Contempt
d. Jean-Luc Godard, 1963
One of Jean-Luc Godard's best works, 1963's gorgeous 'Scope epic Contempt, is also one of the best films about film ever made (another would be Fellini's 8 1/2, released the same year), though at times it seems more like a cross between an Antonioni study and a standard Godard self-reflexiveness. Contempt stars the beautiful Brigitte Bardot (who's never looked better) and the unforgettable Michel Piccoli; he's a screenwriter recently hired to adapted Homer's The Odyssey for a new Fritz Lang film (he plays himself here), she's the loving wife whose contempt for him provides most of the thematic groundwork in the movie. The film is basically divided into three parts: in the first part, we see Piccoli visiting a producer played by Jack Palance and Fritz Lang at a studio in Rome; in the second, and probably the most astonishing, we get a 33 minute scene which takes place entirely in Piccoli's and Bardot's apartment. This scene, which is the closest thing to an Antonioni scene outside of his own ouvre, portrays the relationship between the two characters as a rocky landscape on the verge of distruction. The final part of the film, and the most beautiful in terms of photography, takes place at Palance's villa where they are shooting Lang's film. The story comes full circle there and the shock ending is quite something. All in all, this is amongst the best films of the French New Wave.
