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Contempt
original film poster
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by	Carlo Ponti Georges de Beauregard Joseph E. Levine
Written by	Alberto Moravia (novel) Jean-Luc Godard
Starring	Brigitte Bardot Michel Piccoli Jack Palance Giorgia Moll Fritz Lang
Music by	Georges Delerue (French and US release) Piero Piccioni (Italian release)
Cinematography	Raoul Coutard
Editing by	Agnès Guillemot Lila Lakshmanan
Distributed by	Embassy Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	October 29, 1963 20 December 1963 October 1964 (limited) 18 December 1964 (wide)
Running time	103 min.
Language	French/English German/Italian
Budget	$900,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Contempt (French: Le Mépris) is a 1963 film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel Il disprezzo (1954) by Alberto Moravia.

American film producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) hires respected Austrian director Fritz Lang (playing himself) to direct a film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Dissatisfied with Lang's treatment of the material as an art film, Prokosch hires Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a novelist and playwright, to rework the script. The conflict between artistic expression and commercial opportunity parallels Paul's sudden estrangement from his wife Camille Javal (Brigitte Bardot), who is mysteriously aloof with him after being left alone with Prokosch, a millionaire playboy.

While founded on Moravia's story of the progressive estrangement between a husband and wife, Godard's version also contains deliberate parallels with aspects of his own life: while Paul, Camille, and Prokosch correspond to Odysseus, Penelope, and Poseidon, they also correspond in some ways with Godard, his wife Anna Karina (his choice of female lead), and Joseph E. Levine, the film's distributor.

Also notable is the discussion within the film of the literature of Dante and Friedrich Hölderlin.

Italian film producer Carlo Ponti approached Jean Luc Godard to discuss a possible collaboration; Godard suggested an adaptation of Moravia's novel Il disprezzo (originally translated into English with the title A Ghost at Noon) in which he saw Kim Novak and Frank Sinatra as the leads; they refused. Ponti suggested Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, whom Godard refused. Finally, Bardot was chosen, because of the producer's insistence that the profits might be increased by displaying her famously sensual body. This provided the film's opening scene, filmed by Godard as a typical mockery of the cinema business with tame nudity. In the film, Godard cast himself as Lang's assistant director, and characteristically has Lang expound many of Godard's New Wave theories and opinions.

Contempt was filmed in and occurs entirely in Italy, with location shooting at the Cinecittà studios near Rome and the Casa Malaparte on Capri island. In a notable sequence, the characters played by Piccoli and Bardot wander through their apartment alternately arguing and reconciling. Godard filmed the scene as an extended series of tracking shots, in natural light and in near real-time.

The French, Italian and American releases differ significantly. The French release is multilingual (French, English, Italian and German), while American and Italian releases are dubbed entirely in English and Italian, respectively. The French and American releases differ only slightly in editing. The Italian version is significantly shorter (82') and, instead of George Delerue's original, haunting musical score, has a very different light jazz score written by Piero Piccioni.

• Contempt at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Phillip Lopate
• DVD review of Contempt
• Raoul Coutard video at the Peoples Archive

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