Classics in short: Contempt

I've been trying to continue my film education beyond class by dissecting the old auteurs. Right now, I'm trying to understand the works of Jean Luc Godard, one of the more extreme foreign filmmakers. This week, I watched Contempt. Interesting that I watched this now, because who would I see in it but a young Jack Palance. Actually, not really young, but not the old guy we were used to. I didn't expect to see him in a French New Wave film, but he was playing a boisterous American, so it worked.

This is an interesting film because it deals with filmmaking, like a lot of those critic-auteurs do. A spoiled American producer tries to make Homer's Odyssey with a European crew and cast, including legendary Fritz Lang as the director. Lang plays himself, which is fun. (For the record, Mr. Lang, I prefer M as well.) Unfortunately, all this takes a back seat to the personal life of the French screenwriter, who arrives on set with his beautiful but annoying wife. The film shifts to their arguments and troubles, and it lost me. It went from a biting satire on filmmaking to a relationship movie where two people lash out at each other as much as they can. Their marriage is failing. You could even say.... (dun-dun-dun!) .... that they have CONTEMPT for each other!!!!! I kid, I kid. I would not recommend this to the average citizen, but for those interested in the New Wave, it is a solid piece.