Last Friday I had my first curated screening at Garage Projects in Castelberry Hill. I screened Contempt (Godard, 1963) and gave a brief talk beforehand which I've posted below. Enjoy! And please join us next month, 2nd Friday, for Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967).
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I wanted to start with Contempt for this series on intertextuality. The abundance of literary and cinematic intertext throughout Contempt is what created this first Garage Projects theme for me. We are discussing intertexuality as a film that is referencing another piece of art or literature. New Wave films especially incorporate intertext and an overarching theme of reflexivity. This self-reflexive theme in Contempt is overt, showing the making of a film within the diagesis.
Contempt traces the making of Homer's Odyssey. So on one hand we get the literary reference to The Odyssey through images and through the the actual text/dialogue. There are long pans over huge icons of Greek gods looking out to sea putting the film in conversation with The Odyssey.
Regarding reflexivity, this film revolves around the making of a film about The Odyssey. Godard shows the mechanics of making a film; there are shots of boom mikes and the cameras tracking. Fritz Lang is in the film as himself which puts the film into conversation with film history. Godard makes an appearance in the film as Lang's assitant. There is also a scene when Paul, our protagonist, mentions film makers such as Lumiere, Griffith and Chaplin.
Godard called this film – “a story of castaways of the western world, survivors of the shipwreck of modernity” so with out further ado – I really hope you enjoy the film.
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