Line #35 Film/Contempt


1	[[quoteright:276:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Contempt_8917.jpg]]
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3	''Contempt'' (original French title: ''Le Mépris'') is a 1963 French movie directed by Creator/JeanLucGodard and starring Creator/BrigitteBardot and Creator/MichelPiccoli. It's based on the novel ''A Ghost at Noon'' by Alberto Moravia.
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5	Dissatisfied with the direction the cinematic adaptation of ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' he's financing is taking under director Creator/FritzLang (AsHimself), American producer Jeremy Prokosch (Creator/JackPalance) hires French playwright Paul Javal (Piccoli) to write a more commercial script. Paul tries to essentially sell his wife Camille (Bardot) to Prokosch, to get a better payment for the script. Camille, pissed with the treatment she's being given, becomes more and more aloof towards her husband.
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8	!!Tropes:
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10	* AdaptationalNameChange: Paul Javal was named Riccardo Molteni in the original novel, his wife Camille was named Emilia, and the producer Jeremy Prokosch was called Battista.
11	* AdaptationalNationality: The characters were all Italian in the novel.
12	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[invoked]] The conflict between director Fritz Lang and producer Jeremy Prokosch revolves around their different interpretations of Odysseus.
13	** Prokosch believes that Odysseus took part in the [[Literature/TheIliad Trojan War]] and subsequently [[Literature/TheOdyssey went on a long journey]] to get away from his wife Penelope. Only when Penelope starts taking a liking to her suitors does Odysseus return to Ithaca and slaughter her suitors to win her back.
14	** Lang has a more traditional view of Odysseus: Odysseus is nothing more than a clever man who dearly loves Penelope. To Lang, Prokosch's {{deconstruction}} of Odysseus goes against the ancient Greeks' perception of Odysseus.
15	* AsHimself: Creator/FritzLang, the director of the Odyssey film.
16	* BreakingTheFourthWall: The very first scene in the film does this, with a long static shot of a camera on a dolly doing a slow tracking shot from the middle distance into the foreground. When it stops, the cameraman in the scene swivels the camera so that it's pointing directly at the viewer.
17	* ChekhovsGun: Javal grabs a revolver after a fight with Camille. [[spoiler:It ends up becoming a RedHerring since Camille takes the bullets out before he can use it.]]
18	* ClusterFBomb: Camille throws one of these in a deadpan manner, to prove that she looks good swearing.
19	* CoolOldGuy: Fritz Lang as himself; weary, humorously resigned to the bullshit spouted by his {{Jerkass}} producer, sympathetic to Paul's marital problems but above all determined to get his film made.
20	* CreativeClosingCredits: Actually Creative Opening Credits: they're not shown on screen at all but read out by Godard himself.
21	-->'''Jean-Luc Godard''': It's based on the novel by Alberto Moravia. It features Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli. Jack Palance and Giorgia Moll, too. And Fritz Lang. Raoul Coutard did the photography. Georges Delerue wrote the score. The sound was recorded by William Sivel. Agnes Guillemot did the editing. Philippe Dussart and Carlo Lastricati were unit managers. It's a film by Jean-Luc Godard. It was shot in [=CinemaScope=] and printed in color by GTC Labs. Georges de Beauregard and Carlo Ponti produced it for Rome-Paris Films, Films Concordia and Compagnia Cinematografia Champion. "The cinema, "said Andre Bazin, "substitutes for our gaze a world more in harmony with our desires. " ''Contempt'' is a story of that world.
22	* CunningLinguist: Francesca, the translator who speaks all four languages spoken in the movie.
23	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Camille's and Paul's marriage falls apart and Camille dies in a car accident along with Prokosch.]]
24	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Prokosch's analysis of Odysseus as someone who hates his wife [[PlotParallel parallels the growing rift between Javal and Camille]]. [[spoiler:In essence, the three characters--Prokosch, Javal, and Camille--take on the roles of various characters from ''The Odyssey''. Like Penelope's suitors, Prokosch dies at the end of the story.]]
25	* AGodAmI: Prokosch's occupation as film producer appears to have gone to his head.
26	-->'''Prokosch:''' I like Gods. I know ''exactly'' how they feel.
27	* TheHeart: Francesca, being a translator in a tense workplace.
28	* LargeHam: Jack Palance doesn't ''chew'' the scenery so much as he ''eviscerates'' it as Jerry Prokosh.
29	* LeFilmArtistique: The Odyssey film seems to be this--little dialogue, long shots of painted-over busts rotating for no particular reason. ''Contempt'' itself manages to avert the stereotypes commonly associated with this.
30	* MsFanservice: You'd expect this from Camille, being Creator/BrigitteBardot, but the film's single most Fanservice-y scene is the opening one, inserted at the request of the producers because they didn't think that the film was titillating enough. Camille lies naked on her stomach on a bed, next to fully-clothed Paul, and asks him which parts of her body he likes. Godard shot the scene first with a red filter, then with no filter, then with a blue filter, which successfully distracts the viewer from Bardot's body and diverts attention towards what's going on with the whole filter thing.
31	* MultinationalTeam: The team working on the film within a film is composed of Italians, Germans, French people and at least one American. [[NewerThanTheyThink It's commonplace nowadays, but at the time it was kind of a novelty.]] It justifies the film's memorable closing shot: a long take of the deep blue sea and sky.
32	-->'''French assistant director''': [''offscreen, in French''] ...Silence.
33	-->'''Italian assistant director''': [''offscreen, on a megaphone''] Silencio.\
34	[''Cut to end title card saying "FIN".'']
35	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Paul leaves Camille alone with Prokosch in the hope that Prokosch will seduce her, which will make it easier for Paul to get paid more. [[spoiler: All that happens is that Camille loses all respect for Paul and their marriage collapses.]]
36	* OffscreenCrash: [[spoiler:The car crash at the end, taking both the lives of Camille and Prokosch]], is only heard while the camera pans over a close-up of Camille's fare-well letter to Paul. The camera returns to the crash scene right after, showing both characters lying motionless in their convertible.
37	* RedOniBlueOni: Prokosch and Creator/FritzLang.
38	* ShoutOut: Paul lampshades why he is wearing a hat and smoking a cigar in the bath.
39	-->'''Paul''': It's just to look like Creator/DeanMartin in ''Film/SomeCameRunning''.
40	* ShowWithinAShow: Film Within A Film, of the "The characters are involved on its production" type.
41	* SmugSnake: Prokosch.
42	* TactfulTranslation: Francesca does this sometimes, to omit the more offensive things the other characters have to say to each other.
43	* TakeThat:
44	** Lang saying that [=CinemaScope=] was made for snakes and funerals. Godard shot this film in [=CinemaScope=] against his will.
45	** The entire character of Prokosch was Godard's Take That against the film's producer Joseph E. Levine, whose name is significantly absent from the credits (the closest he gets to a credit is Francesca mentioning that he telephoned Prokosch early in the film).
46	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The original trailer included a shot of [[spoiler: Camille and Prokosch lying dead in their crashed car.]]
47	* TranquilFury: Camille, the source of the title's meaning.

Context Film / Contempt