Contempt (1963)
"Le mépris" (original title)

Paul Javal is a writer who is hired to make a script for a new movie about Ulysses more commercial, which is to be directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Jeremy Prokosch. But because he let... See full summary »

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Alberto Moravia (novel)

Stars:

Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Brigitte Bardot	...	Camille Javal
Michel Piccoli	...	Paul Javal
Jack Palance	...	Jeremy Prokosch
Giorgia Moll	...	Francesca Vanini
Fritz Lang	...	Himself

Storyline

Paul Javal is a writer who is hired to make a script for a new movie about Ulysses more commercial, which is to be directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Jeremy Prokosch. But because he let his wife Camille drive with Prokosch and he is late, she believes, he uses her as a sort of present for Prokosch to get get a better payment. So the relationship ends.

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Plot Keywords:

american | apartment | marriage | italy | capri | 

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Taglines:

Bardot at her bold, bare and brazen best! Reveling in Rome, cavorting in Capri...jolting even the jaded international jet-set in her pursuit of love! [UK Theatrical]

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France Italy

Language:

French English German Italian

Release Date:

18 December 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Contempt

Filming Locations:

Isle of Capri, Naples, Campania, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$900,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$33,284 (USA) (27 June 1997)

Gross:

$153,141 (USA) (5 September 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Concordia, Rome Paris Films, Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min 82 min (cut) (re-edited)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Producer Joseph E. Levine insisted on the Brigitte Bardot nude scene that opens the film, realizing that it was the only way he could sell a film that he hated.

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Goofs

It is possible that all "mistakes" in the film that involve visible equipment are intentional, or at least intentionally uncorrected: the film, after all, is about the artificiality of making a film, and the initial credit sequence shows filmmakers shooting the film itself.

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Quotes

Paul Javal: I like CinemaScope very much.
Fritz Lang: Oh, it wasn't meant for human beings. Just for snakes - and funerals.

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Crazy Credits

The opening cast credits are read, without titles

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Connections

Referenced in Kings of the Road (1976)

User Reviews

Ulysses, Guernica, The Rite Of Spring, LE MEPRIS...

One of the great masterpieces of the 20th century, a supreme synthesis of form, content and performance. Arguably the most beautiful too, with its found locations, sets, colour, lighting, music, decor and costume. The straightforward elegance of Godard's shooting masks a story of great complexity and formal rupture, but underneath the philosophy, semiotics and allusion is a portrait of marriage and its decline. The tension between icy irony and resigned emotion results in Godard's most perversely moving film. It is also very funny, which is too little remembered.