Movies reviewed this week: Contempt.
7/3/2020: Contempt (1963): ****1/2
I can’t imagine what I would have thought if I’d experienced Godard in contemporaneous time. Watching this in 2020, I’m awed by the mastery of space and color and I’m fascinated by the layers of fantasy that make up the movie. As per an earlier Godard: “He wonders if the world is becoming a dream or if the dream is becoming the world.”
But I’m also alienated by the dialectic. I don’t need the conversation about the value of art and the crassness of commerce. I’m convinced by the former, and I want my movies to skip to the critique. Put Contempt on a double bill with Parasite and you know which one touches my heart.
But! That apartment scene. Delicate and human and perfect.
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