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Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, English, Subtitled
With Jean-Luc Goddard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking comes a star-studded Cinemascope epic; Contempt stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process.
"This is Godard in his prime, a master of pace and style..." G. Allen Johnson, The San Francisco Examiner
Editor's Note
Jean-Luc Godard's cynical look at the art of filmmaking follows a screenwriter in his attempts to recount Homer's THE ODYSSEY. Full of insights into the compromises required of filmmakers, as well as autobiographical allusions, especially concerning the failed union of Godard and actress Anna Karina, 1964's CONTEMPT is one of the most widely recognized films about the filmmaking process. It is also considered the film that made Godard realize that lavish productions were not for him, sending him back into a lower-budget world where he could maintain complete control over his films. Shot in glorious CinemaScope by Raoul Coutard, CONTEMPT is a poignant artistic commentary and a dramatic exposé of a dying marriage.Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli) is struggling with Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance), the manipulative American producer financing his big-budget venture, and is frustrated by Fritz Lang (playing himself), the film's egotistical director. Concomitantly, his marriage to his gorgeous wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) founders, and the emotional distance between them weighs heavily upon him.
Plot Summary
In this cynical look at the art of filmmaking, a director attempts to retell Homer's THE ODYSSEY. He wrangles with his own creative process and the coarse producer's ridiculous demands.
| Features | Scene Selection | | French Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 | | English Subtitles | | Interactive Menus |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Home Vision/Public Media |
| Release Date: 12/10/2002 |
| Running Time: 103 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1964 | | Catalog ID: 110 | | UPC: 00037429173121 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: French | | Available Audio Tracks: French | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Chicago Sun-Times
"...[Bardot] seems very natural..." 09/05/1997 p.31Sight and Sound
"Godard's masterpiece works on several levels: as a self-reflexive satire about filmmaking, as a study of relationship in its dying throes and as a reworking of a classical myth." 02/01/2004 p.69 Total Film
"Sardonically scripted, it was shot in luminous Mediterranean locales..." 02/01/2004 p.115 Los Angeles Times
"[A] masterpiece, a poetic, deeply reflective reverie on the interplay between a disintegrating marriage and the problematic filming of THE ODYSSEY in Italy." 07/11/2008 The L.A. Times 8 of 10
There is, in this focus on personal and artistic relationships gone sour, a sense of quiet tragedy hovering over Contempt, a mood heightened by Georges Delerue's lush and moody score. Melancholy and sensual, Contempt is the one Godard film it's impossible to mistake for any other, and the director, perhaps sensing this, puckishly cast himself as Lang's officious assistant director. It's a nod to greatness that, 30-plus years later, the film itself returns in kind. - Kenneth Turan
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