Contempt(1997)

1h 42m
- Drama
- Romance

Release Date: Jun 27, 1997 | Limited

A French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.

Releases

2008 Re-release (Rialto Pictures) | Mar 14, 2008

2013 Re-release (Rialto Pictures) | Sep 6, 2013

4k Restoration - 60th Anniversary (Rialto Pictures) | Jun 30, 2023

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Director & Top Cast

Jean-Luc Godard
Director

Brigitte Bardot
Camille Javal

Jack Palance
Jeremy Prokosch

Michel Piccoli
Paul Javal

Giorgia Moll
Francesca Vanini

Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang

Raoul Coutard

Cameraman

Jean-Luc Godard

Lang's Assistant Director

Linda Veras

Siren

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Mono

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: France,Italy

Language: French,English,German,Italian

Summaries

Storyline

Fritz Lang 's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer. Not satisfied with the script for his new movie, producer Jeremy Prokosch hires screenwriter Paul Javal to write a new one. Javal seems oblivious to Prokosch's obvious interest in Javal's pretty wife Camille. As Javal becomes ever more engrossed in writing the screenplay, Camille comes to resent him, thinking her husband is pushing her into the producer's arms for his own benefit. — garykmcd After a solemn declaration of love, devotion, and everlasting adoration, financially hard-pressed French playwright Paul Javal asks insecure Camille, his fatally beautiful young wife, to join him on a trip to Rome's eerily empty Cinecittà studios. But there, summoned by coarse American producer Jeremy Prokosch to improve and commercialise Fritz Lang 's screen adaptation of Homer 's "The Odyssey", Paul eventually succumbs to compromise and marital sin. As a result, Paul can only witness the rapid disintegration of his once cloudless relationship unfold in the materialistic producer's iconic, sun-kissed villa in Capri. The mistake is unforgivable, and the burden unbearable. And now, as intolerable uncertainty replaces love, cold contempt is all that's left. — Nick Riganas In Capri, an Italian crew makes a German film of Homer's "Odyssey"; Fritz Lang directs with American money. Jeremy Prokosch, the producer, with his sneer and his red Alfa Romeo, holds art films in contempt and hires writer Javal to help Lang commercialize the picture. Against this backdrop, we watch the breakup of Javal's marriage to Camille, a young former typist. It opens with the couple talking in bed, she asking for assurance that he finds her attractive. Later that day, he introduces her to Prokosch and, unawares, blunders unforgivably. In their apartment and in public, Camille expresses her hurt and change of heart as Javal slowly grasps the source of her contempt. —