I love foreign films. Some of my favorite films are French. I have no problem with sub-titles. I like lots of '60s films and art-house films. I'm a Brigitte Bardot fan from way back. I've studied film/video production and I work in the entertainment industry. With all that said...
I do not like this film nor do I understand why anyone would consider it a "masterpiece" or rate it a 10!
The characters are mostly unlikable and uninteresting.
Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is an indecisive dolt. He's also a hypocrite, a card-carrying Communist who doesn't mind sacrificing his principles if it gets him $10,000 to pay off his lovely apartment. Oh, and he slaps his wife too. Not nice.
Camille Javal (Brigitte Bardot) is flighty and annoying. Her endless pouting gets old really quick. I love Bri-Bri but, as a straight woman, umpteen shots of her butt don't do anything for me.
The producer, Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), is a shallow stereotype.
It's interesting to see Fritz Lang, playing himself, but he doesn't really add much to the proceedings. He's just there as a counterpoint to Prokosch. Any old, European director would've sufficed.
The 34-minute scene (comprising one third of the entire film!) of Bardot and Piccoli arguing in their apartment is interminable. I don't mind talky films...as long as the talk is interesting or entertaining! This isn't. "I love you. No, I detest you. Just kidding, I still love you. No, I really do hate you," every 3 minutes is just tiresome. The viewer doesn't know enough about either character to be able to form an opinion on who's being reasonable or unreasonable so they both come across as jerks.
It was hard for me to concentrate on the dialogue during the time when Piccoli was walking around half-dressed or in the bathtub because I kept fantasizing about him being dunked into a vat of Nair! Ick.
For all of the writing about how this is "a film about film-making", there's precious little actual film-making or real talk about film-making going on. It's mostly just vacillation on will the doofus write the script or won't he?
There is some nice cinematography and scenery (how can you go wrong with Capri?) here. That one piece of overly-dramatic music repeated, again and again, over the mundane dialogue quickly becomes irritating.
When two main characters in a film die and you couldn't care less, well, that says something about the film.
If "Contempt" had been directed by some unknown, instead of Godard, would it be as highly regarded as it is?
No way!
I think it's all a joke on Godard's part. He got offered lots of money from a big studio so he decided to thumb his nose at them by making a commercially unappealing film.
It's an expression of HIS contempt.
I do not like this film nor do I understand why anyone would consider it a "masterpiece" or rate it a 10!
The characters are mostly unlikable and uninteresting.
Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is an indecisive dolt. He's also a hypocrite, a card-carrying Communist who doesn't mind sacrificing his principles if it gets him $10,000 to pay off his lovely apartment. Oh, and he slaps his wife too. Not nice.
Camille Javal (Brigitte Bardot) is flighty and annoying. Her endless pouting gets old really quick. I love Bri-Bri but, as a straight woman, umpteen shots of her butt don't do anything for me.
The producer, Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), is a shallow stereotype.
It's interesting to see Fritz Lang, playing himself, but he doesn't really add much to the proceedings. He's just there as a counterpoint to Prokosch. Any old, European director would've sufficed.
The 34-minute scene (comprising one third of the entire film!) of Bardot and Piccoli arguing in their apartment is interminable. I don't mind talky films...as long as the talk is interesting or entertaining! This isn't. "I love you. No, I detest you. Just kidding, I still love you. No, I really do hate you," every 3 minutes is just tiresome. The viewer doesn't know enough about either character to be able to form an opinion on who's being reasonable or unreasonable so they both come across as jerks.
It was hard for me to concentrate on the dialogue during the time when Piccoli was walking around half-dressed or in the bathtub because I kept fantasizing about him being dunked into a vat of Nair! Ick.
For all of the writing about how this is "a film about film-making", there's precious little actual film-making or real talk about film-making going on. It's mostly just vacillation on will the doofus write the script or won't he?
There is some nice cinematography and scenery (how can you go wrong with Capri?) here. That one piece of overly-dramatic music repeated, again and again, over the mundane dialogue quickly becomes irritating.
When two main characters in a film die and you couldn't care less, well, that says something about the film.
If "Contempt" had been directed by some unknown, instead of Godard, would it be as highly regarded as it is?
No way!
I think it's all a joke on Godard's part. He got offered lots of money from a big studio so he decided to thumb his nose at them by making a commercially unappealing film.
It's an expression of HIS contempt.