Product Details

• Actors: Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang, Giorgia Moll
• Directors: Jean-Luc Godard
• Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: February 16, 2010
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002ZG4Q66
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,035 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Legendary director Jean-Luc Godard’s CONTEMPT is a movie within a movie – on the surface, the film is about a director (Michel Piccoli) whose wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) falls out of love with him while he is rewriting an adaptation of Homer’s ODYSSEY for an American producer (Jack Palance). But underneath this tragic tale of a doomed romance lies Godard’s true subject: the commercial film industry, which he shows his CONTEMPT for in a directing performance that is slyly subversive, darkly comic and completely original.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misfire on Blu-Ray, June 21, 2010

By 

Addisson DeWitt "movie/music lover/maker" (Santa Barbara CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Contempt (Le Mépris) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Encircling a moment in time...., April 5, 2010

By 

Edmonson (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contempt (Le Mépris) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

"Contempt"(1963) is directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is interesting in that it encircles a given second in time when Camille Javal (Brigette Bardot) looses her love for Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), unlike most films that would follow a linear progression from love to contempt. When Paul realizes his error it is too late and from then on he is constantly seen out of sync with Camille.

As with many of Godard's films this one is also about a film within a film, or a film about film. Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M) acts the part of a director late in his life who is forced to compromise himself to commercial film in order to make a living. Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) is the American producer who is only concerned with making money and showing off his female actors assets just as Godard was asked by his producers with respect to Bardot. The movie Fritz Lang is making is an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey that Paul is hired to rework so as to make it more commercially viable. The classical characters of Penelope, Odysseus and Poseidon parallel Camille, Paul, and Jeremy. Paul seems to understand and relate his predicament with Camille to Penelope interpreting that Camille has lost her love for him because she believes that he has tried to leave her, just as Odysseus left Penelope for many years to journey the world because he was possibly trying to avoid her. Whether this is true or not, Paul only half heartedly tries to regain her love for him which only serves to further widen the rift between them. Camille never really comes out and says why she has lost her love for him and we are left trying to put the pieces together wondering if this is merely a lover's game or not. There is a curious balance between Paul's interest in her, and his indifference to her, that inevitably seems to push her away from him. Maybe she is just too young for him, or he is not stimulated intellectually by her, we don't know, but she is instinctively repelled by this indifference which crystalized at that moment, that second, when Paul seemed to push Camille to ride alone with Jeremy on the short drive to his house.

This is the French release of the film which is multilingual with English subtitles, as opposed to the American or Italian releases which were dubbed. This is also the full 103 minute version, whereas the Italian version was cut down to 82 minutes. The restored print looks very good overall with only a few blemishes. The blu-ray disc is in 1080p with CinemaScope 2.35:1. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 may sound a bit brash to some ears but this is evidently how the film has always sounded, and I merely had the volume adjusted down a bit from where I normally watch a film. There are many special features, such as an introduction by Colin MacCabe, and a couple of documentaries about the film: "Once Upon a Time There Was...Contempt", and "Contempt...Tenderly". There is also a conversation with Fritz Lang, and in "The Dinosaur and the Baby" a discussion between Fritz Lang, and Jean-Luc Godard, as well as a booklet with an essay by Ginette Vincendeau.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray with a few flaws, July 24, 2011

By 

mickey_one (Cologne, Allemagne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contempt (Le Mépris) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

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 = 5'21"

Runtime: 1:42'56"; 24 fps
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1, (orig.)
Audio: GB, F, D, E
ST: GB, F, D, E, NL, DK, N, SU, S, JPN
Region Code: A, B
Chpt.: 12
Dual Layer, 47 GB (Film: 29 GB)
Bonus:
- Introduction by Colin MacCabe [author of
"J.-L. Godard - Portrait of the Artist at Seventy"; faber&faber] 5'31"
- "Contempt"; 52'28"
- "Le Mepris... tenderly"; 31'31"
- J.-L. Godard talks to Fritz Lang, 1:00'57"
- Encounter with Fritz Lang" by P. Fleischmann, 14'27"
- Trailer
- BD Live
- 20-pages colour booklet
- Digipak
Studio: Canal