Contempt Film Still

Contempt

Jean-Luc Godard

France

1963

103 minutes

Color

2.35:1

French

171

Synopsis

Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le Mépris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process in a new special edition.

Cast

Camille JavalBrigitte Bardot
Paul JavalMichel Piccoli
Jeremiah ProkoschJack Palance
Francesca VaniniGeorgia Moll
HimselfFritz Lang

Credits

DirectorJean-Luc Godard
ScreenplayJean-Luc Godard and Alberto Moravia
CinematographyRaoul Coutard
ProducerGeorges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti and Joseph E. Levine
MusicGeorges Delerue
SoundWilliam Sivel
EditingAgnès Guillemot
Unit managersPhilippe Dussart and Carlo Lastricati
From a novel byAlberto Moravia

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

  • New high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Raoul Coutard and enhanced for widescreen televisions
  • Audio commentary by film scholar Robert Stam
  • The Dinosaur and the Baby (1967): a conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang (61 minutes)
  • Two documentaries featuring Godard on the set of Contempt: Bardot et Godard (8 minutes) and Paparazzi (22 minutes)
  • Jean-Luc Godard interview excerpt (1964)
  • A new video interview with legendary cinematographer Raoul Coutard
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

From the Current

Press Notes: Celebrating Rialto Pictures

Nov 20, 2008

Criterion’s release of 10 Years of Rialto Pictures has critics giving thanks to the esteemed distribution company this holiday-time. Introducing his interview with Rialto cofounder Bruce Goldstein, http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2008/10/10-years-of-rialto . . .

Contempt: The Story of a Marriage

by Phillip Lopate Dec 9, 2002

Contempt, one of Jean-Luc Godard’s greatest masterpieces, has a stately air that breaks with the filmmaker’s earlier, throwaway, hit-and-run manner, as though he were this time allowing himself to aim for cinematic sublimity. It is both his richest study of human relations, and a film . . .

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The Auteurs Forum

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"8 1/2" reference?

5 posts by 5 people updated 12 days ago

Blu-ray release

23 posts by 16 people updated 13 days ago

head: Le mépris, tails: Méditerranée ??

2 posts by 2 people updated 14 days ago

Was Bardot crazy or did her husband, Picoli, deserve to be shunned

5 posts by 5 people updated about 1 month ago

Available Editions

Contempt Criterion DVD Out of Print

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95