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Criterion Coll: Contempt [DVD] [1963] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Brigitte Bardot (Actor), Jack Palance (Actor), Jean-Luc Godard (Director) | Format: DVD
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Actors: Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll, Fritz Lang
  • Directors: Jean-Luc Godard
  • Writers: Jean-Luc Godard, Alberto Moravia
  • Producers: Carlo Ponti, Georges de Beauregard, Joseph E. Levine
  • Format: Anamorphic, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: English, French
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
  • Studio: Criterion
  • DVD Release Date: 10 Dec 2002
  • Run Time: 102 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005JKPT
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 128,411 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

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Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

Starring Brigitte Bardot, then at the height of her fame, and Michel Piccoli as a married couple tearing the last strips off a failing marriage, Le Mépris is both one of Jean-Luc Godard's most accessible films and perhaps his most excoriating and emotionally raw. Godard and his regular cinematographer Raoul Coutard (lensman for most of the greatest films of the New Wave) splashed out the budget for this international co-production on Bardot's salary and gorgeous CinemaScope photography to capture the Italian setting's intense beauty, bright as a knife.

The nominal story concerns the film production of an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, on which Piccoli is the scriptwriter, much to the disgust of his wife Camille (Bardot) who preferred life when he merely wrote novels. Hired by Jack Palance's swaggering American producer to adapt the Greek epic for a film to be directed by the august Fritz Lang (director of M, here playing himself), Paul inadvertently sets in motion the elements which will unravel his marriage, earning his wife's contempt (the closest translation of the French word "mépris"). Soon, the tenderness of the film's opening sequence--wherein they loll naked on a bed as she coquettishly solicits his approval of each of her body parts--gives way to harrowing bickering, the meat of film's central 35-minute scene which will induce pained winces in anyone who has ever been through a bitter split-up. If that sounds harrowing, be reassured that Le Mépris is not without its lighter moments and joys: Godard's trademarked musings on the nature of cinema, Bardot looking exquisitely chic in a selection of soigné little outfits, Lang bemusedly quoting the German poet Hölderlin and Bertolt Brecht. As mannered as the New Wave posturings now seem, Le Mépris still looks unbeatably stylish, its themes as eternal as Homer and the Capri landscape. --Leslie Felperin

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating film 11 Oct 2005
By L. Davidson VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
"Le Mepris" is another superb Godard movie. It tells the story of the marital difficulties of a scriptwriter (Piccoli) and his typist wife (Bardot) as Piccoli's involvement in the filming of Homer's "Odyssey" (directed by Fritz Lang) causes friction between the pair.The film starts off with the couple very much in love, but a perceived slight by Piccoli on his wife and a flirtation by him with the film producer's female assistant him act as the catalyst for the unhinging of their relationship.

"Le Mepris" is filmed exquisitely; its colours are vivid , the mood languid and pensive , the soundtrack haunting. Like in "Au Bout de Souffle", Godard's female lead is capricious and mysterious,beautiful but dangerous. She turns a minor display of indifference by her husband into a marital make or break ,much to his surprise. However as the film unravels ,we see that the harmony and tenderness of the couple in the opening scenes disguises fundamental shifts in the balance of their relationship. Piccoli has a sharper intellect and more ambition than Bardot and she feels he is leaving her behind, only her physical beauty appealing to him. She wants to bring things to a head, restore the marital equilibrium in some way ; Piccoli is merely bemused at her sudden coldness to him.

The viewer never quite knows whether the marital problems are down to Piccoli's insensitivity or Bardot's irrationality, in the same way as the subplot of the filming of the "Odyssey" leads to debate about whether either Odysseus or Penelope were secretly fed up with each other despite appearances to the contrary on the surface and who was most to blame.

An enjoyable film which has much to say about the fickleness of modern relationships and Bardot's portrayal of a selfish,cold bitch/ strong ,liberated woman (delete as appropriate) was ahead of its time by several decades.

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars incredibly powerful and striking 10 Nov 2000
By isabelle_mcneill@hotmail.com
Format:VHS Tape
The striking red-yellow-blue colours of this film frame a harrowing, enigmatic narrative which refuses to be reduced by simple explanations. The (predominantly male) eye of the camera tenderly takes apart Brigitte Bardot's beautiful body, the female object to be looked-at. But as communication breaks down in Camille and her scriptwriter husband's marriage, woman becomes subject and man becomes object - the object of contempt. Camilles's silences, that is what she refuses to explain to her husband, is her power, so her contempt for him is never explicitly explained in the film, leaving the spectator's mind to go over and over the sparse dialogue. In the idyllic Italian landscape, with its azure sea, the story of the Odyssey is made to resonate painfully with the tragedy of a perfect love turned irrevocably sour. There's no doubt that this is a sad film, and its rather dated style may seem strange to the modern eye, but it is still incredibly powerful and striking. This wonderful film won't leave your memory quickly.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Godard (and Bardot)'s finest film 13 Dec 2010
By jake 09
Format:DVD
Quite seriously in my view the best film directed by Jean Luc-Godard & I've seen most of them.I had read the novella ("A Ghost at Noon" by Alberto Moravia),on which it is based,before I first saw the film at an art house in the early 1970s & I thought it stunning....it was made in the early 60s but was deemed too non-commercial for general release.Godard has brilliantly telescoped the story & action into a few days.Stunningly shot with haunting music by Georges Delerue, I find it a deeply moving & superbly acted tale of the collapse of a marriage.Bardot is,of course,ravishing ...made when she was in her late 20s...but do not expect any soft-core erotica a la "Et Dieu crea la femme"...just an essay in classic cinema with no cine-gimmicks that ,for me,spoils some of Godard's other work.Utterly delighted it's now available on DVD..I have a VHS copy that is getting old through years of playing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Scenes from a marriage played out in the Italian sunshine
A German, an Italian, an American, and two annoying Frenchies. Has Bardot fallen out of love with her husband, or is it in fact he who has ceased to care for her and now only... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Philoctetes
5.0 out of 5 stars About European culture
Godard's Le mépris (1963) assembles a lot of prominence, of various dimensions: Brigitte Bardot as Camille, sex kitten and wife of Paul Javel, a script writer (Michel... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Dr René Codoni
5.0 out of 5 stars Still fresh decades on
Although shot decades ago, Le Mepris is still fresh and appealing through its stunning use of cinematography and colour. Read more
Published 23 months ago by CMSN
3.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray details
A few shots don't seem to fit picture quality of a Blu-ray disc:
TC 00:27:22-40;
00:29:38-43;
00:33:01-34:32;
00:36:29-37:05;
01:25:47-30:08
- total =... Read more
Published on 22 April 2011 by mickey_one
3.0 out of 5 stars Pure Bardot
"Le Mepris" (Scorn) is a prize in full colour for all Bardot fans who love the actrice and don't care about the story. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2011 by Jack Haslam
3.0 out of 5 stars Where French art and American money met
I bought this one on the recommendation of the late Jim Morrison though exactly why he liked it so much is open to speculation. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2010 by D. J. HORN
3.0 out of 5 stars Jean Luc Godard
If this was his best film, I am not sure I need to see more, it was good to see BB acting for a change, I found this interesting rather than enthralling
Published on 26 Jun 2010 by Michelle Scutt
2.0 out of 5 stars Terribly dull and tedious
Being a fan of Brigitte Bardot, and having enjoyed most of the films I'd seen of hers which are available in French with English subtitles, I had been looking forward to seeing... Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Ténès
3.0 out of 5 stars Je Sens Pas De Mépris Pour Ce Blu-Ray!
"I still don't know what contempt is, even after making this movie" - Jean-Luc Goddard.

Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli are lovers, he a scriptwriter, her a typist. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2010 by DL Productions UK
5.0 out of 5 stars BRIGITTE BARDOT
This is released in Australia already, same packaging. and the quality is wonderful.
Very sharp and beautiful colour. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2009 by Paul Scott
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