A Film and Its Era: Contempt, by Jean-Luc Godard on Eurochannel

Jean-Luc Godard directed Contempt in 1963. Brigitte Bardot, who was one of cinema’s global icons at the time, shared the lead in the film with Fritz Lang, who plays himself, a creator of movies. The film blends two ruptures: that of a young woman and her screenwriter husband (Michel Piccoli), and that of the German director and an American producer (Jack Palance). At the time in which the film is set, television is thriving and the number of films has diminished; movie theaters are closing and cinema is experiencing an existential crisis. The early 1960s was the only time of the century when Hollywood did not dominate movies. For Jean-Luc Godard, it was the end of a cinema that he loved passionately.