Review of Contempt (1963) by Ryan H — 19 Sep 2012

Only a few features into his career and Godard already seems a little depressed about his choice of occupation. It reminds me of what Kieslowski has said about being a filmmaker: looking back he can see that it's not as rewarding for how much of yourself you put into it; if he could go back and change what he did for a living he would.

I felt that way about Godard while watching Contempt. Fritz Lang hates producers (and he seems to despise them as well). The writer only gets attention because of his beautiful wife. And his job is tearing his relationship to pieces.

But first lets talk about that opening. I really thought it was great how there's a narrator that speaks the credits instead of seeing them role on the screen. As this happens we see a crew shooting two people walking down the street and the shot ends looking into our voyeuristic camera.

It sets up the feeling of the rest of the film: we are observers watching people in a movie. Godard never tries to conceal this fact in Contempt. Whenever an emotional shift happens we get the same beautiful music that has played through the whole film.

In fact, the music's even played over the top of the dialogue at times. Really, the whole thing follows a writer trying to help a classic director, Fritz Lang, hone The Odyssey and turn it into a sellable film.

Right now it's full of art and no connection. The story is used as a connection to show Paul's side of the relationship as opposed to the way Camille speaks about it. Paul's married to a beautiful woman who's very much aware of her looks.

It starts out with her asking what Paul thinks of every part of her body while she lies naked in bed with him. When she's finished she concludes that if he loves every part of her body and face then he must love her.

That's why when it seems like he doesn't care about her going off with another guy she's hurt. If she's so beautiful then why isn't he more cautious? Jeremy, the producer, clearly has an interest in her.

He keeps trying to get her alone. So when he invites her into his car to go to his place and Paul tells her to go with him, she's hurt. On top of that he leaves her alone with Jeremy for 30 minutes.

We understand right away when he comes back that something happened between the two. For some reason Paul never picks up on this. When they get back home Paul keeps asking if she's mad because he spanked the brunette translator.

If it's not that then he has no clue why she's no longer in love with him. Camille needs someone who will love all of her, not someone who only half pays attention to her. Plus she seems to think that perhaps he has used her for some ulterior motive.

Perhaps he had her go with Jeremy to get more money out of the deal for the screenplay. Paul keeps trying to point out that if she doesn't want him to he won't do the script anymore. He will stop working with Jeremy.

He was only doing the job to keep up on the payments for the apartment. The apartment scene here is done brilliantly. There are tons of long shots following the actors in an apartment that resembles the ones from Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou.

Godard seems to really like apartments that allow him to weave around the rooms and see two at once. Most of the shots are long. He's not interested in going into closeups on their faces in the argument.

Remember, we are the observers, not participants. We will take whatever seat we can get. I really liked the way we get Paul's perspective while he talks to Fritz Lang about the story of The Odyssey.

He says that Odysseus trusts that Penelope will choose him, but afterwords kills them out of jealousy. He believes at first that Penelope loves him too much that she couldn't choose anyone but him.

Only after does he realize what he put up as stakes. Just like Paul, he doesn't realize what his wife wants. Instead he's only focused on himself, even if he says otherwise. There are so many masterful things you could take from this film.

I'm sure I haven't even touched 1/20 of them. The tragic ending of Camille dying in a car accident with Jeremy fits well, with Paul destined to be alone. None of these characters deserved to go on with a positive existence after the way they acted.

Here, Godard has made a sexy and cool film that deals with the questions of marriage to a beautiful woman. At the same time he seems to be questioning whether or not he should keep working as a filmmaker.

It might lead to him being alone forever. Brilliant film that deserves more than one viewing.