Emotionally charged, sublimely shot and starring one of cinema’s most iconic female sex symbols, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave masterpiece Le Mépris epitomises 1960s style, modernity and glamour. Godard’s landmark of world cinema will be re-released in cinemas UK-wide on 1 January 2016 and will also be the centrepiece of BFI Southbank’s major retrospective of the director’s work, which runs from 1 January – 16 March 2016.
Caught in the crossfire of a creative battle between an artistic director (Fritz Lang as himself) and a hard-headed American producer Jeremy Prokosh (Jack Palance, The Big Knife, City Slickers), screenwriter Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli, Belle de Jour, La belle noiseuse) finds himself embroiled in a battle of wills on the set of a new adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. Siding with the producer and his chequebook, Paul’s decision-making incurs the displeasure of his wife, the alluring Camille (Brigitte Bardot, …And God Created Woman, Viva Maria!) and their disintegrating marriage is revealed as she regards him with increasing contempt.
