FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Jean Luc Godard - Le Mepris 

Le Mepris is in a way an experiment: Jean-Luc Godard's first Big Budget production with a big star: Brigitte Bardot. It was a unique, more or less satisfying trip. After all, all of Godard's subsequent films can also be seen as a reaction to Le Mepris. Not that the film is without tension. It is not only between the dialogue lines that we feel the author's struggle against his producers. A failed dramaturge (Michel Piccoli) works for a corrupt American producer (Jack Palance) to write the script for a project to be directed by a veteran director (Fritz Lang). The dramaturgy has a beautiful wife (Brigitte Bardot) and both love each other deeply. However, the producer also has an eye on her. The film is supposed to bring the odyssey back to the screen. Palance has an infusion of the Hercules sandal films in his head, Fritz Lang an auteur film. Again and again they have tried to find the story of the Odyssey in Le Mepris: Piccoli as Odysseus, Bardot as Penelope and Palance as Poseidon. The dramaturg could just as well be an embodiment of Godard himself and Bardot his then wife Anna Karina. Ironically, the producers Joseph E. Levine and Carlo Ponti were similar to his hero in their approach to Godard and even had Bardot naked. Once Palance Lang yells at him while he sees a shot of the Odyssey (which looks like a postcard view of Greece): "Betrayal! In the opening scene, Bardot lies naked in bed. Her body, every single part of her body, is praised by Piccoli. She asks him how he likes her knees, her breasts, her arms. Everything is perfect! It should remain the only love scene in Le Mepris. We can imagine the producer shouting at Godard: "Deception"! Then the nude scene was born. Strange the fact that we see naked skin, but it's quite unerotic. After the disastrous first performance Palance storms out of the room, invites the participants into his villa. Especially Bardot, who reacts disturbed after Piccoli makes no effort to protect her from the producer. Palance and Bardot roar away in the convertible, Piccoli pants afterwards. Does he hand over his wife to the producer? We are in the transition to the second act. Bardot and Piccoli argue. The scene: The unfinished new apartment that Piccoli deserves with his screenplay. The couple's conversations, they are held in the tone of real life. Bardot compares her husband to the donkey Martin. The conversation is rather illogical, because basically both sides demand completely uncritical acceptance and forgiveness. The third act takes place in the breathtaking Mediterranean villa of Palance - based on a Greek temple. Many moments are based on the battles Godard fought with the establishment of the film industry. For the character Fritz Lang, some points from Fritz Lang's biography served as inspiration. When Lang notices that Cinemascope (the format in which Godard shot Le Mepris) is only for snakes, we think we hear Godard. Is that still the raw power of the Nouvelle Vague? Or even "quality cinema"? Palance seems somewhat out of place as a cliché of the American "Money Man". Bardot, on the other hand, is quite natural. The true Eva! Piccoli (in his first role!) embodies a man of little talent and greatest uncertainty. Almost the opposite of the roles Piccoli would play later! As always, Godard remains quite distant. Like almost all of his works Le Mepris is about filmmaking itself and he tells us about it - breaking through the "fourth wall". Le Mepris almost seems like a satire about communication itself! Obviously Godard (despite his side blows) is also fascinated by Cinemascope and the beauty of his own shots. Sure: Le Mepris, with the wonderful music of Georges Delerue is a feast for the eyes! Like his movie-in-film, Godard struggles to exaggerate and vulgarize his characters. After Le Mepris he decided that such films were not for him and simply takes himself out - from his own film.