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Here at the beginning we get a good look at cinematographer Raoul Coutard at work. He worked with Godard on most of his major early films, breaking up with the director only when the massive French unrest in 1968 brought their political differences to a head. #CriterionMovieClub
The exquisitely melancholy score by Georges Delerue sets the mood from the beginning. #CriterionMovieClub
This opening scene, with Bardot in the nude, was famously added at the insistence of notoriously philistine producer Joseph Levine, who as we saw earlier today, knew exactly what he was selling. #CriterionMovieClub
The rather anti-erotic color filters are said to be Godard's Revenge. #CriterionMovieClub
As someone observed earlier, two weeks ago we had Jack Palance as the frustrated artist; tonight we have him as a self-aggrandizing, platitude-spouting greedy producer. #CriterionMovieClub
I love the incredibly tiny little red bed that Palance's character, Jerry Prokosch, reads portentously throughout the film, in part because what he's saying couldn't possibly fit on its pages. #CriterionMovieClub
Ha! That's BOOK of course, not bed. #CriterionMovieClub
"I like gods. I like them very much. I know exactly how they feel. Exactly." I'm not sure even Harry Cohn would have come up with that one. #CriterionMovieClub
Fritz Lang's presence in this movie—unflappable, erudite, an artist in every way—is incredibly touching to me. It was, toward the end of the career, a chance to show who he was, and what he'd been up against for so long. #CriterionMovieClub
And in return, Lang gets some of the most famous lines: the "snakes and funerals" jab at Cinemascope (which he'd used beautifully for MOONFLEET, unappreciated at the time) and "Motion picture, it's called." #CriterionMovieClub
Godard himself, of course, had loved MOONFLEET. #CriterionMovieClub
The RANCHO NOTORIOUS exchange is something of an in-joke on Godard himself; the Cahiers critics preferred Lang’s U.S. films to his German ones, and Godard had even written that M was Lang’s “least good film.” #CriterionMovieClub
This, of course, is where the movie takes a turn. While Bardot in our era is vocally anti- #MeToo 
, and Godard isn't generally thought of as feminist, the producer's vulgar interest in Camille plays even harsher now. #CriterionMovieClub
, and Godard isn't generally thought of as feminist, the producer's vulgar interest in Camille plays even harsher now. #CriterionMovieClub
This also where Piccoli's superb abilities really begin to shine. That cringe-making "explanation" of why he's late; Paul doesn't believe it himself even as it's coming out of his mouth. #CriterionMovieClub
Climbing the stairs after getting nowhere fast with Georgia Moll. Paul can feel his mojo crumbling. #CriterionMovieClub
I had an argument once with someone about Camille and her obvious desire for Paul to protect her; he said it was sexist on her part. I said that she obvs can take care of herself, but she desperately needs to know that Paul can't stand to see her hurt. #CriterionMovieClub
I could listen to Michel Piccoli's voice saying "comme Dean Martehn dans Some Came Rrrrunning" on a loop. #CriterionMovieClub
There were American critics who liked CONTEMPT on its initial release; they skewed young. Others were bumfuzzled, and this epic mid-movie marital fight was often what they cited. #CriterionMovieClub
Piccoli had no trouble with Bardot, but remarked in a 1976 interview, “Close up, she wasn’t a sex symbol. She was a jeune fille bourgeoise who used to play cards with her makeup artist.”
#CriterionMovieClub
#CriterionMovieClub
Luc Moullet's book, which Camille reads in the bath, was one of the first full-length studies of Fritz Lang as a director, another tip of the hat from Godard. #CriterionMovieClub
“He created a scene in the bathroom where Bardot was upset & angry and uses lots of very bad words, she screams ‘merde, merde’—and, well, I used to do that when I was a little bit angry with him too. Not aggressive, it was all quite playful really.” —Anna Karina
Anna Karina, still married to Godard at the time of filming, readily acknowledged in later years that their troubles and ways of fighting were often closely mirrored in CONTEMPT. #CriterionMovieClub
“I always had fun working with Godard,” Michel Piccoli said in 1976. “He has this immense tenderness, which he hides, but sometimes he can also be very aggressive, brutal, disagreeable.” #CriterionMovieClub
Piccoli recalled having trouble with one of the long speeches. Godard “said to me, ‘You actors—if you helped with this tracking shot instead of standing around doing nothing, you wouldn’t look so stupid.’” #CriterionMovieClub
