Turfseer's Movie Review of Contempt ( mépris, Le )

Rating of
1.5/4

Contempt ( mépris, Le )

Slow-moving agitprop critque of Hollywood
Turfseer - wrote on 05/23/11

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

For those who were utterly bored by Jean Luc Godard's 'Contempt', I urge you to watch the Criterion Collection's version, with the DVD commentary by Professor Robert Stam turned on. Stam's commentary actually explains what Godard was trying to do in the film and is not only a fascinating analysis of the plot but a wholly worthwhile digression as to the history of the film's production. In no way, however, do I agree with Professor Stam's unqualified praise of its director, Mr. Godard, as well as his implied conclusion that 'Contempt' is an important part of cinematic history.

As Stam points out, 'Contempt' was relatively a big budget production in relation to Godard's other 'New Wave' films during his heyday. The film wouldn't have been made without the presence of Brigitte Bardot who at that time was considered a sex symbol. The producers made it clear to Godard that there had to be at least three scenes where Bardot appeared in the nude. The anti-establishment Godard agreed to a 'compromise' and inserted Bardot nude scenes at the beginning,middle and end of the picture. Working under those restrictions, Godard turned the tables on his chiefly American backers ('Contempt' was a joint Italian/American production) by ensuring that there was nothing 'lurid' about the nude scenes. Quite the contrary, Godard mocks Hollywood's obsession with sex by having Bardot intellectualize her sexual endowments in a bland bedtime conversation between the principal characters, Camille (Bardot) and Paul (Michel Piccoli). Later, Camille is seen as an ordinary housewife in the bathtub, reading a biography of Fritz Lang.

The 'Contempt' plot is rather simple. Paul, a novelist/playwright is hired by an American producer, Jeremy Prokosch (played by Jack Palance) to re-write the script of a film based on Homer's "The Odyssey'. The film within a film is directed by real-life director Fritz Lang who plays himself. Godard creates a straw man in the character of Prokosch who he depicts as a boorish American, obsessed with money and sex. In a twist on Nazi Propaganda Minster Goebbel's famous utterance, Prokosch proclaims, "Whenever I hear the word culture, I pull out my checkbook". His one-dimensional villainy is further illustrated when he's seen leering during one of the film-within-a-film dailies of a nude, mermaid-like woman, swimming in the ocean. It's no accident that Godard cast Palance as the repulsive producer, as Palance was known for his tough guy roles at the time.

If Prokosch is your one-dimensional villain, Godard's 'hero' is director Lang. In real-life, Lang was known for his 'tough love' approach in directing actors but none of his irascible personality is on display here. Rather, he's placed on a pedestal and merely acts as a platform for Godard's views on art and culture. Lang's 'all-knowing' interpretation of Ulysses as organically linked to nature is contrasted with Paul's relationship with Camille, which is doomed to failure.

Most of 'Act 2' of 'Contempt' involves the 'quarrel' scene between Paul and Camille. Paul is depicted as an imperfect, if not failed, Ulysses. As usual, Godard seeks to subvert typical Hollywood conventions by deemphasizing the dramatic conflicts between the two principals. At the height of their quarrel, Godard employs a slow tracking shot, which symbolizes the distance between Paul and Camille. Godard deflates the audience's expectations further when Paul puts a gun inside his jacket but never uses it. Finally, Camille keeps telling Paul that he despises him but never provides a decent explanation. The audience is left hanging and one can imagine Godard smiling behind the camera murmuring to himself, 'aha, you were expecting another typical Hollywood resolution, but you will not get it from me'!

In the end, Godard's agitprop cinema is all style over substance. His film is filled with 'gimmicks' that many well-known critics and filmmakers hail as hallmarks of bold experimentation. So in the 'audition scene', where the sound is continually turned on and off, that's an example, according to Professor Stam, of Brechtian distancing. In order to avoid the tendency toward voyeurism, "art should display the principles of its own construction". Even the 'grand' climax of 'Contempt' ends with an intentional deflation. Prokopsch and Camille are killed in a car accident but we never see the crash. Instead, we're treated to a glimpse of Camille's farewell letter to Paul, stock audio of a car crash and then a final shot of the victims unnaturally facing in opposite directions with their convertible slightly mangled between the tires of a tractor trailer.

Despite his love for film noir, Godard's anti-American bent was evident way back when he was the film critics' darling. Godard reserves his greatest contempt for the Hollywood studio system. In contrast, in the idealized figure of Lang, European culture emerges triumphant. Now in his later days, Godard's anti-Americanism seems to have become more pronounced (see NY Times and Roger Ebert's review of Godard's 2001 film Eloge de l'amour) as well as displaying marked tendencies of anti-Semitism (see the article, "Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Brasillach, and Anti-Semitism: Some observations" by Glenn Kenny).

'Contempt' is worth seeing just so one can note the lengths Godard went to promote his rather simplistic view of so-called Hollywood 'corruption'. Godard's put down of film convention is effected without the necessary good-natured ribbing and all his 'gimmicks' can't hide the fact that his contemptuous world view is fraught with half-truths and an adolescent piety.

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