He has the last word: “Silenzio!” demands the assistant of the aging Hollywood director (Fritz Lang), who is to shoot a film about the odyssey on Capri. But the producers are dissatisfied, they want more bare skin, more glamour. So they bring in a new screenwriter (Michel Piccoli), his wife (Brigitte Bardot) accompanies him. During filming, she realizes that she no longer loves him, even despises him. The 1963 film by Jean-Luc Godard was called “The Contempt” in German, originally “Le Mépris”. Godard was young then, having only made a handful of films, but this one looked almost like the work of a veteran. He relied on show values and big stars, he celebrated the magic of cinema and exposed its depravity, its dependence on financiers and box office results.
Jean-Luc Godard died in September. He was a co-founder of the Nouvelle Vague and is considered one of the really big names in cinema history. The Film Museum is honoring the director with a small retrospective of his films. In addition to “Le Mépris”, the program includes his feature film debut (and greatest success) “À bout de souffle – Aus Atem” from 1959 or “Sauve qui peut (la vie) – Save yourself who can (life)”, which he made in 1980 with Isabelle Huppert and Nathalie Baye. On Saturday, November 26, at 9 p.m., the 1991 film “Allemagne 90 neuf zéro – Deutschland Neu(n) Null” will be shown. Hanns Zischler (who had a role in the film) will be present at the screening in person. “Bildbuch – Le Livre d’image” from 2018 can also be seen again in Munich – twice in one day (Sunday, November 27th): in the morning in a matinee in the Theatiner cinema, in the early evening in the film museum . It is Godard’s last film, his farewell to the cinema.
Jean-Luc Godard, a director who wrote cinema history, died in September.
(Photo: imago stock&people via www.imago-images.de/imago images/teutopress)
A few days ago, the Film Museum presented its autumn and winter program, in addition to Godard, other greats of world cinema are also being honored. The series of films by South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, which started at the beginning of the month, will be extended into February. The three “Godfather” films by Francis Ford Coppola will also be on the schedule on three December Sundays. In the new year, films by British director Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”) and American actress Pam Grier (“Coffy”, “Jackie Brown”) will be shown in retrospectives.
The Frenchman Claude Sautet will also be honored with a retrospective, the series will begin on November 29 and run for two months. He was Romy Schneider’s favorite director, together they shot “Les choses de la vie – The things of life”, “César et Rosalie” or “Mado”, which are also shown in the film museum. Sautet, born in 1924, was considered a perfectionist who spent a long time refining his screenplays. He made his last film “Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud” in 1995. He died in Paris five years later.
Autumn and winter program Filmmuseum, from Sat., Dec. 3, movie museumSt.-Jakobs-Platz 1