Contempt (1963) Le mépris (original title)

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard

Writer:

Alberto Moravia (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

18 December 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

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]

Plot:

Paul Javal is a writer who is hired to make a script for a new movie about Ulysses more commercial,...

Plot Keywords:

American | Apartment | Marriage | Italy | Capri

Cast

Brigitte Bardot	...	Camille Javal
Michel Piccoli	...	Paul Javal
Jack Palance	...	Jeremy Prokosch
Giorgia Moll	...	Francesca Vanini
Fritz Lang	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Raoul Coutard	...	Cameraman (uncredited)
Jean-Luc Godard	...	Lang's Assistant Director (uncredited)
Linda Veras	...	Siren (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean-Luc Godard

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jean-Luc Godard		uncredited
Alberto Moravia		novel "Il Disprezzo"

Produced by
Georges de Beauregard	....	producer
Carlo Ponti	....	producer
Joseph E. Levine	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Georges Delerue
Piero Piccioni		(Italian and Spanish version)

Cinematography by
Raoul Coutard

Film Editing by
Agnès Guillemot
Lila Lakshmanan		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Tanine Autré		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Odette Berroyer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Philippe Dussart	....	production manager
Carlo Lastricati	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles L. Bitsch	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
William Robert Sivel	....	sound (as William Sivel)

Camera and Electrical Department
Joe D'Amato	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Other crew
Annie Chauvet	....	publicist (uncredited)
Suzanne Schiffman	....	script girl (uncredited)
Bertrand Tavernier	....	publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Les Films Concordia
• Rome Paris Films
• Compagnia Cinematografica Champion (co-production)

Distributors

• Embassy Pictures Corporation (1964) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Neue Visionen Filmverleih (2002) (Germany) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2002) (Germany) (DVD)
• Cinelux-Filmi (1964) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Cinema Mondo (1997) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Rialto Pictures (2008) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Strand Releasing (????) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Interfilm
• Marceau-Cocinor
• Nelson Entertainment (1990) (USA) (video) (Laserdisc)
• Surf Video (2006) (Italy) (DVD) (French and Italian versions)

Other Companies

• Digitmovies Alternative Entertainment  soundtrack

Also Known As:

"Le mépris" - France (original title)

Runtime:

103 min | Finland:97 min | USA:102 min | Italy:82 min (re-edited version) (cut)

Country:

France | Italy

Language:

French | English | German | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:6 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | West Germany:16 (f) | UK:AA (original rating) | Australia:PG | Brazil:16 | Singapore:PG | USA:Not Rated | Germany:6 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Isle of Capri, Naples, Campania, Italy

Company:

Les Films Concordia

Trivia:

Jean-Luc Godard had been curious about making a big budget production. This more than satisfied his experience (he hated making the film).

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as 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.

Quotes:

Paul Javal:There's nothing like the movies. Usually, when you see women, they're dressed. But put them in a movie, and you see their backsides.

Movie Connections:

References Hangmen Also Die! (1943)

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.