Le Mépris (1963)

avatar

People fall in love and they fall out of love; the very thought shocks everyone but there's a lot of steps in between. It's not easy being just simply out of love; disdain sets in and you slowly, inch by inch, pull yourself out. People usually find various reasons to jump to such conclusions; sometimes these reasons are logical and occasionally unjustifiable. Often these causes are so minuscule that you may find them unimportant, but you could be wrong. Le Mépris aka Contempt (1963), directed by Jean-Luc Godard, is a French New Wave drama film that is an adaptation of the Italian novel Il disprezzo by Alberto Moravia and Godard while making the film, made several changes in the script. The move is starred by Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Giorgia Moll and director Fritz Lang.


Image Source

Le Mépris (Contempt) - 1963

Camille (Bardot) and Paul (Piccoli) are a married couple deeply in love with each other. Paul is a playwright who has recently found success and moved to Rome with his wife. He got an offer from an American producer Prokosch (Palance) to rewrite the scripts for director Fritz Lang's screen adaptation of the Odyssey. It seemed as if no matter what Lang did Prokosch is never happy with it; rejecting script after script, he kept insulting Lang in the process to make a point and in the heat of the moment he gave Paul a lucrative offer which he reluctantly accepts. When they all got out of the production center, Camille arrived and got introduced to everyone; Prokosch offers Camille a ride to his villa to have a drink, and even though she said she can join with her husband for drinks to Prokosch's villa by taking a cab there together, seeing Paul being nonchalant about this whole situation put her in a different mood. All the time they spent in Prokosch's villa, Camille seemed upset which led Paul to believe that something had happened between them on their drive there. The couple comes back home, Camille being distant and aggravated while Paul seemed high-strung over her behavior. After badgering her for a while Paul says to her that he thinks she doesn't love him anymore and her behavior changed after the meeting. For some time they disagreed and argued, and lastly, Camille admits that she doesn't love him anymore and she despises him; this got Paul riled up. They were invited by Prokosch earlier to a theatre and on their way there Paul takes his revolver with him; the distance between them keeps growing. While they were having drinks earlier that day Prokosch had invited Paul to his villa on Capri to see the production of the movie and later on the invitation was extended to Camille; while her behavior says that she doesn't want to go, Paul thought it will be a lovely vacation for the two of them. Paul was hopeful that a vacation in Capri would change Camille's mind; for a while, she seemed uncertain but then finally she takes her decision.


Image Source

It wasn't that Camille was being naive or Paul was being too absentminded; maybe they were but like I said earlier that littlest of reasons matters which is the same case that happened here. Perhaps Camille felt that Paul took her for granted and she expressed that she was happy when they were barely making ends meet. Paul thinks differently; he somewhat believed that all the money he needed was just for her, it was all for her but maybe deep down he didn't believe it. It's not unusual for people to disagree, but up to a point where one cannot stand the other is tragic; one falls out of love, and the other tries to get it back. Even the beauty of Capri seemed insufficient.

Contempt (1963) is regarded as one of the 100 Greatest Foreign Films and also listed in Cahiers du Cinéma top 100. I'm not going to go around talking about all the stuff that you can already find while Googling; perhaps if you read the plot and synopsis and watch a few clippings you'll get the idea about what basically this movie is about, but I already told you what this movie is about. Maybe you'll be able to come up with your own thoughts.


surrealfia.gif



0
0
0.000
6 comments
avatar

People fall in love and they fall out of love; the very thought shocks everyone but there's a lot of steps in between.

How?

Please let me know and expand a bit. I am not joking. I love to know what you think about it as my ideas are either grossly incorrect or completely foggy.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Dada probably you're not joking; the idea pretty much is foggy to everyone, even for many wise people. In your case I think you're still very much in love and that's a blessing. It usually starts with the smallest things that you felt wrong about and haven't disclosed it to your partner. We don't talk about it because we feel it's unimportant. Then all these form into a grenade. Funnily enough, I have seen that people fall out of love because they have nothing to talk. You remember about the small things in life? This is the other side of the coin.

My theory could be wrong.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I wasn’t joking. That was a very good explanation and I say it is true..

And it goes both way. Just one person is not enough. Listen to this..

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's a pleasure to read about the great movies of the past and the new French wave was full of such movies.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Thank you so much... I feel that new French wave films are very realistic and Le Mépris is quite an example of that

0
0
0.000
avatar

It is definitely an example, you made a good choice.

0
0
0.000