I wonder if my opinion about this awful film would be different had I seen it when it first came out in 1963. Ah...those golden days when everybody believed in the redeeming values of La Nouvelle Vague! However I had to base my opinion on a recent Blu-ray French release which couldn´t get any better in quality. The latest technology at the service of a Godard classic.
I knew I was in trouble from the very beginning of Le Mépris with that long shot of a filming crew moving slowly toward the front while a male voice narrates the credits. Creative yes, but oh so boring! Next we see the stars, Bardot & Piccoli, laying in bed exchanging the most inane dialog in movie history. Two things help the pointless scene: Bardot´s naked rear and a soundtrack music that suggests something very important is happening here. The trick keeps repeating itself throughout the whole movie. A dramatic, beautiful, almost classical score insists on making us believe that something is about to happen or is actually happening. Trust me, nothing happens and when it does is so painstakingly slow that boredom sets in and you just don´t care.
Since La Mépris is about movie-making, we are next treated to a long, boring exposition of what it´s all about. A rich egotistical American producer, played as a caricature by Palance, is in Italy to film an adaptation of Homer´s "L'Odyssée" and is having a creative clash with the director he has hired, none other than the too old and fragile Fritz Lang playing himself. Palance then goes after Piccoli to re-write the script after his own specifications and brings him and his wife Bardot to the film location in Capri. The celebrated BB looks utterly bored by the proceedings and I don´t blame her. Her marriage to Piccoli seem to be in trouble but it is not clear why. Will she dump her husband for Palance? That is the totality of this Godard mess made palatable by the marvelous color photography and spectacular locations. Le Mépris only lasts an hour and a half but feels longer than four hours due to Goddard´s lousy lack of timing and rhythm. So slow it doesn´t sustain life. Keep away.
I knew I was in trouble from the very beginning of Le Mépris with that long shot of a filming crew moving slowly toward the front while a male voice narrates the credits. Creative yes, but oh so boring! Next we see the stars, Bardot & Piccoli, laying in bed exchanging the most inane dialog in movie history. Two things help the pointless scene: Bardot´s naked rear and a soundtrack music that suggests something very important is happening here. The trick keeps repeating itself throughout the whole movie. A dramatic, beautiful, almost classical score insists on making us believe that something is about to happen or is actually happening. Trust me, nothing happens and when it does is so painstakingly slow that boredom sets in and you just don´t care.
Since La Mépris is about movie-making, we are next treated to a long, boring exposition of what it´s all about. A rich egotistical American producer, played as a caricature by Palance, is in Italy to film an adaptation of Homer´s "L'Odyssée" and is having a creative clash with the director he has hired, none other than the too old and fragile Fritz Lang playing himself. Palance then goes after Piccoli to re-write the script after his own specifications and brings him and his wife Bardot to the film location in Capri. The celebrated BB looks utterly bored by the proceedings and I don´t blame her. Her marriage to Piccoli seem to be in trouble but it is not clear why. Will she dump her husband for Palance? That is the totality of this Godard mess made palatable by the marvelous color photography and spectacular locations. Le Mépris only lasts an hour and a half but feels longer than four hours due to Goddard´s lousy lack of timing and rhythm. So slow it doesn´t sustain life. Keep away.