Synopsis
Movie: Le Mepris, or “Contempt” in English,
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Notable Characters: Paul Javal, a playwright.
American producer
German director
Cute translator
Camille
DISCLAIMER 1: I can’t speak for Roy, but when I write a synopsis it will be written in my style and by my rules. I PLAY BY MY OWN RULES. I will however, try to make sure you, the reader, understand the plot well enough to read our review dialogue. - Cody
DISCLAIMER 2: This movie doesn’t have what you would call a traditional story line. It is just a series of scenes showing people talking. All we can do in our review is do our best to discuss the scenes we have to work with. Bear with us on this one… - Cody
DISCLAIMER 3: Avoid watching this movie if you are at all, in the least bit, sleepy. You may miss things because it’s in French, and it’s all subtitled. But honestly, you don’t miss too much. Reading everything they said in the movie doesn’t help you understand it any better. - Roy
Cody: Le Mepris is a film centered around Paul Javal, a playwright. He has been hired by an American producer to “Hollywoodize” a film based on Homer’s The Odyssey. A legendary German director is also along for the ride. There is a cute translator who seemingly knows every language imaginable. Finally, enter Javal’s BEAUTIFUL wife, Camille. I capitalize “beautiful” because this movie spends an inordinate amount of time recognizing, stating, and discussing her physical appearance. What can be loosely labeled as a plot, plays out in a limited number of scenes using what I would call “real time dialogue.” As in, you see the entirety of a conversation beginning to end, regardless of length, relevance, or even the repetition of lines. The central themes are a conflict between Javal and Camille and a conflict within Javal himself about “selling out” his snobby playwright beliefs to “pimp out” this classic Homer epic. Basically these two separate conflicts play out across a few different settings where essentially nothing of any substance takes place. I will now let Roy add anything else he thinks you need to know, as well as kick off our discussion.
Cody: Le Mepris is a film centered around Paul Javal, a playwright. He has been hired by an American producer to “Hollywoodize” a film based on Homer’s The Odyssey. A legendary German director is also along for the ride. There is a cute translator who seemingly knows every language imaginable. Finally, enter Javal’s BEAUTIFUL wife, Camille. I capitalize “beautiful” because this movie spends an inordinate amount of time recognizing, stating, and discussing her physical appearance. What can be loosely labeled as a plot, plays out in a limited number of scenes using what I would call “real time dialogue.” As in, you see the entirety of a conversation beginning to end, regardless of length, relevance, or even the repetition of lines. The central themes are a conflict between Javal and Camille and a conflict within Javal himself about “selling out” his snobby playwright beliefs to “pimp out” this classic Homer epic. Basically these two separate conflicts play out across a few different settings where essentially nothing of any substance takes place. I will now let Roy add anything else he thinks you need to know, as well as kick off our discussion.
Roy: I have nothing to add, except this movie is not as exciting as Cody made it sound. Onto the review!
Review
Review
Roy: I would like to start this review by letting all of you catch a glimpse of how this movie started. Paul and his wife Camille are lying in bed. Here is the following exchange:
Camille: Do you like my feet?
Paul: Oui
Camille: Do you like my ankles?
Paul: Oui
Camille: Do you like my knees?
Paul: Oui
…...Aaaaannnnd five minutes in I would like to smother her with a pillow… and, by the way, I saved you people. Her questions went on for another three minutes ALL in the same vein.
Cody: The above statements by Roy are pretty much a microcosm of the entire film. I could let his remarks stand alone and they would be enough for an entire review. However, I am far too interested in my own opinions to stop here. Seriously, Camille might be one of the most annoying movie characters I have seen, and I have seen A LOT of movies. Something that needs our serious attention though is the scene between Paul and Camille in their apartment. First of all, it is important to note that this movie is 102 minutes long and has exactly five different scenes. The one in the apartment is the longest scene coming in at over thirty minutes of back and forth between Camille and Paul. How many ways can you say “why don’t you love me anymore?” Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, because Paul just uses that same exact wording over and over and over and over and over and……
Roy: I’ll tell you who else doesn’t know the answer to that question… Camille. She just kept saying “I do love you, no wait… I don’t. Um.. I don’t know.” The passive-aggressiveness rated off the charts. Also, is this how french people fight?? There is no yelling, no screaming, just asking the same question over and over, then they change the subject. Suddenly, out of nowhere Paul slaps Camille around. 173 hours later, after the same runaround, Camille starts hitting Paul. She runs out of the apartment, he grabs a gun and chases after her.
Cody: By the time we got through that apartment scene, I didn’t even care about Homer’s “The Odyssey” anymore. Another thing about the French, (is this a stereotype?) their baths lasted approximately seventeen seconds each.
Roy: Not to mention neither person used soap. Not kidding. Paul takes his clothes off, takes a bath, gets out and puts the same clothes back on and tells Camille “its ok, I didn’t use soap….” Um… wait? You just sat in warm dirty water because… you’re french? I don’t get it.
Cody: Clearly you can tell this movie dragged on and on, but it was not without merit. Something that is really entertaining/funny about foreign films is the frequency with which they take stereotypes about Americans and pour nitro gas all over them. The American producer was comically arrogant to the point that his character is borderline not believable to be a real person. I mean, he dismisses the cute translator like the French dismiss the prospect of a decent bath. She only seamlessly translated between German, French, and English without blinking an eye, and she gets treated like every secretary in Mad Men. I am not saying Americans aren’t arrogant, but just….wow.
Cody: The above statements by Roy are pretty much a microcosm of the entire film. I could let his remarks stand alone and they would be enough for an entire review. However, I am far too interested in my own opinions to stop here. Seriously, Camille might be one of the most annoying movie characters I have seen, and I have seen A LOT of movies. Something that needs our serious attention though is the scene between Paul and Camille in their apartment. First of all, it is important to note that this movie is 102 minutes long and has exactly five different scenes. The one in the apartment is the longest scene coming in at over thirty minutes of back and forth between Camille and Paul. How many ways can you say “why don’t you love me anymore?” Well, I don’t know the answer to that question, because Paul just uses that same exact wording over and over and over and over and over and……
Roy: I’ll tell you who else doesn’t know the answer to that question… Camille. She just kept saying “I do love you, no wait… I don’t. Um.. I don’t know.” The passive-aggressiveness rated off the charts. Also, is this how french people fight?? There is no yelling, no screaming, just asking the same question over and over, then they change the subject. Suddenly, out of nowhere Paul slaps Camille around. 173 hours later, after the same runaround, Camille starts hitting Paul. She runs out of the apartment, he grabs a gun and chases after her.
Cody: By the time we got through that apartment scene, I didn’t even care about Homer’s “The Odyssey” anymore. Another thing about the French, (is this a stereotype?) their baths lasted approximately seventeen seconds each.
Roy: Not to mention neither person used soap. Not kidding. Paul takes his clothes off, takes a bath, gets out and puts the same clothes back on and tells Camille “its ok, I didn’t use soap….” Um… wait? You just sat in warm dirty water because… you’re french? I don’t get it.
Cody: Clearly you can tell this movie dragged on and on, but it was not without merit. Something that is really entertaining/funny about foreign films is the frequency with which they take stereotypes about Americans and pour nitro gas all over them. The American producer was comically arrogant to the point that his character is borderline not believable to be a real person. I mean, he dismisses the cute translator like the French dismiss the prospect of a decent bath. She only seamlessly translated between German, French, and English without blinking an eye, and she gets treated like every secretary in Mad Men. I am not saying Americans aren’t arrogant, but just….wow.
Roy: I get that Jean-Luc Godard wanted to bring up the cynical view that movies are killing art. Anytime art was talked about or shown in the movie it was glorified, and every reference to the evil producer and his evil plans for “The Odyssey” was viewed as evil and corrupt…. and evil. The movie ends with Camille leaving her husband Paul for the American producer, whom she hates, and they die when he wedges his car underneath a semi-truck. Was Jean-Luc Godard trying to say something here? I don’t know. I’m only thankful it happened so the movie could end.
Cody: What a completely bizarre ending too. Camille just suddenly leaves Paul for the American whom she can hardly even communicate with? I will tell you what I learned from that symbolism: Americans get everything they want. Every single time. Guaranteed. The fact that he died at the end does nothing to change my mind. Would you rather die rich and happy driving your slick sports car with a beautiful French woman next to you, or old, alone, and with your “dignity” in tact because you didn’t compromise your lame playwright values? Give me the hot French chick and the semi-truck death every dang time. ‘Merica.
Roy: We don’t get everything we want… We had to sit through this euro-trash film and wonder how this made the list of best 1,001 movies of all time.
Cody: At least the score was kind of cool…. I guess?
Roy: For the first 45 minutes yeah…. But how do you write a single, five minute score for the entire movie??
Cody: The same way you write 15 original lines for a two hour movie… *sigh*… I’m not sure I can do this anymore….
Roy: Wait…. what?? Cody….are we still friends?
Cody: Yes….. *passive aggressively staring out the window*
Roy: But Cody…..why aren’t we friends anymore?.... are we still friends?
Cody: I will admit nothing.
Roy: Cody…. I must know…. are we still friends?
Cody: How can you not know? I have always been your friend. But today….I changed my mind….for some reason….*overdramatically runs out of the room*
Cody: What a completely bizarre ending too. Camille just suddenly leaves Paul for the American whom she can hardly even communicate with? I will tell you what I learned from that symbolism: Americans get everything they want. Every single time. Guaranteed. The fact that he died at the end does nothing to change my mind. Would you rather die rich and happy driving your slick sports car with a beautiful French woman next to you, or old, alone, and with your “dignity” in tact because you didn’t compromise your lame playwright values? Give me the hot French chick and the semi-truck death every dang time. ‘Merica.
Roy: We don’t get everything we want… We had to sit through this euro-trash film and wonder how this made the list of best 1,001 movies of all time.
Cody: At least the score was kind of cool…. I guess?
Roy: For the first 45 minutes yeah…. But how do you write a single, five minute score for the entire movie??
Cody: The same way you write 15 original lines for a two hour movie… *sigh*… I’m not sure I can do this anymore….
Roy: Wait…. what?? Cody….are we still friends?
Cody: Yes….. *passive aggressively staring out the window*
Roy: But Cody…..why aren’t we friends anymore?.... are we still friends?
Cody: I will admit nothing.
Roy: Cody…. I must know…. are we still friends?
Cody: How can you not know? I have always been your friend. But today….I changed my mind….for some reason….*overdramatically runs out of the room*
Fin
Roy: P.S. If this review confused you just be happy you didn’t watch the movie. We only stole seven minutes of your life. That movie stole 102 from us.
It's been years I was supposed to see this film and I loved it. I think it was full of poetry and a great hommage the cinema. the film goes totally too in the opposite to what is the nouvelle vague in the mind of Godard, small budget, unknown actors. I love the shots and the music, the parallele done in the films with gods and odyssey. Watching the scene Paul had a reason to slap her. I watched the film in french and looked at the english subtitles and I can tell you that the translation is alright but doesn't always translate the poetry you feel in the french version, not to say it's not always accurate. the scene with bath you can keep the water, it's clean, I didn't wash. By the way Camille is not leaving Paul for the producer, the producer is going to Rome she is leaving with him to give her a lift to Rome where she plans to stay first in a hotel the time to find a job
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