Rating: 
Summary: Le Mepris
Review: No one has captured the end of a relationship on film better than Godard in Contempt. In between the excrutiatingly accurate scenes between Piccoli and Bardot are musings on the nature of cinema, Homer's Odyssey, Godardian polemics and a practical treatise on the use of color in film by Raoul Coutard. And those tracking shots of Godard! This is a terrific DVD - the image and color are superb, sound crystal clear. Another great presentation from the Criterion Collection. But what I really appreciated was that on the disc's menu screen there was a full rendition of George Delerue's magnificent main theme, easily one of the most beautiful motif's ever written for film. Worth the price of the DVD for that alone.
Rating:
Summary: Based on the novel by Alberto Moravia
Review: No one here seems to realize that this film is based on the novel by the great modern Italian writer Alberto Moravia, also the author of The Conformist, and Two Women, both of which also were made into great films.
Rating:
Summary: Penelope Vs. Ulysses or Art Vs. Commerce In The Space Age
Review: 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...
Rating: 
Summary: Bin it.
Review: Regarded by some as Godard's most accessible movie, I beg to differ: Godard has survived because of the freshness and charm of his best films, not as most fawning critics would have you believe because of their intellectual content or ground-breaking film making. As far as intellect goes, the most you hope for with Godard is a ten-minute Maoist harangue interesting now only for showing the then-zeitgeist. As for brilliant, ground-breaking film-making, the same applies - plenty of student films have adopted the same techniques as Godard just to save money or out of pure innocence. If you want groundbreaking, you want Kurosawa or Tarkovsky or Von Trier. What is great about Godard are scenes like the improvised café dance in Bande a Part or the crazy "murder" sequences in Pierrot, scenes which are outrageously witty and cool and original but actually quite simple, like the Beatles singing "I am the Walrus, woooooh."
Back to the point: Unlike his Pierrot, Bande a Part or Une Femme est une Femme in particular, this film seriously lacks charm. The whole thing has a sour mood about it, the actors really look like they have no idea what they are up to and just want it to be over - Palance above all, forced to play a madly egotistical meglomaniac film producer with lines that would look second-rate in a primary school pantomime. Bardot and Piccoli get through it, but you can sense the tension. Lang looks like he's on Valium. No doubt realising that his film was getting a bit irritating as it labours away with tiresome lack of subtlety at a domestic rupture (see same in Femme est une Femme for how it can be done, but this time con brio), Godard goes for broke by repeatedly introducing the mawkish background music all over the place (you can almost see him with an adolescent smirk on his face as he lays it on) to the point of making you groan.
Another thing I frankly don't understand is this: virtually any crit you read will tell you how this was Godard's first and last flirtation with big-budget movie-making. Big budget? It's about the cheapest movie I've ever seen. For example: any producer worth his salt would be surrounded with an entourage and chauffeurs. This guy can barely run to one secretary and drives himself around in a medium-budget Alfa. Likewise Lang. At the Villa Malaparte, a spectacular site on Capri, we see some scenes with a reception being laid out in the back. Look carefully: the "caterers" consist of one old man fumbling around with some plates. The paint is peeling off the walls in the living room. The entire film crew working on the film-within-the-film seems to consist of about three people, and they're not even around most of the time. Best of all, look carefully at the car crash in the final reel. Apparently they couldn't even afford to total the Alfa, so it's a mock up.
Art films are tricky things: the best of them can change your life and lift you to inspiration and wonder. The worst are not worth the celluloid they're made on. But to read all the critics, you sometimes have a hell of a job deciding which is which. Take it from me, this one belongs in the poubelle.
Rating:
Summary: Bin it.
Review: Regarded by some as Godard's most accessible movie, I beg to differ: Godard has survived because of the freshness and charm of his best films, not as most fawning critics would have you believe because of their intellectual content or ground-breaking film making. As far as intellect goes, the most you hope for with Godard is a ten-minute Maoist harangue interesting now only for showing the then-zeitgeist. As for brilliant, ground-breaking film-making, the same applies - plenty of student films have adopted the same techniques as Godard just to save money or out of pure innocence. If you want groundbreaking, you want Kurosawa or Tarkovsky or Von Trier. What is great about Godard are scenes like the improvised café dance in Bande a Part or the crazy "murder" sequences in Pierrot, scenes which are outrageously witty and cool and original but actually quite simple, like the Beatles singing "I am the Walrus, woooooh."
Back to the point: Unlike his Pierrot, Bande a Part or Une Femme est une Femme in particular, this film seriously lacks charm. The whole thing has a sour mood about it, the actors really look like they have no idea what they are up to and just want it to be over - Palance above all, forced to play a madly egotistical meglomaniac film producer with lines that would look second-rate in a primary school pantomime. Bardot and Piccoli get through it, but you can sense the tension. Lang looks like he's on Valium. No doubt realising that his film was getting a bit irritating as it labours away with tiresome lack of subtlety at a domestic rupture (see same in Femme est une Femme for how it can be done, but this time con brio), Godard goes for broke by repeatedly introducing the mawkish background music all over the place (you can almost see him with an adolescent smirk on his face as he lays it on) to the point of making you groan.
Another thing I frankly don't understand is this: virtually any crit you read will tell you how this was Godard's first and last flirtation with big-budget movie-making. Big budget? It's about the cheapest movie I've ever seen. For example: any producer worth his salt would be surrounded with an entourage and chauffeurs. This guy can barely run to one secretary and drives himself around in a medium-budget Alfa. Likewise Lang. At the Villa Malaparte, a spectacular site on Capri, we see some scenes with a reception being laid out in the back. Look carefully: the "caterers" consist of one old man fumbling around with some plates. The paint is peeling off the walls in the living room. The entire film crew working on the film-within-the-film seems to consist of about three people, and they're not even around most of the time. Best of all, look carefully at the car crash in the final reel. Apparently they couldn't even afford to total the Alfa, so it's a mock up.
Art films are tricky things: the best of them can change your life and lift you to inspiration and wonder. The worst are not worth the celluloid they're made on. But to read all the critics, you sometimes have a hell of a job deciding which is which. Take it from me, this one belongs in the poubelle.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Brilliant...
Review: The Italian writer Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is hired to write a screenplay about Homer's Odyssey which will be directed by the German director Fritz Lang (himself) and produced by the American producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance). Jeremy begins to flirt openly with Paul's wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), and ends up asking if the couple wants to visit his place for drinks. Jeremy also asks Camille if she wants to go with him in the car to his place. Unfortunately, there is only room for two individuals in his red Alpha Romeo. Camille is hesitant, but Paul encourages her to go with Jeremy. Paul gets delayed on his way to Jeremy's place and when he arrives he finds himself being met by Camille with some resistance. When the couple goes home to their newly acquired apartment, a discussion begins where Camille's resistance ends up with open contempt for Paul. Contempt is an analysis of human relationships where trust, communication, and care is in the focus through the lens of Jean-Luc Godard. The film provides a sublime opportunity for the audience to view the actions and consequences of a variety of individuals and see how these individuals converge intellectually and emotionally in the project on which they work. The result of the screening is a brilliant experience that provides chance for pondering and reflection over the characters' actions as well as the directing and cinematography.
Rating:
Summary: CONTEMPT is an unconventional comedy!
Review: The only reason I rented this was because of BB (Brigitte Bardot) and the fact that they say she actually acts in this and I thought, "That I have to see." I had no prior knowledge of Jean-Luc Godard. But when I saw this film I was left thinking, "That was comedy?" I heard this was a comedy but I did not think so at first. But then I found out that it was a private comedy in which you have to be in on the joke. The joke being that Godard held a producer whose name escapes me in contempt for some reason and the character of the producer is shown as rather shady and too much into himself which is the way by the looks of it Godard percieved the producer. And just thinking of how that producer reacted to this adds a sense of irony which makes the movie funny! BTW, the plot concerns a group of people who along with the conceited american producer are making a film version of THE ODYSSEY and along with this comes problems which are mostly a result of the producer's prescence. Brigitte Bardot plays the wife of one of the french producers who is hit on by the american producer which causes friction in her marriage and the scenes between her and her husband are a bit tragic yet funny at the same time. The movie is not so much plot driven. It's more of a study of relationships which instead of being given the straight up tragic or tempestous treatment is like I said before made a bit more comedic. It's an unusual film which might not be to everyone's taste and I admit it takes a repeat viewing to enjoy more. And another thing: the score by Georges Delerue is filled with such a sense of tragedy which adds to the ironic feel of the scenes but placing the music against a more serious kind of movie (Scorsese used a section of the music for CASINO) still works. A film which is definatly worth a look. And concerning BB's performance it's definatly noteworthy. She usually plays the hot to trot sex kitten who is constantly teasing and on fire. Here she teases but she remains distant and cold toward her husband which is very uncharacteristic of her. At least this shows she has some kind of range.
Rating: 
Summary: Lavish presentation of a classic.
Review: This CRITERION edition of "Contempt" gives the cinema buff plenty of causes of rejoicing. Not only does it offer a terrific cinemascope version of the film, but also a lot of valuable bonus material.Now, into the film itself. One can suspect that European filmmaking is and has been boring and pedantic. Particularly, as regards the Nouvelle Vague, and its author-directors, it seems to be so, on the face of it. But if you make the allowances that should be made and take that for granted, you'll be able to enjoy a kind of art that has enomous values. Watching "Contempt" one is never sure what its director's intentions are. Apparently, to mock much of the tradicional way the films were made was one ot its aims. Both technically and thematically, the desire to transgress and parody is evident. It is good, nevertheless, to open new avenues to creativity in any field. This is probably one of the best films ever made on cinema making and couple splitting. Forget our fast-paced and overwhelmingly charged (with special effects) contemporary movies. This is the opposite pole. Something of a play, very well written, and very well acted by most of the cast. We see how a married couple breaks off, because of the "contempt" the wife has been developing towards the man. Many quotations, references to other films and directors (Rossellini, Hawks, Ray, Hitchcock, etc.), an erudite script and creative directorial style are the attractions of this film. Also, Brigitte Bardot, nude at the peak of her splendor, and the opportunity to see the great Fritz Lang playing himself. "The dinosaur and the baby" is an interview to Lang by Godard. With me, it has been a little disappointing. On the one hand, Godard looks (or looked) like an introvert, a not very nice person. And Lang was at the time an old man, very happy of course of the admiration the rampant youths from the Nouvelle Vague professed for him. Neither of them communicates very well -the interview was made in 1967- and what they have to say is relatively interesting. We'd better watch their achievements as directors. At one point, Lang says, very sensibly, that a director speaks with his films. If he has to explain them away, he is not as valuable as that. At any rate, this film is a masterpiece, and up to now, the best work for the screen that I've seen relating to the crisis in a couple -forget "Eyes withe shut", for example-. It is enjoyable, too, and you get the desire to watch it many times and know more about it and its makers. So, it is money well spent to purchase this faboulous Criterion edition.
Rating: 
Summary: a film about filmmaking
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
"Contempt" known as "Le Mépris" in France, was directed by renouned French director Jean-Luc Goddard. it is a nicely done film about a movie crew working on the production of an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. There are disagreements between crew members which lead to confrontations.
The famous director Fritz Lang even appears in the film as himself. There are some fine scenes with Brigitte Bardot as well. The movie is very well done and has some excellent scenery of the Mediterranean Sea in it.
The DVD set also has some excelent special features.
Disc 1 contains the film with optional audio commentary by film scholar Robert Stam.
Disc 2 has a theatrical trailer, an hour long conversation between Jean-Luc Goddard and Fritz Lang titled "Dinosaur and the baby", two films about Goddard made during filming on contempt; Contempt: "Bardot and Godard" and "Paparazzi." There is also a scene from a 1964 interview with Goddard and brand new interview with Raoul Coutard.
This is not a favorite of mine but is considered a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Godard's Attempt at Big Budget
Review: This was a good film. It's slow-moving by today's standards and I doubt many younger filmgoers would have the patience to sit through many of its lengthy sequences, where admittedly, little "happens" on screen. That's Godard's style and what gives his movies their unique approach. That's the charm and this film's full of it. The conversations and communications between the characters in this film seem so believable and "genuine" that it's hard to immagine this is performance by actors reading a script. It seems too improvised and natural and "documentary" in style, that you could almost accuse Jean Luc Godard of making "fake" reality TV years before its time. (It's much better than reality TV however in that Godard's characters are far more exotic and interesting). This DVD is presented in a tight 2.85:1 widescreen ratio from Cinemascope film in full color. The colors are vibrant and Godard makes excellent use of the panoramic widecsreen composition in all his shots. It's a visual treat throughout. The audio commentary is insightful and will enrich your appreciation of the film. Bardot's performance is stunning. My favorite aspect was in seeing Fritz Lang play himself. He must've been a very fascinating and brilliant man.
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