Hacker Cinema
Contempt
Le Mépris
1963 · Film · 103 min
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Art film producer Jeremy Prokosch, unhappy with the work of his director, hires Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb, he brings in a screenwriter to energise the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.
5 positive2 neutralfrom 7 commenters
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7 comments on Hacker News
Thanks! Here's the full list: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 8½, Aguirre the Wrath of God, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, All That Heaven Allows, Apocalypse Now, Ashes and Diamonds, A Woman Under the Influence, Barry Lyndon, Bicycle Thieves, Breathless, Casablanca, Céline and Julie Go Boating, Chinatown, Chinese Roulette, Citizen Kane, City Lights, City of Pirates, Contempt, Daisies, Damnation, Dishonored, Earth, Electra My Love, El Topo, Eraserhead, Eyes Wide Shut, Film Socialisme, Fitzcarraldo, Fuego en Castilla, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Holy Motors, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, In a Year with 13 Moons, India Song, Inland Empire, Irma Vep, Koyaanisqatsi, La Dolce Vita, La Jetée, Late Spring, L'Eau de la Seine, Le Voyage dans la Lune, Lolita, Los Olvidados, Lost Highway, Lucifer Rising, Man with a Movie Camera, Metropolis, Mirror, Mulholland Drive, Night Music, Ordet, Orpheus, Persona, Pickpocket, Playtime, Psycho, Rebecca, Rosemary's Baby, Rumble Fish, Scarface, Seven Samurai, Sherlock Jr., Singin' in the Rain, Stalker, Sunset Boulevard, Taste of Cherry, Taxi Driver, Testament of Orpheus, The 400 Blows, The Blood of a Poet, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Color of Pomegranates, The Green Ray, The Holy Mountain, The Isle, The Lady from Shanghai, The Night of the Hunter, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Seventh Seal, The Spirit of the Beehive, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Tree of Life, The Turin Horse, Time of the Gypsies, Tokyo Story, Touch of Evil, Trans-Europ-Express, Ugetsu, Un Chien Andalou, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Vampyr, Videodrome, Wavelength, Werckmeister Harmonies, Wild Strawberries, Moonlight Sonata, Stellar, The Haunted House Biased toward European art cinema, experimental work, and directors who broke conventional narrative rules.
The two most wellknown films with the Casa Malaparte are Godard's "Le Mepris" with Piccoli, Bardot, Fritz Lang and Jack Palance, and Liliana Cavani's "La Pelle" with Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale and Burt Lancaster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Malaparte
I really like Breathless, Le Mépris, and Pierrot Le Fou, this last one less often mentioned, yet super interesting.
But I don't get the trashing of the cinema that existed before Godard, as this article, following so many others, seems to want to do.
Contemporary superhero franchises are trash, certainly (at least to my eyes). But what's wrong with Casablanca (1942) or Double Indemnity (1944) for example?
Why couldn't we have both?
Le Mépris (Contempt) is by far my favourite movie, peak cinema. Absolutely stunning Mediterranean cinematography, beautiful coastal and indoor shots, a decent plot with Odysseus in the background, and certainly not hurt by Brigitte Bardot's onscreen presence. Overall unbeatable aesthetics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF0Ju0ONwGU
Watching it is like taking a short vacation. Phenomenal.
Try Pierrot le fou, Contempt, Alphaville... However Breathless is (one of?) the easiest of Godard's movies.
Notice that you're supposed to suffer to watch many of his movies. It's part of the experience, to prove that you're part of the intellectual elite that "gets it".
Semi-tangential recommendation, and since Godard is mentioned in the article: Le Mepris (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt_(film))
It is an unfortunate consequence of the Internet that people get to argue with each other without knowing who they really are.
I don't need to see others worse off than myself in order to be happy. I just need to remember who I myself was two or five years ago. I am rapidly becoming someone else, a larva turning into a butterfly if you forgive the hackneyed expression.
To you, the opinions I express signify contempt towards others. In reality, the only true contempt I experience is towards paths I almost took when I was growing up. Without that contempt there would be hardly any growth. By the way, there is a good movie by French director Godard called "Contempt". One of my favorite quotes is from that movie: "Oh, the gods... I know exactly how they feel."