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Special Features
- Disc One
- New high definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Raoul Coutard
- Audio commentary by film scholar Robert Stam
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Disc Two
- Two short documentaries featuring Godard on the set of "Contempt": Contempt: Godard et Bardot (8 minutes) and Paparazzi (22 minutes)
- The Dinosaur and the Baby: a conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang, filmed in 1967 (61 minutes)
- Encounter with Fritz Lang: a short film by Peter Fleischmann (1963)
- Excerpt from an interview between Francois Chalais and Godard about Contempt on French TV program "Cinepanorama"
- New video interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard
- Widescreen vs. full-frame demo
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
With his aptly titled Contempt, Jean-Luc Godard embraced the widescreen splendor of Hollywood while thumbing his nose at Hollywood itself. A rebel with a cause, Godard pursues an iconoclast's agenda, using the Franscope format (expertly controlled by cinematographer Raoul Coutard) to undermine the grandeur of widescreen melodramas. The story ostensibly concerns an innovative production of Homer's Odyssey and the struggle of a respected screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to please a pugnacious producer (Jack Palance), a veteran director (Fritz Lang, essentially playing himself), and a petulant wife (Brigitte Bardot) who's grown tired of their turbulent relationship. It's all pretense, however, for Godard's mischievous (and yes, contemptuous) deconstruction of commercial Hollywood filmmaking, potently infused with film-buff in-jokes, astute observations about love, stardom, and artistry, and enough glossy style to suggest that Godard had mastered the craft he so willfully rejects. Contempt is one of his most accessibly fascinating films. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le M pris) 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.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Criterion does it again. A wonderful, fascinating 1963 film rescued from terrible, faded prints and murky video transfers and made to look - like Criterion's equally outstanding refurbishment of Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits" - almost like a brand-new movie; as clean and as beautiful as I have ever seen it. Not everyone will "get" what Jean-Luc Godard is up to with "Contempt", and some will get it but still not care for it - fair enough. He never claimed to be making movies for every audience any more than he claimed to be making them for rarefied elites, nevertheless a broad spectrum of us do understand and appreciate his artistic project (of which this is one sublime outcome), and if you can suspend for two hours the narrow, conventional expectations Hollywood product has cultivated in many of us, that number may include you. Robert Stam's alternate-channel audio commentary provides many interesting insights regarding the significance and filmmaking innovations of "Contempt", along with superb analysis of the sources of the story (in Homer and recent Italian literature) and the performances, and some information regarding how the movie came to be cast and produced, which goes a long way toward explaining why Godard made the movie he eventually made. "Contempt" may be Godard's most "conventional" film, but then art is not only about innovation, but also about mastery. If the performances are not always so subtle they are nevertheless wonderfully nuanced, including that of the great director (and non-actor) Fritz Lang, and Brigitte Bardot - still at the apogee of her Gallic voluptuousness - reveals a depth unimagined by those quick to dismiss her bathtub sex kitten persona - not to mention, most of her legendarily beautiful naked body, in Technicolor and CinemaScope. It's as much about how things don't work in a relationship as it is about how they don't work (for the purposes of art) in the movie business, and is as relevant to both subjects today as forty years ago. The second disc supplements include interesting and enjoyable interviews (especially the conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang), and a short subject about Bardot and the photographers who followed her around relentlessly ("Paparazzi") that's just fun. Disc two also features the perfect antidote to today's movie trailers that go on and on and spoil everything: the one for "Contempt" shows you images from the film but manages to reveal almost nothing about it! This was a home run, Criterion - thank you, thank you, thank you!
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is,without a doubt, one of the best films ever made by Godard and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard.
The Criterion Collection transfer is impeccable - sharp focus, well-balanced primary colors, great sound.
The Blue-ray disc (not from Criterion but Lionsgate's Studio Canal label) is a major disappointment on just about every level - especially with the color levels. There appears to be a yellowish cast to everything. No hard reds, blues, yellows or greens.
Skin tones are dull and gray. It seems to have been made from completely different elements, with no reference to the original intent, or even the Coutard approved transfer.
At least it was not panned and scanned, about the only thing in it's favor.
If you have the Criterion version already - keep it.
The "up grade" to Blu-Ray is NOT an improvement.
The Criterion Collection transfer is impeccable - sharp focus, well-balanced primary colors, great sound.
The Blue-ray disc (not from Criterion but Lionsgate's Studio Canal label) is a major disappointment on just about every level - especially with the color levels. There appears to be a yellowish cast to everything. No hard reds, blues, yellows or greens.
Skin tones are dull and gray. It seems to have been made from completely different elements, with no reference to the original intent, or even the Coutard approved transfer.
At least it was not panned and scanned, about the only thing in it's favor.
If you have the Criterion version already - keep it.
The "up grade" to Blu-Ray is NOT an improvement.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By andy7
Format:DVD
One of Brigitte Bardot's few high brow films is an amazing modern Space Age parable of the Homer's "Odyssey" in which innocuous writer Michel Piccoli allows sleazy creep producer Jack Palance (his best film, hands down) have his way with wife BB...she feels nothing but contempt for Piccoli for his apathy... I'm with her...the screenplay to the proposed film is supposed to be about the death of romance between Ulysses and Penelope in Homer's "Odyssey", but life imitates art when the romance between BB and Piccoli rots away due to Piccoli's wimpy attitude toward Palance's lecherous advances towards his wife...then again, Palance clearly reperesents commerce......
This is a superior film to "Breathless", IMHO, .. the film is total eye candy, if not due to the awesome BB, then by the gorgeous locations...
Godard really deserves more credit, he's a consummate filmmaker......Breathless, Alphaville, First Name Carmen, Band of Outsiders...
This is a superior film to "Breathless", IMHO, .. the film is total eye candy, if not due to the awesome BB, then by the gorgeous locations...
Godard really deserves more credit, he's a consummate filmmaker......Breathless, Alphaville, First Name Carmen, Band of Outsiders...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
i really liked it
I enjoy this movie very much. I would like to watch more like it. four stars four stars four stars
Published 6 days ago by jenna
5.0 out of 5 stars
great movie
when i first watched this movie i really didnt care for it but as time went on and i have gotten older i really love this movie and all of jean luc godards earlier films before he... Read more
Published 1 month ago by harlowfan87
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must See Classic
I never get bored watching this movie. I love how Jean Luc Goddard directs this movie and the script has alot of nuances.
Published 2 months ago by Gisela Mello
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Though Not As Fun As I Anticipated
First of all, gorgeous restoration - the image is sharp and vivid, and since primary colors are a big part of this movie that matters. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Daniel
2.0 out of 5 stars
What A Dud
While I don't consider myself a Godard fan, I find Vivre sa vie and Une femme est une femme to be excellent. And Breathless is one of my all-time favorite films. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Faulkner & Joyce Fan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Accessible, hypnotic Godard Film
Godard weaves a simple, linear, tale with CONTEMPT, yet the film possesses boundless complexity. The film also makes fun of lots of ideas, filmic conventions, artists in general --... Read more
Published 12 months ago by P. Taegel
3.0 out of 5 stars
BluRay looks like VHS transfer
Great movie, intriguing, but the picture quality, what a let-down. For a bluray, I was expecting at least dvd quality ransfer, they must have used a lousy can of old film print for... Read more
Published 15 months ago by VisualArtsGuy
2.0 out of 5 stars
2 1/2 stars for Godard's self indulgent bore
One of France's best known "New Wave" auteur was Jean-Luc Godard. In this film, with a larger budget than usual he tries out bigger scenes and some new equipment from Hollywood. Read more
Published 17 months ago by M. Oleson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Criterion version out of print.
This is not actually a review of the Criterion version. The Criterion version of Contempt is out of print with used copies selling for more than 50 dollars. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Aaron Wooldridge
3.0 out of 5 stars
Blu-ray with a few flaws
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
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 22 months ago by mickey_one
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