Contempt (1963)

Michel Piccoli: Paul Javal

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Paul Javal : After dinner we'll see a movie. It'll give me ideas.

  Camille Javal : Use your own ideas instead of stealing them from everyone else.

• Fritz Lang : One must suffer.

  Paul Javal : That's for sure.

• Paul Javal : You don't want to make love?

  Camille Javal : Listen to the jerk.

  Paul Javal : Is that a mocking smile or a tender smile?

  Camille Javal : A tender smile.

  Paul Javal : So, answer me!

  Camille Javal : If it were true, I'd tell you. A woman can always find an excuse not to make love. But you're really a jerk.

  Paul Javal : Vulgar language doesn't suit you.

  Camille Javal : It doesn't suit me? Listen to this: Asshole. Cunt. Shit. Christ almighty. Craphole. Son of a bitch. Goddamn. So, still think it doesn't suit me?

• Paul Javal : It looks swell. I really like CinemaScope.

  Fritz Lang : It wasn't made for people. It's only good for snakes - and funerals.

• Camille Javal : You like my shoulders?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : I don't think they're round enough. And my arms?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : And my face?

  Paul Javal : Your face, too.

  Camille Javal : All of it? My mouth, my eyes, my nose, my ears?

  Paul Javal : Yes, everything.

  Camille Javal : Then you love me totally.

  Paul Javal : Yes. I love you totally, tenderly, tragically.

  Camille Javal : Me too, Paul.

• Paul Javal : In '33, Goebbels asked Lang to head the German film industry. That very night, Lang left Germany...

  Jerry Prokosch : This is not '33. This is '63. And he will direct whatever was written. Just as I know that you are going to write it.

• Paul Javal : Ulysses doesn't rush home to Ithaca, because he was unhappy with Penelope even before he went off. Had he been happy, he'd have stayed home. He used the Trojan war to get away from his wife.

  Fritz Lang : He killed her suitors, didn't he?

  Paul Javal : That can be justified by the fact that Ulysses had told Penelope to give in and accept the gifts. He didn't see the suitors as serious threats. He didn't throw them out, to avoid a scandal. Knowing Penelope to be faithful, he told her to be nice to the suitors. I think that's when Penelope, who at heart is a simple woman, began to despise him. She stopped loving Ulysses because of his conduct and she told him so. Ulysses then realized too late he'd lost Penelope's love because he'd been overly cautious. The only way to win her back was to murder the suitors.

  Fritz Lang : Death is no resolution.

• Paul Javal : Why does money matter so much in what we do, in what we are, in what we become? Even in our relationships with those we love?

• Fritz Lang : "Think of the seed of your creation. You were not born to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge." Know it?

  Paul Javal : Sure, it's very famous. Dante.

  Fritz Lang : Yes.

  Paul Javal : "Night then saw all the stars. We were filled with gladness, which soon turned to tears, until the sea closed in upon us."

• Fritz Lang : What will you do?

  Paul Javal : Go back to Rome, finish my play. And you?

  Fritz Lang : I'll finish the film. Always finish what you start.

• Paul Javal : What shot are you doing?

  Fritz Lang : Ulysses' gaze when he first sees his homeland again.

  Paul Javal : Ithaca.

  [Lang nods his head in agreement] 

• Camille Javal : See my feet in the mirror?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : Think they're pretty?

  Paul Javal : Yes. Very.

  Camille Javal : You like my ankles?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : And my knees, too?

  Paul Javal : Yes. I really like your knees.

  Camille Javal : And my thighs?

  Paul Javal : Your thighs, too.

  Camille Javal : See my behind in the mirror?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : Do you think I have a cute ass?

  Paul Javal : Yes. Very.

  Camille Javal : Shall I get on my knees?

  Paul Javal : No need to.

  Camille Javal : And my breasts. You like them?

  Paul Javal : Yes, tremendously.

  Camille Javal : Gently, Paul. Not so hard.

  Paul Javal : Sorry.

  Camille Javal : Which do you like better, my breasts or my nipples?

  Paul Javal : I don't know. I like them the same.

• Paul Javal : I'll tell you the story of Ramakrishna and his disciple. Ramakrishna was a Hindu wise man. And he had a disciple who had absolutely no faith in his teachings. So the disciple went off all by himself. Fifteen years later, he came back and said, "I have found the Way!" He told Ramakrishna, "Come, and I will show you." Then he took Ramakrishna to a river. And the disciple went back and forth across the river, walking on water. "See?" he told Ramakrishna. "I can cross the river without getting wet! I have found the Way!" Then Ramakrishna said to him, "You're a complete ass. With one rupee and a boat, I've been doing the same thing for years!"

• Camille Javal : Look. Look.

  [Wearing a wig] 

  Camille Javal : Doesn't it suit me? No?

  Paul Javal : I prefer you as a blonde.

  Camille Javal : And I prefer you without a hat and cigar.

  Paul Javal : It's just to look like Dean Martin in "Some Came Running."

  Camille Javal : What a laugh.

  Paul Javal : What is?

  Camille Javal : You may want to look like Dean Martin, but it's more like Martin's Ass.

  Paul Javal : Who's that?

  Camille Javal : Never read the adventures of Martin's Ass?

  Paul Javal : No.

  Camille Javal : One day he goes to Baghdad to buy a flying carpet. He finds this really pretty one, so he sits on it, but it doesn't fly. The merchant says: "Not surprising." Are you listening?

  Paul Javal : Yes.

  Camille Javal : "Not surprising. If you want it to fly. You mustn't think of an ass." So Martin says: "Okay, I won't think of an ass." But automatically he thinks of one so the carpet doesn't fly.

  Paul Javal : What's that got to do with me?

  Camille Javal : Exactly what I was saying.

• Fritz Lang : Homer's world is a real world. And the poet belonged to a civilization that grew in harmony, not in opposition, with nature. And the beauty of "The Odyssey" lies precisely in this belief in reality as it is.

  Paul Javal : Thus in reality as it appears objectively.

  Fritz Lang : Exactly - and in a form that cannot be broken down and is what it is. Take it or leave it.

• Paul Javal : Don't come if you don't want to. I'm not forcing you.

  Camille Javal : It's not you that's forcing me. It's life.

• Paul Javal : Will they undress?

  Francesca Vanini : Of course.

  Paul Javal : Aren't movies great! You see women in dresses, in movies, you see their ass!

• Paul Javal : Producers never know what they want.

• Paul Javal : I'd like you to meet my wife, Camille. Fritz Lang, Camille.

  Camille Javal : Hello, sir.

  Paul Javal : He's the one who did that western with Dietrich.

  Camille Javal : It was terrific!

  Fritz Lang : I prefer "M".

  Camille Javal : Your "M"?

  Fritz Lang : Yes.

  Camille Javal : We just saw it on TV. I really liked it.

• Paul Javal : It's a drag to be so cute and so sad.

  Francesca Vanini : Haven't you anything more amusing to say?

• Paul Javal : You're being an idiot.

  Camille Javal : Where can I pee?

• Paul Javal : "Rio Bravo" is playing in town. So is Nicholas Ray's "Bigger Than Life."

  Camille Javal : I'm not interested.

  Paul Javal : I wrote it.

  Camille Javal : I know.

• Paul Javal : Why'd I marry a 28-year-old typist?

• Paul Javal : Why the thoughtful air?

  Camille Javal : Maybe because I'm thinking of something. That surprise you?

• Paul Javal : What's going on, sweetie?

  Camille Javal : I want to have fun. Nothings going on, Paul. I'm afraid I'll get bored there. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going. I'm not going.

• Paul Javal : A husband has the right to know why his wife's sulking. I'm sure its that girl.

  Camille Javal : Drop dead!

• Paul Javal : [Reading from an art book on Ancient Pornography]  "I hosted a skin contest among three beauties. They asked me to be the judge. They showed me their dazzling nudity. The first had a gently curving back with round dimples. The second parted her legs, her snow white skin grew cherry red, not crimson. The third was as still as a quiet sea. Her delicate skin rippled gently, shivering involuntarily."

• Fritz Lang : "Each morning, to earn my bread, I go to the market where lies are sold and, hopefully, I get in line with the other sellers."

  Camille Javal : What's that?

  Fritz Lang : Hollywood. From a ballad by poor B.B.

  Paul Javal : Bertolt Brecht?

  Fritz Lang : Mmm hmm.

• Francesca Vanini : Mr. Prokoscha already said it: You're wrong. You aspire to a world like Homer's. You want it to exist, but unfortunately it doesn't.

  Paul Javal : Why not? It does.

  Jerry Prokosch : No!

  Francesca Vanini : You may be right, but when it comes to making movies, dreams aren't enough.

• Paul Javal : Why don't you want to make love anymore?

  Camille Javal : All right. Let's do it, but fast.