MovieChat Forums > Vivre sa vie: Film en douze tableaux (1962) Discussion > Le Mepris

Le Mepris

posted 20 years ago by comedian4444
9 replies | jump to latest

I just wanted to hear someones opinion on why people place Le Mepris on their top ten film lists and My Life to Live is nowhere to be found. I beleive My Life to Live is a far better film. My theory is because Le Mepris is a film that most people do not get, so the people who understand Le Mepris and like it they feel intellectual when they say Le Mepris is one of their favorite movies. However, I could be wrong and Le Mepris is just a better movie and I am one of those nonintellectual people who doesn't seen to see how great it is.
-Alex Simone

[–] MisterWhiplash 19 years ago

I'm one of those that place this above Contempt. I think some put Contempt over My Life to Live more often than not because of the accessibility of it as a kind of Hollywood/art-house film. I respect Contempt, I really like it's visual sweep, but in all honesty I think part of me liking My Life to Live more than Contempt has to do with a preference for Karina over Bardot. Yeah, Bardot is sexy in that blonde, 60's french way. But Karina is just beautiful, and engrossing in a film like this.

[–] dilligaff 19 years ago

It would be a difficult choice for me, really. I own both and can watch them over and over. I love the Homer parallels in Contempt. The scenery and camerawork are beautiful. I get more of a sense of what motivates the characters' actions and choices, but there's just something about My Life to Live and Karina's character that fascinates me...

What are your thoughts on the black wig? We know their relationship was stormy. We know he was infatuated with "her". We know this was during the beginning of the end of Godard and Karina's relationship. I'm just wondering what, exactly, the wig represents.

[–] bargo_18 18 years ago

I watched Contempt when I was just getting into foreign film and cinema, without knowing about anything Godard, etc. It is still one of my favorite films for many reasons, but a lot of them are personal. I related to that movie on so many different levels, and in a way, had felt like Paul at some time or another in my life. I just love how Camille and Paul's relationship slowly falls apart before our eyes, and we are helpless to stop it. It is beautiful on so many levels, aside from the parallels to the Oddysey and other scholarly allusions. I love it for it tragic romance, and how it captivated me so much the first time I saw it.

[–] oohmke 18 years ago

i totally agree with the post above (Mepris was one of my first foreigns films too). for me it's also a very simple film about marriage breakdown, with some great parallels to hommer's odyssey, film production and a little of personal issues from godard marriage. nothing really complicated. great film.
i just saw Vivre sa Vie and it's also fantastic. it's all about anna karina and her wonderful characterization. the dialogs are really compelling.

if i have to choose. i'll choose Le Mepris. but it's also for personal reasons.

(sorry for the lame english, i'm chilean)

[–] Dolly_Lo 18 years ago

It's all opinion, but I have to agree that Vivre Sa Vie is the superior film, although I'm a Bardot fan and I love Le Mepris for Bardot's unexpected "New Wave" performance (after playing herself in so many ridiculous films; she mostly plays herself in Le Mepris too, but intentionally and naturally.) I also enjoy the film Le Mepris in its own right, Bardot or not.

However, it is not quite in the same category as Vivre Sa Vie. I'm not as knowledgeable about cinema as many IMDB-ers here, but I think one of the main differences in thr films is that Vivre Sa Vie presents such a universal tale of pain and desire and failure to which everyone can relate. Who hasn't longed for attention and respect, yet gone about getting it in the wrong way? Who hasn't felt that no one cares or no one is really listening? I think Vivre Sa Vie explores these themes subtly but effectively, more so than Le Mepris, which strikes me as a more coldly distant, cynical film by comparison.

Le Mepris has its own merits and its own themes which are just as valid, but the scene in Vivre Sa Vie in which Nana has to be interrogated by the police....well, that just tears your heart out. Nothing in Le Mepris even comes close.

[–] microlaura 15 years ago

I think Le Mepris is a better film because of the consistency in which it shows such depth into one small subject (the deterioration of a relationship because of something that seems so minor), which is such a realistic occurrence. I liked it a lot the first time I saw it but the second time I saw it I realized how amazing it was, being able to show on film the slow disintegration of a relationship with such consistency, which is really a very complicated matter in real life but he breaks it down so its more clear. I definitely liked Vivre sa vie but I don't think it has as much of an end goal... I also don't think it holds up as well with the times... the character development also isn't as good as many of his other films. I do like the chapter idea of the film and my favorite chapter is the second to last one (I think) when she has the discussion with the "The Philosopher". I love all Godard films, but construction wise I just think Le Mepris is better.

[–] mac_alain 15 years ago

...when she has the discussion with the "The Philosopher".

Who actually was a philosopher.

Brice Parain http://weblog.delacour.net/archives/2002/04/truth_through_error.php

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] srinath_r_htanirs 8 years ago

My theory is because Le Mepris is a film that most people do not get, so the people who understand Le Mepris and like it they feel intellectual

Not really. I consider Le Mepris as Godard's best film, this comes from my personal viewing of Le Mepris, Vivre Sa Vie and many other films by him. Nothing to do with feeling intellectual.

I don't think most people would pretend to like a film they do not like. It would hrdly make sense