171 Contempt

[J M Powell]

I’m very partial to a little book of film-philosophy called “Forms of Being” by Leo Bersani and Ulysses Dutoit, which spends roughly one-third of its length analyzing Contempt, with stupendous results. (The other films discussed in the book are All about My Mother, Malick’s The Thin Red Line, and to a lesser extent Jarman’s Caravaggio and Godard’s Je vous salue, Marie.)

The book is essentially a work of Continental philosophy, but is quite accessible (by the standards of that field, anyway), while making a very interesting argument about the ways that these particular films encourage viewers to reject one kind of seeing and embrace a more ethical kind of seeing. The authors’ discussion of Contempt is probably the best analysis I’ve seen, at least judging on the basis of depth of insight, as is their take on the Malick film, and I think it might help a reader grasp why even among Godard’s mighty oeuvre, many viewers single out Contempt as doing something especially noteworthy. Might be worth checking out.

[yoloswegmaster]

Lionsgate will be releasing this on 4K UHD in September, while StudioCanal will be releasing it in Europe in June.

[FrauBlucher]

Ugh. F@~king hate Lionsgate. They suck.

[Finch]

Restoration done by Hiventy and we don't know yet who SC have hired to encode the disc.

[dwk]

I assume, like the other StudioCanal titles, the Lionsgate disc will be a direct port of the European disc. So, if SC doesn't screw up, it should be fine. Still, it is a little odd and disappointing that Lionsgate held on to this.

[rrenault]

To be fair, Canal's non-FiM UHD releases have certainly improved. The Piano, The Driver, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie have all been more or less fine.

[Finch]

trailer for the restoration

[Rupert Pupkin]

so no Criterion release of Contempt ? I still have the DVD and its gorgeous cover; I still remember when it was announced on criterion.com (it was planned to be released and among the Criterion titles of the months) and removed at the very last minute.

[Graham]

trailer for the restoration

Dr Svet is already upset about this (see the comments on the Blu-ray.com news story). To be fair, I can see what he means but mostly this trailer looks great to my eyes. Whites are white, for instance.

[tenia]

Not surprised by his reaction to something that indeed seems quite non-signed, since that's his main issue right now : not making enough differences between obvious offenders and stuff quite right but slightly debatable still.

He had the same reaction with Jeanne la pucelle and Le hussard sur le toit (or maybe it was Cyrano de Bergerac) based on their trailers, and, well, maybe he should refrain judging restorations based on their trailers since he's not good at it.

[colinr0380]

Not that it particularly means anything but that trailer made me unreasonably annoyed without thinking about any restoration issues! Aside from the incongruous musical score slathered all over that trailer, how could they ruin that "Get into your Alfa, Romeo" pun!

[ianthemovie]

Not that it particularly means anything but that trailer made me unreasonably annoyed without thinking about any restoration issues! Aside from the incongruous musical score slathered all over that trailer, how could they ruin that "Get into your Alfa, Romeo" pun!

I had the same reaction to the music. This film has one of the most sublime scores ever written and they opted not to feature it? It's bizarre enough to make me wonder if there's some arcane legal clause preventing them from doing so.

[Rayon Vert]

I'm keen on seeing if this corrects the use of shots of another print in the previous 2010 Lionsgate Studio Canal release that were quite jarring.

From blu-ray.com:

Before the opening credits, a disclaimer pops up that reads, "The original cut of this film contains scenes that are missing from the English version. We now present these scenes with their original soundtrack and English subtitles." From the looks of it, these scenes were sourced from entirely different elements than the rest of the film, having a softer, flatter, almost- duped look that makes them stand out oddly. That said, there are only a few of these scenes—all quite short—and I appreciate having a more complete cut of the film.

The highdefdigest.com review was a lot more merciless on the entire experience with the video and fits my own impression:

What the hell happened here? This disc looks terrible. Absolutely terrible. If the Studio Canal Collection is meant to be a competitor to the Criterion Collection, Studio Canal should at least attempt to match the quality standards that Criterion employs. It hasn't even tried. Comparing 'Contempt' to Criterion's release of Godard's 'Pierrot le fou' shows a night-and-day difference in how the two movies have been treated.

'Contempt' opens with a disclaimer that some footage that was previously cut from American releases of the film has been restored. The American theatrical release in 1964 was trimmed of about a minute from the original 103 minute length. One might be willing to forgive Studio Canal if that restored footage were in a little rougher condition than the rest of the movie. It's a lot harder to forgive when the entire movie regularly experiences dramatic drops in picture quality, often shot-for-shot within scenes. Much of the film is soft and faded, and looks like a multi-generation dupe print.

I felt stuck with a very good Criterion release that was nevertheless just DVD quality, and this thing which tantalized with superior detail overall as a blu-ray presentation but offered such a visually changing and distracted one that it took you completely out of the movie. (This is a meta-movie, but I don't think Godard had that meta intention.)

So if this release has some slight color grading issues but none of the issues of the previous SC release, it'll be a godsend.

[therewillbeblus]

trailer for the restoration

this trailer looks great to my eyes. Whites are white, for instance.

Unlike most, I didn't have a problem with the old SC transfer, but this does indeed look terrific. I was happy to sell off my SC blu, since I imagine they'll port over the same features for the upgrade?

[ianthemovie]

Unlike most, I didn't have a problem with the old SC transfer, but this does indeed look terrific. I was happy to sell off my SC blu, since I imagine they'll port over the same features for the upgrade?

It looks like the special features will be different, according to Home Theater Forum:

SPECIAL FEATURES

Il était une fois… Le Mépris (52mn) on the Blu-ray UHD

An introduction by Colin MacCabe (6mn) UHD

Paparazzi by Jacques Rozier (22mn)

Le parti des choses by Jacques Rozier (10mn)

[therewillbeblus]

Wow, even better - the Rozier shorts are fun!

[ianthemovie]

That's encouraging; I'm not familiar with Rozier. I'll probably hang onto my SC disc for the two Fritz Lang interviews and the "Contempt...Tenderly" documentary featurette that appear to have been dropped from this edition.

[swo17]

The Rozier shorts were on the Criterion release

[rrenault]

Are the source materials for this film just in poor shape, because I saw the new 4K restoration today in the cinema and was admittedly somewhat disappointed. I can only presume issues with the source materials are partly to blame here.

Also, some sections of the film still look completely unrestored in the new restoration for whatever reason. As an example, refer to the snippet between roughly the 27:40 and 28:00 marks per the Criterion Channel stream of the film.

[edmoney]

Are the source materials for this film just in poor shape, because I saw the new 4K restoration today in the cinema and was admittedly somewhat disappointed. I can only presume issues with the source materials are partly to blame here.

Also, some sections of the film still look completely unrestored in the new restoration for whatever reason. As an example, refer to the snippet between roughly the 27:40 and 28:00 marks per the Criterion Channel stream of the film.

That's disappointing to hear, as the upcoming 4K UHD is my most anticipated release of the year. Can you address the positives that you saw in the new restoration? Aside from the sections that look unrestored (and presumably looking the same as the previous master on the old SC disc), hopefully the new restoration doesn't mess anything up and take any steps backwards from the previous master.