Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt: film analysis and themes

Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt"

Jean Luc Godard's "Contempt"

Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film, "Contempt" is the history of the deterioration of a marriage. It is a love story moving backward until the point of alienation. Or as film critic Dave Kehr writes, ." It is the great un-love story of the movies" (Kehr 1997). Paul Javal, played by Michel Piccoli, is a French writer who is working as a hack-writer for Italian movies, however, he dreams of having a serious career in the theater. It is this blind ambition that becomes the cancer that begins the death of the relationship between Paul and his wife Camille, portrayed by Brigitte Bardot.

So eager is Paul to succeed, that he sells his soul to the devil, so to speak, and accepts the task of fixing a script for the American producer, Jeremy Prokosch, played by Jack Palance. The screenplay he has been hired to fix is by Friz Lang, who plays himself as writer and director of an adaptation of Ulysses. The film, being shot at Rome's Cinecitta studios and the Isle of Capri, is suffering due to Prokosch's over-bearing interference.

Royal Brown writes in a 2003 "Cineaste' article, that Godard's title refers to the abrupt change in attitude on the part of Camilla, who feels that Paul has prostituted her to Prokosch in order to get the job, "although she refuses throughout the film to divulge her secret ... Contempt then, runs on parallel but interrelated tracks: the breakdown of a major artist's attempts to make his film, and the breakdown of a marriage" (Brown 2003). Brown goes on to describe the way in which Godard shot Camille stretched nude on the bed while Paul lies fully clothed next to her. Brown says, "While the scene definitely establishes a tenderness between the two that makes the breakdown of their relationship later in the film all the more poignant and in some ways inexplicable" (Brown 2003).

Camille and Paul are sucked into a circle of contempt. One minute she tells him that she loves him and the next minute she says she no longer loves him. In an article for "Film Criticism" Paul Coates writes that Camille does this to gauge Paul's closeness to her (Coates 1998). Paul however, is lost in his own thoughts. He has alienated himself by working for Prokosch and, as Coates points out, by "choosing an intellectual inferior as his wife" (Coates 1998). Camille is a typist, and "she can easily become a haunting mere body, objectified as pornographic beauty" (Coates 1998). Although it may be clear that Camille is contemptuous of Paul, he certainly shows signs that he feels the same, as when he says, "Show women cinema and they show their behinds" (Godard 1963). Coates writes, "Contempt for her is also self-contempt, as the obsession with the behind obscures the face that might reveal the truth, the person" (Coates 1998).

The point of no return in this marriage happens in an instant. Paul is fully aware of Prokosch's attraction for Camille, yet when the American producer invites her to join him in his two-seater red sports car for a ride back to his Roman villa, Paul actually encourages her to go, saying that he'll take a cab and catch up with them later. Kehr writes, "By encouraging her, against her obvious wishes, to go off alone with the producer, he has used his wife's beauty to promote his career" (Kehr 1997). In the time it takes for Camille to get into the car, whatever love she had for her husband has vanished and is communicated in a single glance (Kehr 1997). Camille now feels little more than contempt for Paul, however, he is so caught up in his effort to succeed that he does not notice the change in her, much less the fact that he has infected the relationship with an incurable disease (Kehr 1997).

To Paul defense, he is older than his wife and feels that he needs to ensure her security. Although beautiful, she is less educated and comes from a lower social status. Writing for Prokosch will allow Paul to pay off the mortgage and stabilize his future, thus, "giving his lower-class wife the one thing she wants most, a middle class home of her own" (Kehr 1997). He believes that perhaps then he can concentrate on his writing and become a truly serious writer.

While in negotiations, Prokosch assumes his charisma will be enough to entice Paul to work for him, however, the presence of Camille complicates the deal. As Gary Morris writes, "Camille's favors appear to be part of the price Prokosch will exact from Pavel in exchange for the $10,000 salary and further inroads into 'show biz'" (Morris 1997). The presence of Camille as a beautiful vessel to be filled is established early in the movie when she "catalogs her own body parts in the form of questions" for Paul, asking, "Do you like my breasts ... my ankles ... my knees ... my thighs" (Morris 1997). This scene also establishes Camille's insecurities as well as Paul's deeper feelings:

Camille -- "You like all of me? My mouth? My eyes?

My nose? And my ears?"

Paul -- "Yes, all of you."

Camille -- "Then you love me... totally?"

Paul -- "Yes ... Totally... tenderly... tragically" (Godard 1963).