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Contempt (film)

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Contempt
original film poster
Directed byJean-Luc Godard
Written byAlberto Moravia (novel)
Jean-Luc Godard
Produced byCarlo Ponti
Georges de Beauregard
Joseph E. Levine
StarringBrigitte Bardot
Michel Piccoli
Jack Palance
Giorgia Moll
Fritz Lang
CinematographyRaoul Coutard
Edited byAgnès Guillemot
Lila Lakshmanan
Music byGeorges Delerue
Piero Piccioni
Distributed byEmbassy Pictures Corporation
Release datesOctober 29, 1963
Running time103 min.
LanguageFrench/English/German/Italian
Budget$900,000 (estimated)

Contempt (original French title Le Mépris, Italian title Il Disprezzo) is a film released in 1963, directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

It was based on Alberto Moravia's 1954 Italian-language novel Il disprezzo.

Plot

Template:Spoiler American movie producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) hires respected German director Fritz Lang (playing himself) to direct a film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Dissatisfied with Lang's treatment of the material as an art film, Prokosch hires Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a novelist and playwright, to rework the script. The conflict between artistic expression and commercial opportunity parallels Paul's sudden estrangement from his wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot), who is mysteriously aloof to him after being left alone with his boss, the millionaire playboy Prokosch.

In a notable sequence, the characters played by Piccoli and Bardot wander through their apartment alternately arguing and reconciling, Bardot playing the petulant young wife in a way that became definitive of the style. The sequence was memorably filmed in an extended series of tracking shots, in natural light and in near real-time.

Where it was Filmed

Contempt was filmed and takes place entirely in Italy, with location shooting at the landmark Cinecittà studios near Rome and the Casa Malaparte on Capri.

The film is often considered one of Godard's best, and an integral entry of the French New Wave. It was inducted into the Criterion Collection in 2002 as Spine #171.

Jack Palance hurling a film canister like a discus in Le Mépris. Painted on the wall behind is a quote by Louis Lumière: "Il cinema è un’invenzione senza avvenire." ("The cinema is an invention without any future.")

Trivia

Camille Javal is Brigitte Bardot's real name.

External links

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