Beautiful scenery, beautiful Bardot, and legendary director Fritz Lang appearing as himself at age 73 ... these are all fantastic things. I also liked the concept of the dual theme of contempt in the relationship at the center of the movie and Godard's feelings about Hollywood sullying the artistic process. The ludicrous ideas to "improve" the 2800 year old classic tale of the Odyssey by imagining Penelope as unfaithful, or Ulysses as not wanting to come home reflect both the projection of the screenwriter's own relationship issues, as well as everything that's wrong about the business side of making movies. Jack Palance playing the producer reading cliché pearls of "wisdom" from a teeny book he keeps in his suit pocket is a perfect metaphor, and he turns in a great performance.
Unfortunately, there was another type of contempt at play here, and that was for Bardot's character. For a film that wants to be artistically pure and honest, it relied far too much on objectifying her. This starts in the film's second scene, where we see her bare butt for over four minutes as the camera practically ogles her, all while she's asking her husband to reassure her about the looks of her various body parts. "What do you like more, my breasts or my nipples?" she asks. Good lord, really? After reassuring her about each and every part of her body, she concludes he must really love her. Ugh, is this an honest scene? And we see this same pattern several more times over the course of the movie.
Don't get me wrong, Bardot is gorgeous and if you want to see her naked that's fine, but I just don't think it should be wrapped up in a pretentious film about the need for purity in art. Her sex farce La Parisienne is damn silly but far more honest about this. Doesn't the poster and marketing for this film (MORE BOLD! MORE BRAZEN! AND MUCH, MUCH MORE BARDOT!) say it all? She's also hit during an argument (which she apologizes for, not him), and suffers an unkind fate, so I just don't think it's a kind film to women.
Now all of that might have been in there to try to cover up for what is a pretty weak script. The premise is intriguing but the execution is weak, mainly because the explorations of the relationship and of the business of art are shallow and uninsightful. The link to the Odyssey, philosophy, and the Gods doesn't go anywhere interesting, and worse yet, the extended argument scene in the apartment is banal, repetitive, tedious, and goes on for far too long (at 34 minutes, roughly one third of the film). It seems even Godard knew he needed to liven things up, as he has the screenwriter thumb through a book on erotic frescoes from Pompeii, Bardot utter a string of obscenities, and cues up the dramatic music at times which made little sense.
A little tidbit from Godard's script that I think unfortunately reflects as much of him as it does the fictional screenwriter who has these lines in the film: Are they going to undress? Of course. Movies are great. You see women in dresses, and in making movies, you see their asses.
Unfortunately, there was another type of contempt at play here, and that was for Bardot's character. For a film that wants to be artistically pure and honest, it relied far too much on objectifying her. This starts in the film's second scene, where we see her bare butt for over four minutes as the camera practically ogles her, all while she's asking her husband to reassure her about the looks of her various body parts. "What do you like more, my breasts or my nipples?" she asks. Good lord, really? After reassuring her about each and every part of her body, she concludes he must really love her. Ugh, is this an honest scene? And we see this same pattern several more times over the course of the movie.
Don't get me wrong, Bardot is gorgeous and if you want to see her naked that's fine, but I just don't think it should be wrapped up in a pretentious film about the need for purity in art. Her sex farce La Parisienne is damn silly but far more honest about this. Doesn't the poster and marketing for this film (MORE BOLD! MORE BRAZEN! AND MUCH, MUCH MORE BARDOT!) say it all? She's also hit during an argument (which she apologizes for, not him), and suffers an unkind fate, so I just don't think it's a kind film to women.
Now all of that might have been in there to try to cover up for what is a pretty weak script. The premise is intriguing but the execution is weak, mainly because the explorations of the relationship and of the business of art are shallow and uninsightful. The link to the Odyssey, philosophy, and the Gods doesn't go anywhere interesting, and worse yet, the extended argument scene in the apartment is banal, repetitive, tedious, and goes on for far too long (at 34 minutes, roughly one third of the film). It seems even Godard knew he needed to liven things up, as he has the screenwriter thumb through a book on erotic frescoes from Pompeii, Bardot utter a string of obscenities, and cues up the dramatic music at times which made little sense.
A little tidbit from Godard's script that I think unfortunately reflects as much of him as it does the fictional screenwriter who has these lines in the film: Are they going to undress? Of course. Movies are great. You see women in dresses, and in making movies, you see their asses.