Screen/Society--Tribute to Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022): "Contempt" (1963) + "Trailer of a Film…" (2023)
Film screening:
Tribute to Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)
Join us for 2 screenings of works from the legendary filmmaker's early and late periods.
2:00PM: "Contempt" (1963, 103 min)
3:45PM: "Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars" (2023, 20 min)
"Contempt" ("Le Mépris")
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1963, 102 min, France, DCP)
New 4K Restoration!
Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. "Contempt" ("Le Mépris") stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. Based on Alberto Moravia's novel "Il Disprezzo", "Contempt" is a brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process.
"Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars"
(Jean-Luc Godard, 2023, 20 min, France, DCP)
At the time of his death in September 2022, Jean-Luc Godard had been in the midst of planning another feature, an adaptation of Belgian author Charles Plisnier's 1937 novel "Faux Passports". Though the film was never produced, the intricate and beautiful "trailer" that Godard put together in preparation now stands as his final work, a complex collage of history, politics, and cinema constructed of paper and glue, paintings and photographs, sound and silence. Godard often transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs. His swan song follows in this tradition and will remain as the ultimate gesture of cinema, which he accompanies with the following text: "Rejecting the billions of alphabetic diktats to liberate the incessant metamorphoses and metaphors of a necessary and true language by returning to the locations of past film shoots, while keeping track of modern times."
-- Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival.
