Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963)

This is,without a doubt, one of the best films ever made by Godard and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard.

The Criterion Collection transfer is impeccable sharp focus, well-balanced primary colors, great sound.

The Blue-ray disc (not from Criterion but Lionsgate's Studio Canal label) is a major disappointment on just about every level especially with the color levels. There appears to be a yellowish cast to everything. No hard reds, blues, yellows or greens.

Skin tones are dull and gray. It seems to have been made from completely different elements, with no reference to the original intent, or even the Coutard approved transfer.

At least it was not panned and scanned, about the only thing in it's favor.

If you have the Criterion version already keep it.

The "up grade" to Blu-Ray is NOT an improvement.

One of Brigitte Bardot's few high brow films is an amazing modern Space Age parable of the Homer's "Odyssey" in which innocuous writer Michel Piccoli allows sleazy creep producer Jack Palance (his best film, hands down) have his way with wife BB...she feels nothing but contempt for Piccoli for his apathy... I'm with her...the screenplay to the proposed film is supposed to be about the death of romance between Ulysses and Penelope in Homer's "Odyssey", but life imitates art when the romance between BB and Piccoli rots away due to Piccoli's wimpy attitude toward Palance's lecherous advances towards his wife...then again, Palance clearly reperesents commerce......

This is a superior film to "Breathless", IMHO, .. the film is total eye candy, if not due to the awesome BB, then by the gorgeous locations...

Godard really deserves more credit, he's a consummate filmmaker......Breathless, Alphaville, First Name Carmen, Band of Outsiders...

Buy Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963) Now

Camille: "Then you love me totally."

Paul: "I love you totally, tenderly, tragically."

Such is the story of Camille and Paul, whose lives we watch slowly unravel in tender tragedy. This is a movie to be watched and to be felt; to be understood by the part of you that has struggled to change an unchangeable love or the part of you that has felt the urge to desecrate your own life simply out of restless need to feel something new or understand something raw.

To begin with, Godard takes insoluble feelings of love/hate/restlessness/desire/contempt and weaves it under a thin layer of lives, which as you watch, cannot be seen directly but is clearly felt. He foregoes standard cinematic technique/storytelling criteria as he drops changing color filters over Bardot's introductory nude scene and compares the raging emotions of man against the widescapes of the still ocean and skies (as is seen in particularly breathtaking shots rotating around Greek statues with eyes painted in bright red against a backdrop of bluish white skies and a tortuous finale to which Godard himself yells "Silence!" and cuts to the motionless sea).

On top of this, the musical score done by Georges Delerue has been called the most beautiful score ever heard. It is repeated throughout the movie and it comes and goes unpredictably, like the asthmatic attacks that life often unveils at times not necessarily warranted. Altogether, this movie is an honest replication of feelings that course through all of us during the best of times and the worst of times.

Read Best Reviews of Contempt (Le Mépris) (1963) Here

"Contempt"(1963) is directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is interesting in that it encircles a given second in time when Camille Javal (Brigette Bardot) looses her love for Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), unlike most films that would follow a linear progression from love to contempt. When Paul realizes his error it is too late and from then on he is constantly seen out of sync with Camille.

As with many of Godard's films this one is also about a film within a film, or a film about film. Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) acts the part of a director late in his life who is forced to compromise himself to commercial film in order to make a living. Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) is the American producer who is only concerned with making money and showing off his female actors assets just as Godard was asked by his producers with respect to Bardot. The movie Fritz Lang is making is an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey that Paul is hired to rework so as to make it more commercially viable. The classical characters of Penelope, Odysseus and Poseidon parallel Camille, Paul, and Jeremy. Paul seems to understand and relate his predicament with Camille to Penelope interpreting that Camille has lost her love for him because she believes that he has tried to leave her, just as Odysseus left Penelope for many years to journey the world because he was possibly trying to avoid her. Whether this is true or not, Paul only half heartedly tries to regain her love for him which only serves to further widen the rift between them. Camille never really comes out and says why she has lost her love for him and we are left trying to put the pieces together wondering if this is merely a lover's game or not. There is a curious balance between Paul's interest in her, and his indifference to her, that inevitably seems to push her away from him. Maybe she is just too young for him, or he is not stimulated intellectually by her, we don't know, but she is instinctively repelled by this indifference which crystalized at that moment, that second, when Paul seemed to push Camille to ride alone with Jeremy on the short drive to his house.

This is the French release of the film which is multilingual with English subtitles, as opposed to the American or Italian releases which were dubbed. This is also the full 103 minute version, whereas the Italian version was cut down to 82 minutes. The restored print looks very good overall with only a few blemishes. The blu-ray disc is in 1080p with CinemaScope 2.35:1. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 may sound a bit brash to some ears but this is evidently how the film has always sounded, and I merely had the volume adjusted down a bit from where I normally watch a film. There are many special features, such as an introduction by Colin MacCabe, and a couple of documentaries about the film: "Once Upon a Time There Was...Contempt", and "Contempt...Tenderly". There is also a conversation with Fritz Lang, and in "The Dinosaur and the Baby" a discussion between Fritz Lang, and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as a booklet with an essay by Ginette Vincendeau.

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What a great movie that is and i saw it 20 times. This is a great transfer with the original movie opening (credits) for me this is the perfect movie ever made, Brigitte Bardot is rather gorgeous and plays Camille in a very passive way, the movie is full of rich colourRed Blue and White, a very intelligent movie and i like the movie inside the movie, A great Cast too Michel Piccoli playing Brigitte husband, Fritz lanf playing himself as the great Film director and Jack Palance playing the american producer . The movie was shot in Capri and the music is simply

haunting. For me this is the perfect movie, and it feeds all my senses, great photography by Raoul Coutard, stunning Location and a very stunning Brigitte Bardot who can prove that she was rather a good actress.THE EXTRAS ARE AMAZING TOO, A VERY RARE DOCUMENTARY MADE ABOUT BB "PAPARAZZI" SHOWING A PURSUED Brigitte. and a couple of interesting interviews of Fritz Lang and Jean Luc Goddard. IF YOU MUST BUY A GODDARD MOVIE THIS IS THE ONE TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION. SIMPLY INTELLIGENT AND THE OPENING SCENE Of BB AND Piccoli (when she asked him if she likes her body and ...) is a very arty nude scene added by goddard to please the american producer.One of BB BEST MOVIE ALONG WITH THE TRUTH (Made by Clouzot).I LOVE IT !!!

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