Jean-Luc Godard: “Contempt” – the Presence of Gods

Andrzej Michalski

Abstract

Michalski cites the words which are the motto of the film, based on Alberto Moravias novel : Le cinéma substitue à notre regard un monde qui s’accorde a nos désirs... – Cinema replaces the world with one that conforms to our own desires... „Le Mépris” est l’histoire de ce monde. Contempt is the story of this world.Michalski meticulously analyzes Godard’s film from the point of view of his complicated narrative tricks. The film portrays thąbreakup of a relationship between screenwriter Paul Javal and his wife Camille. Against this backdrop, we watch a story of the making of a film based on Homer’s Odyssey, directed by Fritz Lang (playing himself). The story about Ulysses and divine acts is superimposed on the contem­porary story in a complicated way. Michalski points out that the interpretation of meanings in Contempt is non-linear and is conducted through a gradual identification of contexts and the viewer’s juxtaposition of narrative knots, which are sometimes very distant. But the tricks are distinctly cinematic and inseparably tied with the image and its editing, with the role of props and the construction of soundtrack.