Contempt
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard • 1963 • France
Starring Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance
Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is 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.”
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Contempt
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard • 1963 • France
Starring Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack PalanceJean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. CONTEMPT stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European direct...
Extras
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CONTEMPT Commentary
Recorded in the summer of 2002, this commentary features film scholar Robert Stam. Professor Stam is the author of many books on film, including “Reflexivity in Film and Literature: From Don Quixote to Jean-Luc Godard” and “Film Theory: An Introduction.”
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Cinemascope in CONTEMPT
Having explored Jean-Luc Godard’s iconoclastic use of the boxy 4:3 aspect ratio in VIVRE SA VIE in the previous edition of Observations on Film Art, Professor David Bordwell here breaks down the French New Wave renegade’s equally experimental use of the elongated CinemaScope frame in another of h...
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“Cinéastes de notre temps”: Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard
This conversation between CONTEMPT director Jean-Luc Godard and filmmaker Fritz Lang was released in 1967. It was part of the “Cinéastes de notre temps” series produced by André S. Labarthe.
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Encounter with Fritz Lang
Director Peter Fleischmann filmed the following meeting on location in Capri during the making of CONTEMPT. It premiered at the Oberhausen Film Festival in 1964.
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Bardot et Godard
This short film by Jacques Rozier was filmed on the set of CONTEMPT.
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Jean-Luc Godard on CONTEMPT
The following is excerpted from a 1964 interview with director Jean-Luc Godard.
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Raoul Coutard on CONTEMPT
Raoul Coutard is the cinematographer most closely associated with the filmmakers of the nouvelle vague. In addition to CONTEMPT, his collaborations with Godard include BREATHLESS (1959), VIVRE SA VIE (1962), and PIERROT LE FOU (1965). He also served as lensman for several other classics, includin...
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Widescreen vs. Full-Frame
Prior to its Criterion release, CONTEMPT had never been available on home video in its original franscope (2.35:1) aspect ratio. In the following examples, a gray overlay covers the parts of the panoramic image that had to be cropped to make the film fit a standard television set. Not only are Go...