Contempt (film)

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Contempt
original film poster
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by	Carlo Ponti Georges de Beauregard Joseph E. Levine
Written by	Alberto Moravia (novel) Jean-Luc Godard
Starring	Brigitte Bardot Michel Piccoli Jack Palance Giorgia Moll Fritz Lang
Music by	Georges Delerue Piero Piccioni
Cinematography	Raoul Coutard
Editing by	Agnès Guillemot Lila Lakshmanan
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	October 29, 1963
Running time	103 min.
Language	French/English/German/Italian
Budget	$900,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

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.

1 Plot
2 Where it was Filmed
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

American movie producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) hires respected Austrian 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 (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 (Brigitte Bardot), who is mysteriously aloof to him after being left alone with his boss, the millionaire playboy Prokosch.

In a notable sequence, the characters played by Piccoli and Bardot wander through their apartment alternately arguing and reconciling, Bardot playing the petulant young wife in a way that became definitive of the style. The sequence was memorably filmed in an extended series of tracking shots, in natural light and in near real-time.

[edit] 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.

Jack Palance hurling a film canister like a discus in Le Mépris. Painted on the wall behind is a quote by Louis Lumière: "Il cinema è un’invenzione senza avvenire." ("The cinema is an invention without any future.")