This is the final sequence from Jean-Luc Godard's film Contempt (Le Mepris). We didn't get much time to discuss this film after finishing it, so I'd like to open a discussion of it here.Beginnings and endings of fictional works are quite important, and this film is no exception. What impact do the beginning and the end have on the film? I take the beginning as the opening credits up through the bedroom scene with Bardot lying naked on her stomach and the end as Bardot's letter to her husband including the car accident and this final scene above. How does either scene - or both scenes - fit into the rest of the film?
The end scene disturbed me quite a bit because it shows a man's "victory pose." When Bardot left her husband, she was able to make her own desicions. Women in that era were not able to hold the higher reins on their relationships, particuliarly over a male. The man always got what he wanted and when her husband was left for another man, he felt betrayed and hurt. But was his hurt his egotistical side or that of love? It's hard to tell in a film because their is no description, however, the concluding scene seemed to show that no matter what movements a woman shall make, a man will always prevail. Bardot died a tragic death while her husband was still living and furthering his career. I feel the last scene wanted to show that gender classes were distinguished as a male always above the female, despite any changes she may make.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this film it seemed as if Bardot was insecure about her husbands love. She asked if he loved her ankles, her nose, etc. Yet at the end of the movie it was her husband who was following her around begging for her love back. The opening scene of Bardot laying on her stomach is completely different from the tragic car crash she was in. She is co calm and peaceful with her husband and its such an intimate moment between the two. And at the end of the movie she has run away with another man and dies in a terrible car crash. This shows that you never really know what life has in store for you and things can change in the blink of an eye. One minute they're in love and so happy with each other and the next they are chasing each other, fighting, cheating and looking to gain each others love back.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of this film, Bardot asks her husband many questions about her body. At first I felt she wants to see if he loves everything about her. But after a while it seemed that she might not trust him when he actually tells her Yes, I love everything.The husband loves Bardot dearly, and you clearly can see that at the end of the movie. Bardot obviously lost interest in her husband and decided to run away with another man. This relationship changed very fast and she didn't even want to try toto fix it. She kept running away from her husband when he wanted to just talk. At the end she left him a note, and died. He was emotionally hurt, but she got it the worst, she died in a tragic death.
ReplyDeleteLisette's Response:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ciara's comment that both the opening and ending scene lead to the victory and prevailing of men over women. Throughout the film we see this couple falling apart as the man attempts to keep her under his control and by his side. She finally is able to pick up the strength and say she is leaving him and when she does her journey ends. I was so shocked at the dramatic car crash. This scene is so powerful and shocking that it truly shows her husbands conquer over her desires. From the begining scene we can recollect that the wife was not certain of her husbands feelings because she kept asking him if he liked her body. She was not reassured that there was love in her marriage. I think the begining scene leads to the end of their relationship which was failure because there was no more existing love.
Kelli's Comment:
ReplyDeleteThe opening scene with Bardot lying on the bed confused me at first because I wasnt understanding what that scene had to do with the rest of the movie. By the ending scene I had finally connected the first scene with the rest of the movie. Bardot asks her husband about his love for her and her appearance while she lied in front of him naked, I found this to be very odd at first, but it was clearly a set up for the events that occured after. Bardot them gained feelings that her husband had fallen out of love for her and it stats when her husband unassuringly tells her he loves everything. With this now set in mind that Bardot's husband has lost the spark in her relationshp she then finds pleasure in another man. With this going on you truly see that Bardot's husband was clearly still in love with her. By the end it ties the whole opening scene together Bardot runs off because she has been unsatisfied with her husbands way of showing his emotions toward her and in the end she winds up dead. I took this as because Bardot would not give her husband a chance to be lovin to her and in return she is unfaithful to him, things just didnt work out.
In the beginning scene Bardot seems to be insecure about her body by asking her husband many questions. As the movie progressed the love between the couple started to fade, and is seemed as if Bardot was getting tired of her husband. Bardot was clearly ready to close that chapter in her life when she wrote that note to her husband. Bardot would never get to that next chapter in her life, because she dies in a car crash with her other lover. The beginning and end scene signifies a lost love between a husband and a wife. The man looking in the water shows that men prevailed over women. He is looking into the future, a future that was never meant to be between Bardot and her husband.
ReplyDeleteMy theory surrounding this film is the theme of fidelity. It is subtly display throughout the entire film. Concealing , withholding or postponing the audience is only shown fragments. The opening scene with Bardot lying on the bed question he husband set the ground work / foreshadowing for the “fidelity: theme. Godard uses Bardot to embodies the erotic roost. Godard placed tiny bits of knowledge in the audiences to latter expose the arid truth of the couple’s relationship Godard purpose and careful placed the opening scenes to direct the audience to an erotic fantasy. Since this film came out in 1963, I feeling audience was searching or maybe needing something that at that time in history was somewhat taboo.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhen we saw the first scene in class, I felt that the movie was going to be a "mushy" love story between Bardot and her husband. They seemed to be the perfect loving couple. As the movie progresses, the audience sees the slow deterioration of their marriage and then finally the ending of the marriage. The letter she sends to her husband can be seen as a woman trying to be independent and choosing her own lifestyle. The scene with the single man with his arms raised in victory can be seen as man's ability to triumph alone. Like the man in the scene, the husband triumphs by being the only one in the relationship that is still alive.
ReplyDeleteThe film is impacted by the begining and end of the movie in a very important way. One of the main points this movie tried to make is that adapting a novel to a movie is not an easy task because there are so many different interpretations to a novel. The novel in which this movie tried to adapt was the odessey and the main topic of disscusion in this novel was the relationship Odysius has with his wife. I believe that the begining of Contempt establishes a paralel relationship between another husband and wife in order to compare the two given relationships. The ending gives us the interpretation that this movie adapted, that is a bad relationship that ends in trategy.
ReplyDeletetest comment.
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly still very confused about the movie and consequently about my impressions of it, but here is what I came up with. I think that Bardot's questions to her husband at the beginning of the movie about whether or not he loved parts of her body relate to the idea of loving the whole of something versus the sum of its parts. The movie seemed very disjointed to me with random scenes from the movie being filmed within the film alongside the subplot about the characters lives behind the scenes. To understand the movie, using a method of connecting the scenes and putting together the pieces offered by the actors and the filming is not enough. To see the movie as art or as an experiment allows the viewer to appreciate the overall effect of the film and the film's message. The movie ends with the anticlimactic car crash where Bardot dies, which for me represented a deconstruction where the pieces fall apart along with the lives of the characters. The ideas of loyalty to the movie-making process, and loyalty in love, come up. Movies and realtionships require loyalty to last and stay strong, otherwise both plots can fall apart.
ReplyDeleteThe opening scene of Bardot lying on the bed naked with her husband confused me at first. It was not until the second half of the movie that I understood the point of it. Bardot in the opening scene was questioning her husbands love for her. It seemed as tough she was not truly sure what he loved about her, she only asked him if loved her physical features there was no mention of love for her personality only her looks. The film ended tragically with Bardot leaving her husband and dying in a car accident. I feel as though this showed she fell out of love with her husband, she felt that he was using her looks to get ahead in his career. I also feel that the last scene was a victorious scene for the husband because he may have lost his wife but he was moving ahead to continue his play as originally planned before the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between Bardot and her husband was obviously not very stable from the beginning of the movie. She seemed to be very insecure about herself, and in turn, she was not able to feel comfortable with the idea that her husband did truly love her, even though we can see from several scenes in the movie that he really did. At the same time, the husband was very unhappy with the way things were going in his life, especially with his career, and in turn, could not focus on his relationship and give it the attention it deserved. Due to this, he did not seem very blissful in his marriage, which is why his love was not conveyed properly to his wife. I think that this can send a message that shows how being unhappy with yourself can never lead to happiness with another. Their own insecurities and personal problems ended in a marital meltdown, and the crash quite possibly represented them hitting rock bottom, or crashing to the bottom.
ReplyDelete