Contempt (1963)
(Le mépris, Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy 1963, 102 min., DCP, French, English, German, and Italian w/English subtitles)
Adapted by director Jean-Luc Godard from Alberto Moravia's novel, A Ghost at Noon, Contempt follows the collapse of a marriage amid the pitfalls of international moviemaking. Jealous screenwriter Michel Piccoli sells his soul and his wife to boorish and bombastic American producer Jack Palance, who is busy cajoling his director (Fritz Lang as himself) into making their latest project, a film version of The Odyssey, a standard exercise in e(u)roticism. Starring the incomparable Brigitte Bardot, Contempt is Godard's most visually arresting film, a constellation of vivid color and dense widescreen composition. Godard's first big-budget film, he frequently chafed under the constant pressure of his own producers, and the film is often a thinly veiled attack towards them. #54 on the Sight & Sound list.