01-20-2014, 07:14 PM
I’ve been wanting to watch some early Bardot films, in appreciation of her calling Palin “stupid” and “a disgrace to women” during her vice presidential campaign. Not that Bardot is exactly perfect (in mind), as she has been fined several times of late for inciting racial hatred (she’s not fond of Muslims). Anyway, that is the seed of how I came to grab Contempt from the library grab-bag.
Contempt is the mother lode of all bad French cinema. That is not to say it’s a bad film. It’s brilliant, mesmerizing, with a masterful central sequence that lasts 30 or 40 minutes. That’s when Bridget Bardot’s character and husband wander about in their penthouse talking to each other and performing little tasks. Though almost nothing happens in this scene, there is a richly convoluted subtext rife with uncertainties and misunderstandings.
The reason I call this the mother lode of all bad French cinema is because I believe that most French directors following in Godard's wake have tried to emulate his central penthouse sequence where nothing really happens, only they lack the skills to give it a rich subtext, so their movies are merely about nothing really happening.
Though DOOM may not be the proper audience for such a film, I found it endlessly fascinating. Beyond the movie itself, the more you read about its making, the more you realize its characters and their conflicts mirror the director’s (Godard) own real life. You also learn why he filmed Bardot’s nude scenes in the odd way he did.
It’s got Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang (playing himself!), other skilled actors I’m not familiar with, and great cinematography.
No swordfights (though an actor practices with a sword). Still, I will argue that this French film is not pretentious drivel.
P.S. Sorry, DM, for bumping this category beyond 666 topics.
Contempt is the mother lode of all bad French cinema. That is not to say it’s a bad film. It’s brilliant, mesmerizing, with a masterful central sequence that lasts 30 or 40 minutes. That’s when Bridget Bardot’s character and husband wander about in their penthouse talking to each other and performing little tasks. Though almost nothing happens in this scene, there is a richly convoluted subtext rife with uncertainties and misunderstandings.
The reason I call this the mother lode of all bad French cinema is because I believe that most French directors following in Godard's wake have tried to emulate his central penthouse sequence where nothing really happens, only they lack the skills to give it a rich subtext, so their movies are merely about nothing really happening.
Though DOOM may not be the proper audience for such a film, I found it endlessly fascinating. Beyond the movie itself, the more you read about its making, the more you realize its characters and their conflicts mirror the director’s (Godard) own real life. You also learn why he filmed Bardot’s nude scenes in the odd way he did.
It’s got Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang (playing himself!), other skilled actors I’m not familiar with, and great cinematography.
No swordfights (though an actor practices with a sword). Still, I will argue that this French film is not pretentious drivel.
P.S. Sorry, DM, for bumping this category beyond 666 topics.