Because I am a film geek there are movies I must watch, even if I do not want to. Jean-Luc Godard's 'Contempt' is one of those films.
I saw this 1963 Italian/French production yesterday after taping it on TCM some months back. Though the reviews I read through either praised or scorned it, I found myself in the latter. Remember, intrepid reader that criticism is subjective. No two people see the same film the same way. Why? Because we filter the perception with our experiences. And we all have different experiences in life. Through in culture, religion, a host of other variables and you can get many polarizing reviews.
Most people know that French film director Jean-Luc Godard IS the French New Wave, starting off with his early 1960's seminal, 'Breathless', which at the time was groundbreaking for its generation. It certainly has influenced many low budget films, certainly a template for 1970s independent film-making auteur John Cassavetes.
Why did I dislike 'Contempt'? Was it because of the lack of seeing French sex bombshell Bridget Bardot in a sexy role? This was the least skin she showed in a movie and Jean-Luc was forced to go back and redo some shots to show her nude. Actually, no. That wasn't the reason.
What got to me was the endless bickering. The repetitive arguing in Cartesian circular form about their disastrous marriage throughout the entire film made me believe that this was what was going with the director Jean-Luc at this time in his life, especially when you consider the film they are working on within the film itself is 'The Odyssey' and the main character and narrator is more obsessed about whether or not Penelope cheated on Odysseus back in Ithaca than he is in the hero's journey.
And you know what? I was right.
Though this was the biggest production Jean-Luc ever made, one with a big studio with big A-List names, this was still a low budget approach to a movie and in some ways he was exorcising his demons about his own failing marriage. To write it off as a European convention is not correct.
A movie like this could certainly not be made by Hollywood today. Sure, they are dark films out there about family or marriage dysfunction. But the constant medium shot and overlapping dialogue (a la Robert Altman style) would never be financed by a major studio as 'Contempt' was.
What this film reminded me of was, Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf? You get people like Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and they could spin this mediocre screenplay into gold, Oscar gold that is, which is what they did. Of course, that is my opinion and I have not seen other reviews mention this connection.
Sure, relationships go through tough times and some break as a result. But this film makes you think: if they are so miserable together, why bother staying together? Life is too short to have such misery heaped upon you in doses.
Music? It so graded on your nerves with its swells in endless repetition as a motif that I was wondering if Jean-Luc had final cut authority. Because it had to be the only reason why the same piece of music played on endless loop, to satisfy himself, not the audience. Not even composer Philip Glass does that and he created the repetitive sound for soundtracks.
I will give this film two praises though: it does feature famous German director Fritz Lang playing himself here. Fritz directed a very famous silent film 'Metropolis' made in 1928. (I recently saw the uncut version; if you don't know this movie, it was featured as Madonna's 'Express Yourself' music video and has influence on other films such as 'Blade Runner').
The second praise is that there is a bit of a device that Jean-Luc gives that throws you off from the ending you think is coming. I'll leave it at that as a surprise, if you choose to see this.
I saw this 1963 Italian/French production yesterday after taping it on TCM some months back. Though the reviews I read through either praised or scorned it, I found myself in the latter. Remember, intrepid reader that criticism is subjective. No two people see the same film the same way. Why? Because we filter the perception with our experiences. And we all have different experiences in life. Through in culture, religion, a host of other variables and you can get many polarizing reviews.
Most people know that French film director Jean-Luc Godard IS the French New Wave, starting off with his early 1960's seminal, 'Breathless', which at the time was groundbreaking for its generation. It certainly has influenced many low budget films, certainly a template for 1970s independent film-making auteur John Cassavetes.
Why did I dislike 'Contempt'? Was it because of the lack of seeing French sex bombshell Bridget Bardot in a sexy role? This was the least skin she showed in a movie and Jean-Luc was forced to go back and redo some shots to show her nude. Actually, no. That wasn't the reason.
What got to me was the endless bickering. The repetitive arguing in Cartesian circular form about their disastrous marriage throughout the entire film made me believe that this was what was going with the director Jean-Luc at this time in his life, especially when you consider the film they are working on within the film itself is 'The Odyssey' and the main character and narrator is more obsessed about whether or not Penelope cheated on Odysseus back in Ithaca than he is in the hero's journey.
And you know what? I was right.
Though this was the biggest production Jean-Luc ever made, one with a big studio with big A-List names, this was still a low budget approach to a movie and in some ways he was exorcising his demons about his own failing marriage. To write it off as a European convention is not correct.
A movie like this could certainly not be made by Hollywood today. Sure, they are dark films out there about family or marriage dysfunction. But the constant medium shot and overlapping dialogue (a la Robert Altman style) would never be financed by a major studio as 'Contempt' was.
What this film reminded me of was, Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf? You get people like Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and they could spin this mediocre screenplay into gold, Oscar gold that is, which is what they did. Of course, that is my opinion and I have not seen other reviews mention this connection.
Sure, relationships go through tough times and some break as a result. But this film makes you think: if they are so miserable together, why bother staying together? Life is too short to have such misery heaped upon you in doses.
Music? It so graded on your nerves with its swells in endless repetition as a motif that I was wondering if Jean-Luc had final cut authority. Because it had to be the only reason why the same piece of music played on endless loop, to satisfy himself, not the audience. Not even composer Philip Glass does that and he created the repetitive sound for soundtracks.
I will give this film two praises though: it does feature famous German director Fritz Lang playing himself here. Fritz directed a very famous silent film 'Metropolis' made in 1928. (I recently saw the uncut version; if you don't know this movie, it was featured as Madonna's 'Express Yourself' music video and has influence on other films such as 'Blade Runner').
The second praise is that there is a bit of a device that Jean-Luc gives that throws you off from the ending you think is coming. I'll leave it at that as a surprise, if you choose to see this.
