Jean-Luc Godard’s , “Contempt”, is the result of what happens when cinema’s top sexual attraction is asked to headline and carry a film by one of cinema’s most intellectual and coldest directors.
In order to understand this movie it is important to know who Brigitte Bardot was in 1963. Not yet 30 years old she was already the epitome of male sexual fantasy having already made countless sexual farces that were seen the world over. She was not known for her thespian talents. Godard on the other hand was the French New wave’s coldest and most somber director.
Within the plot of this film there is another great director (Fritz Lang playing himself) who is in the middle of directing a film version of the Greek tragedy, “Odyssey”. His producer is a disgusting brute of a man played by Jack Palance who made a career of playing loathsome characters. This is all background as the movie revolves around a struggling playwright named Paul (Michel Piccoli in his inaugural role and his amazingly beautiful wife Camille (Bardot). Paul wants to be hired to write the screenplay for Lang’s movie after the producer is unhappy with the artistic story being filmed up to that point. The Job pays good money and the producer has his eyes on Camille. Well, she is Brigitte Bardot so that is not surprising. It is Camille’s realization that Paul is willing to sell his ideals and even her for this opportunity that triggers Godard’s interest in the human conditions of love and betrayal. Camille seeing what is going on reevaluates her feelings for Paul.
The film shifts within three locals. The movie studio, Paul and Camille’s apartment, and the movie set location of a grand, beautiful villa in the Italian sea resort of Capri. Each of these locations is striking in different ways. The studio is an ugly warehouse and garbage strewn building that reflects the personality of the producer. The apartment is modest but elegant flat in which the couple tear their emotions apart in, and the villa in Capri is grand and colorful, surrounded by beautiful scenic views that represents the beauty of temptation.
The most interesting section of the film is the one in the apartment where Godard uses Hitchcock-like techniques in following the couple around and through the apartment while their relationship unravels around them. At over 30 minutes this is a long unraveling that I thought was a bit too long but fascinating nonetheless.
I have to say that Godard did a fine job in getting a good performance out of Bardot. She portrays her deep hurt very well and I kept thinking that a lot of what was happening to her in the movie may have hit home with her personally, allowing real feeling to seep through.
In the end I found this movie a very sad depressing tale that was filmed elegantly and with flair. It is too bad that the movie features characters and situations that left me cold and disinterested.
1001 Movies before you die 