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.”

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...

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.

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.

This short film by Jacques Rozier was filmed on the set of CONTEMPT.

Filmed concurrently with CONTEMPT, Jacques Rozier’s film follows the day-to-day conflicts between an enemy—the paparazzi and their invasive cameras—and its prey, Brigitte Bardot.

The following is excerpted from a 1964 interview with director Jean-Luc Godard.

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...

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...