very little left for production|date=14 August 1963|page=5}}</ref> | gross = 1,597,870 admissions (France)<ref>[http://www.boxofficestory.com/box-office-brigitte-bardot-c22691591/28 ''Le Mépris'', box office information] by Renaud Soyer, BoxOfficeStory.com {{in lang|fr}}</ref> }}

'''''Contempt''''' ({{langx|fr|Le Mépris}}) is a 1963 French New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on Alberto Moravia's 1954 novel {{lang|it|Il disprezzo|cat=no}}.<ref>{{cite book |author=Moravia, Albert |title=Il disprezzo |year=1954 |trans-title=A Ghost at Noon |oclc=360548}}</ref> It follows a playwright, Paul Javal, whose marriage begins to fall apart during the troubled production of a film adaptation of Homer's ''Odyssey''. The film stars Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang, and Giorgia Moll.

==Plot== Paul Javal, a young French playwright who has achieved commercial success in Rome, accepts an offer from Jerry Prokosch, a vulgar American producer, to rework the script for Austrian director Fritz Lang's screen adaptation of the ''Odyssey''.

Paul's wife, Camille Javal, joins him on the first day of the project at Cinecittà. After initial discussions, Prokosch invites the crew to his villa and offers Camille a ride in his two-seat sports car. Camille looks to Paul to decline the offer, but he passively withdraws, opting to follow by taxi instead, leaving Camille alone with Prokosch. Paul does not catch up with them until 30 minutes later, explaining that he was delayed by a traffic accident. Camille grows uneasy, secretly doubting his honesty and suspecting that he is using her to strengthen his ties with Prokosch. Her misgivings deepen when she witnesses Paul groping Prokosch's secretary, Francesca.

Back at their apartment, Paul and Camille discuss the subtle tension that has arisen between them in the first few hours of the project. Camille suddenly announces to her bewildered husband that she no longer loves him.

Hoping to rekindle Camille's affection, Paul convinces her to accept Prokosch's invitation to join them for filming in Capri. Prokosch and Lang are locked in a conflict over the correct interpretation of Homer's work, a stalemate exacerbated by the difficulty of communication between the German director, the French screenwriter, and the American producer. Francesca acts as an interpreter, mediating all conversations. When Paul sides with Prokosch against Lang by suggesting that Odysseus left home because of his wife's infidelity, Camille's suspicions of her husband's servility are confirmed. She deliberately allows Paul to find her in Prokosch's embrace, and in the ensuing confrontation, she implies that her respect for him has turned to contempt because she believes he has bartered her to Prokosch. Paul denies this accusation, offering to sever his ties with the film and leave Capri, but Camille refuses to recant and departs for Rome with the producer.

After a car crash in which Camille and Prokosch are killed, Paul prepares to leave Capri and return to the theater. Lang, meanwhile, continues working on the film.

==Cast== * Brigitte Bardot as Camille Javal * Michel Piccoli as Paul Javal * Jack Palance as Jeremiah Prokosch * Giorgia Moll as Francesca Vanini * Fritz Lang as himself * Raoul Coutard as the cameraman * Jean-Luc Godard as Lang's assistant director * Linda Veras as a Siren

==Production== Italian film producer Carlo Ponti approached Godard to discuss a possible collaboration; Godard suggested an adaptation of Moravia's novel ''Il disprezzo'' (originally translated into English with the title ''A Ghost at Noon'') in which he saw Kim Novak and Frank Sinatra as the leads; they refused. Ponti suggested Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, whom Godard refused. Anna Karina (by then Godard's former wife) later revealed that the director had traveled to Rome to ask Monica Vitti if she would portray the female lead. However, the Italian actress reportedly turned up an hour late, "staring out the window like she wasn't interested at all".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/anna-karina-2-3-things-we-now-know-about-her|title=Anna Karina: 2 or 3 things we now know about her|website=British Film Institute|access-date=2016-03-15}}</ref> Finally, Bardot was chosen because of the producer's insistence that the profits might be increased by displaying her famously sensual body. This provided the film's opening scene, filmed by Godard as a typical mockery of the cinema business with tame nudity. The scene was shot after Godard considered the film finished, at the insistence of the American co-producers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://drnorth.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/things-you-need-to-know-about-le-mepris/|title=Things You Need to Know About ''Le Mépris''|website=Spectacular Attractions|date=7 February 2013 |access-date=2017-12-28}}</ref> In the film, Godard cast himself as Lang's assistant director, and characteristically has Lang expound many of Godard's New Wave theories and opinions. Godard also employed the two "forgotten" New Wave filmmakers, Luc Moullet and Jacques Rozier, on the film. Bardot visibly reads a book about Fritz Lang that was written by Moullet, and Rozier made the documentary short about the making of the film {{lang|fr|Le Parti des Choses|cat=no}}.

Godard admitted to changing the original novel, but with the consent of the original writer, Moravia. Among Godard's changes were focusing the action to only a few days and changing the writer character from being "silly and soft". Godard said, "I've made him more American—something like a Humphrey Bogart type."<ref name="new">{{cite news|title=Godard's Ghost, Roman-Style: Analytic Break Complex Pattern One Man's Method |first=Robert F.|last=Hawkins|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 June 1963|page=97}}</ref>

Half the film's budget went on Bardot's fee.<ref name="var"/>

===Filming=== ''Contempt'' was filmed in Italy where it is set, with location shooting at the Cinecittà studios in Rome, and the Casa Malaparte on Capri island. In a sequence, the characters played by Piccoli and Bardot wander through their apartment alternately arguing and reconciling. Godard filmed the scene as an extended series of tracking shots, in natural light and in near real-time. The cinematographer Raoul Coutard also shot some of the other ''nouvelle vague'' films, including Godard's ''Breathless'' (1960). According to Jonathan Rosenbaum, Godard was also directly influenced by Jean-Daniel Pollet and Volker Schlöndorff's ''Méditerranée'', released earlier the same year.<ref name="Schneider2012">{{cite book|last=Schneider|first=Steven Jay|title=1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die 2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKeKMwEACAAJ|date=1 October 2012|publisher=Octopus Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-84403-733-9|page=419}}</ref>

Godard admitted his tendency to get actors to improvise dialogue "during the peak moment of creation" often baffled them. He said, "They often feel useless". "Yet they bring me a lot{{nbsp}}... I need them, just as I need the pulse and colours of real settings for atmosphere and creation."<ref name="new"/>

==Critical reception== ''Variety'' called it a "slim tale".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Contempt|date=1 January 1964|url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1964-01/page/n5/mode/1up?|magazine=Variety|page=6}}</ref>

Bosley Crowther of ''The New York Times'' called the film "luxuriant", but wrote that Godard "could put his talents to more intelligent and illuminating use"; according to Crowther, who is unclear about the motivations of the main characters, "Mr. Godard has attempted to make this film communicate a sense of the alienation of individuals in this complex modern world. And he has clearly directed to get a tempo that suggests irritation and ennui."<ref>{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=19 December 1964 |title=movie review |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1730E560BC4152DFB467838F679EDE |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=6 February 2017}}{{dead link|date=May 2026}}</ref>

Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that ''Contempt'' "is not one of the great Godard films, for reasons it makes clear. In a way, it's about its own shortcomings.{{nbsp}}... It is interesting to see, and has moments of brilliance (the marital argument, the use of the villa steps), but its real importance is as a failed experiment. ''Contempt'' taught Godard he could not make films like this, and so he included himself out, and went on to make the films he could make."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Contempt movie review & film summary (1997) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/contempt-1997 |website=RogerEbert.com |language=en |access-date=2024-02-23}}</ref>

''Filmink'' wrote: "This film is overrated in our humble opinion, but people really love it; it's certainly worth watching."<ref name="bar">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/brigitte-bardot-ten-films-worth-watching/|date=29 December 2025|access-date=29 December 2025|title=Brigitte Bardot: Ten Films Worth Watching}}</ref>

''Sight & Sound'' critic Colin MacCabe referred to ''Contempt'' as "the greatest work of art produced in postwar Europe".<ref>Phillip Lopate [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/22/movies/brilliance-and-bardot-all-in-one.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm "Brilliance And Bardot, All in One"] ''The New York Times'' (22 June 1997)</ref>

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 65 reviews, with an average score of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "This powerful work of essential cinema joins 'meta' with 'physique,' casting Brigitte Bardot and director Godard's inspiration Fritz Lang."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/contempt/|title=''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')|access-date=18 December 2023|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref>

==Legacy== French journalist Antoine de Gaudemar made a one-hour documentary in 2009 about ''Contempt'', {{lang|fr|Il était une fois}}{{nbsp}}... {{Lang|fr|Le Mépris}} (''A Film and Its Era: Contempt''),<ref>{{IMDb title|1386634|Il était une fois... Le Mépris}}</ref> using footage from Jacques Rozier's earlier documentaries ''Paparazzi'' (1963), {{lang|fr|Le Parti des Choses}} (1964), and André S. Labarthe's {{lang|fr|Le dinosaure et le bébé}} (1967).<ref>{{IMDb title|0315407|Le dinosaure et le bébé, dialogue en huit parties entre Fritz Lang et Jean-Luc Godard}}</ref>

In 2012, Godard's film ranked 21st on critic's poll and 44th on director's poll in ''Sight & Sound'' magazine's 100 greatest films of all time list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time | title= The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time | last=Christie | first=Ian|date=1 August 2012|access-date= 8 December 2013|work=Sight & Sound|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012020808/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time|archive-date=12 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Directors' top 100|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/directors|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209010504/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/directors|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 February 2016|website=Sight & Sound|publisher=British Film Institute|year=2012|access-date=11 April 2018|language=en}}</ref>

The song "{{lang|fr|Thème de Camille|italic=no}}", which was originally composed for ''Contempt'', is used as a main theme in the 1995 film ''Casino''.

A still from the film was used as the official poster for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/62118.html |title=Official poster for the 69th Festival de Cannes |access-date=30 March 2016 |work=Cannes |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421043612/http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/article/62118.html |archive-date=21 April 2016 }}</ref>

In 2018, the film ranked 60th on the BBC's list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films, as voted on by 209 film critics from 43 countries.<ref>{{cite web|title=The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181029-the-100-greatest-foreign-language-films|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|date=29 October 2018|access-date=10 January 2021|archive-date=25 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201225005824/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181029-the-100-greatest-foreign-language-films|url-status=live}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0057345}} * {{TCMDb title|71459}} * {{Rotten Tomatoes|contempt}} * {{WorldCat|oclc=32238399|name=''Le mépris'' = ''Il disprezzo'' = ''Contempt''}} * [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/240-contempt-the-story-of-a-marriage "''Contempt'': The Story of a Marriage"], essay by Phillip Lopate at The Criterion Collection * [http://www.webofstories.com/people/raoul.coutard/75 Raoul Coutard talks about the filming of ''Contempt''] from webofstories.com * [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/movies/09raff.html Rafferty on 40th anniversary] from ''The New York Times'' (login required) * {{Internet Archive film|contempt-1963-720-trailer|Le Mépris 1963 Trailer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Contempt}} Category:1960s satirical films Category:1963 drama films Category:1963 films Category:1963 French films Category:1963 French-language films Category:1963 German-language films Category:1963 Italian films Category:1963 Italian-language films Category:1963 multilingual films Category:Capri in fiction Category:English-language French films Category:English-language Italian films Category:Films about film directors and producers Category:Films about screenwriters Category:Films based on Italian novels Category:Films based on works by Alberto Moravia Category:Films directed by Jean-Luc Godard Category:Films distributed by Strand Releasing Category:Films scored by Georges Delerue Category:Films scored by Piero Piccioni Category:Films set in Italy Category:Films shot in Italy Category:French CinemaScope films Category:French drama films Category:French multilingual films Category:French satirical films Category:Fritz Lang Category:German-language French films Category:Italian CinemaScope films Category:Italian drama films Category:Italian multilingual films Category:Italian satirical films