When I first got to college, I was already into cinema and elected an intro to film course. I was only watching modern movies at that point, mostly American, and I was unsatisfied with most of the films we were watching for the class (most of them I've come around to liking since, though they all have a bit of a stigma of being attached to that class). The one big exception was Godard's Breathless, which kind of blew me away. It just felt fresh, where so many of those other films felt dated to me. Outside of the class, when exploring a video store's foreign section, a friend and I picked up Contempt - I wanted to see more Godard and he wanted to see more Brigitte Bardot (I have no idea how he already knew about her). He got the better deal, with Bardot's beautiful bum gracing the screen for a few glorious minutes. I was unsatisfied with this follow-up to Breathless. I think I avoided Godard for a year or two afterward, but I started liking him again when I saw Band of Outsiders. I pretty much ate up all of his other films afterward, loving most of them. I had always meant to get back to Contempt, but never did. Unfortunately, several years ago, particularly after Notre Musique, I fell out of love with Godard. This second viewing of Contempt is the first Godard film I've watched or rewatched since Notre Musique (though I've bought several, including Contempt). I wonder, if I had watched it when I was in my Godard period, would I have loved it as I did so many others? Strangely enough, I felt almost exactly the same way about Contempt that I felt about it the first time: it's gorgeous, but, lord, is it a bore. I can almost live on the images alone - especially all the images of Bardot. But, much like Bardot herself, Contempt comes across as gorgeous but utterly empty. None of the other performances are any good, either. Palance, whom in general I like, is particularly awful. Piccoli is a total bore, too, and I can't help feeling a man who looks so much like an ape shouldn't be with Bardot. It's interesting to see Fritz Lange as an actor, but he doesn't have much to do. Really, the only character I had any real attraction to was Giorgia Moll, who may be even prettier than Bardot. The film'd almost be better without any people in it - the scenery is plenty good. But they'd also have to remove that terrible, repetitive score to make it worth sitting through - it's easily the worst part of the whole film. "But it's Brechtian!" my film professor would say. "*beep* off!" I would reply.
