Contempt

The story of a troubled adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey has become the undisputed classic of Godard’s New Wave films. Among its many strengths are the commanding presence of Fritz Lang, appearing alongside Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, and Jack Palance, as well as Raoul Coutard’s elegant cinematography and Georges Delerue’s deeply expressive score. Most striking, however, is the way the film—almost inadvertently—evokes the aura of ancient tragedy. Adapting Alberto Moravia’s novel (once dismissively described by the director as a “pleasant, vulgar train read”), it emerges as a defining example of meta-cinema. Its apparent simplicity conceals a precise reflection on the tensions between European cinema and Hollywood, between old and new, national and transnational forms. At the same time, Contempt remains an intimate study of a disintegrating relationship, often read as echoing that of Godard and Anna Karina, subtly reinforced by the stylized appearance of the protagonists (Bardot in a black wig and Piccoli with a cigar and hat).

Ewa Mazierska

10th New Horizons IFF Catalogue

Jean-Luc Godard (1930–2022) – the father of film postmodernism as well as a radical, uncompromising avant-garde director. His feature debut, Breathless (1959), is widely regarded as a foundational work of the New Wave. Godard dismantled established film language, rejecting classical narration in favour of fragmentation, improvisation and formal experimentation, often working with a handheld camera in natural settings. Over the years, he treated cinema as a tool not only for representing reality, but for reshaping perception and human consciousness. Politically radical, he created TV productions, started up his own studio and explored the possibilities inherent in video technology. In the early 1980s he returned to cinema, only to soon abandon stories in favor of the essay film.

10th New Horizons IFF Catalogue