Le Mépris
I have finally come around to write my blog post about the “greatest Godard” and I already know that this post will be not be able to do justice to the film at all, because I have already partially forgotten what I want to say (as always :( ).
So, of course this film is brilliant and I understand quite well why it is considered one of the best, if not the best film by Godard. It has the most intense atmosphere, probably the most exciting story of all his films so far and what struck me the most was the impressive music. Sure, this tune was repeating itself like a leitmotiv throughout the whole film, but this is what was so great about it – it left quite an impression on me with its dramatic melody.
And finally, I was a little bit disappointed to see that the majority of the film played in the main character’s old apartment and only the last 15 minutes were in (and on) the Casa Malaparte. I could never live in such a house, I’d fear to fall down from those stairs, but the interior and the concept of the house are quite brilliant indeed. It must actually be splendid to live in an avantgarde house.
The role fits Brigitte Bardot perfectly – after all these nude scenes, the idea of this role being played by Sophia Loren somehow scares me. La Bardot is quite a nice-body-ko indeed, and I understand the emphasis on her naked body so much. The dialogue at the very beginning is indeed so Godard-ish, heh, and I loved it. This makes me think of “The Dreamers” now – sometimes you just feel like imitating films, heh.
The strongest part of the film for me definitely was the scene in which she says this infamous line “Je te méprise”. It underlines the traditional scheme of unhappy marriages in which contempt is the most apparent problem. It seems the problems start with the couple looking down on each other instead of acknowledging the other person’s strong points. In that respect, I kind of understand why the story does not provide any actual reason why the marriage became unhappy – but it depicts how it shows, thus making it applicable to all unhappy relationships. The Anna Karenina principle says that unhappy marriages are unhappy because of different reasons – I agree with that, but I think that happiness shows itself in many different ways, unhappy relationships nearly always shows in… contempt.
Finally, I think that “À bout de souffle” and “Bande à part” are somehow better films to introduce yourself into Godard, while “Le Mépris” is the kind of film you would want to watch after having become a Godard fan. Next, I want to watch his “Pierrot le Fou”.