Contempt

One of the New Wave’s crown jewels, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt stars Brigitte Bardot as the disillusioned wife of a French screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) torn between the demands of a stately European director (Fritz Lang) and a blustery American producer (Jack Palance) as they try to adapt Homer’s Odyssey on location in sun-drenched Capri. Godard called the film’s characters “survivors of the shipwreck of modernity,” and he frequently juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary: the endless, placid Mediterranean as seen from a modish, sparsely-furnished villa; weathered antiquities next to a red, glistening Alfa Romeo convertible; a dilapidated wall plastered with a colorful Howard Hawks poster. With its lush, surging score by Georges Delerue, echoes of Some Came Running and Voyage to Italy, and breathtaking Scope cinematography by Raoul Coutard (“the eye of the gods has been replaced by cinema,” intones Lang in character) Contempt is Godard at his movie-madcap finest.

Bing Theater | FAQs

$10 for the general public, $7 for LACMA members, seniors (62+), and students with valid ID | Tickets available Thursday, July 5 at 5 pm. | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.

$5 for Film Independent, LACMA Film Club, and New York Times Film Club members | Pre-sale tickets available Thursday, June 28 at 5 pm |  Members of these groups will be required to show proof of membership when retrieving their tickets | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.