Northwest Film Forum

Godard is on an almost 60 year exploration into the heart of cinema, and Contempt is his standard bearer of films about filmmaking.  At its heart it is a mystery, examining why a wife (Brigitte Bardot) suddenly falls out of love with her husband (Michel Piccoli). 

In Contempt, his first (and last) big-budgeted film, Godard took the money from Carlo Ponti and Joseph Levine and delivered the goods (lush CinemaScope photography, exotic locations and requisite Bardot cheesecake) and then some. In fact, to call it simply a film about film or relationships is too facile: Contempt contains multitudes.

With Fritz Lang as the director of the film within the film (representing the argument for cinema as art), and Jack Palance as the crass producer (representing cinema as commerce).  The remarkable final shot has Godard himself as the Director of Photography, turning the camera to the audience, as if to ask: “which side are you on?”

• Join us for a special pre-screening introduction on May 30 from Lyall Bush,  executive director of Northwest Film Forum and an adjunct faculty member of Seattle University’s Film Studies program, where he teaches international cinema, including a seminar on Godard in 2015. This introduction will include clips from other films by Jean-Luc Godard.
   
• Part of our series Godard Does Himself, screening through June 5. Read More >