The Cinematheque

New Restoration

“Brilliance and Bardot, all in one … A multi-layered odyssey of intelligence and sensuality … One of the masterworks of modern cinema.”

Philip Lopate, The New York Times

Lionized by Sight and Sound critic Colin MacCabe as ​“the greatest work of art produced in postwar Europe,” the ingeniously self-reflexive Contempt, turning 60 this year, is the first and finest of many Godard films about the making of a film. Both an obituary for Hollywood cinema and a genuinely moving portrait of the breakdown of a marriage, the film features Michel Piccoli as Paul, a hired-gun screenwriter brought in to rewrite a big-budget adaptation of The Odyssey. The director of this movie-within-the-movie is no less than the great Fritz Lang, playing himself; Jack Palance is the project’s crass, interfering producer; while Brigitte Bardot is Paul’s bored wife Camille, who has grown to despise her husband. Godard, who appears as Lang’s assistant, described the characters as ​“survivors of the shipwreck of modernity.” Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia, magnificently shot by Raoul Coutard, with a bold colour scheme of Mondrian reds and blues.

In French with English subtitles

“Possibly Godard’s most melancholy film and probably his most beautiful … As romantic tragedies go, Contempt is a near-perfect sphere, an exploration of the cosmos of sadness that can open up between a man and a woman, between a living room, a bedroom, and beyond.”

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice

“Astonishing … One of the most gorgeous, giddy movies ever made.”

Richard Flood, Artforum