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  • Essay / Analysis of the Film Mépris by Jean Luc Godard

    Table of contentsAnalysis of a sequenceDirecting and camera techniquesDialogue contentColorsScene positioningThe film deals with two problems. First there is filmmaking in particular and cinema in general. Second, marital problems and marital dissolution. Godard is considered one of the most important directors of the French New Wave or (La Nouvelle Vague) and this is true for several reasons: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an original essayHe is the most productive of all the new wave directorsHe is the most experimental of all the new wave directors trying new genres, new techniques, new formats, even mixing different genresHe is the most theoretical or verbal constantly giving interviews writing and making provocations on his vision of cinema.The sequence to be analyzed in this presentation dates from the opening of the film.Analysis of a sequenceAlthough Contempt is an adaptation of Il dessprezzo by Alberto Moravia the opening sequence shows us everything that cinema can do and what literature cannot do. We notice that the credits are spoken and not written, which is a very rare practice in feature film, drawing attention to the activities involved in making a film. George Delerue wrote the music William Civil recorded the sound for cinematographer Raoul Coutard, etc. This innovation is typical of Godard's approach which emphasizes the questioning of all the conventions of cinema, even the most trivial ones such as that of the credits which must always be written and not pronounced. The first shot shows us part of the world's most famous Cinecitta studio in Rome, founded by the fascists in the late 1930s under Mousseline, directors like Rossellini and Fellini made their debut there. Direction and camera techniques A small number of human figures and a camera advances towards us from the depths of space. Camera arriving on tracks drawing attention to a known technique of (tracking) and frequently used by the film. While the camera in action is in static mode while the subject is moving and we notice a slight pan to the right as well as a tilt up. And at the same time, while Raoul Coutard the famous cinematographer responsible for films like Breathless and Jules and Jim checks the light theater and rolls the camera towards us while we simultaneously hear the famous quote from André Bazin (cinema substitutes for our gaze a world which accords with our desires), cinema substitutes for our gaze a world more in harmony with our desires. Here, Bazin's quote is so important and interesting that it makes the point: “Cinema is desire. And also, this contempt is a film about this world, the world of cinema and its link with the world of desire. Jean Luc Godard draws attention to our desire like that of the spectators which prepares the sequence we are about to see which involves a bedroom and nudity. As for the technical transition, we notice the framing of the bedroom scene and the camera angle that we see on screen as being the camera in the next scene. Here we are presented with the two main characters of the film Paul played by Michel Picolli and Camille played by Brigitte Bardot. The dialogue begins in the middle of Camille's thoughts answering a question that we have not heard about Godard's provocative habits by making the spectator work as by engaging the spectators by making them think if by forcing us to fill in with our imagination part.