Best performance in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mépris AKA Contempt

I own the Richard Brody bio but maybe I should get the Colin MacCabe too?

The MacCabe book goes off on tangents, like the chapter on Godard's Cahiers era is as much a (literal) tribute to Bazin. I felt like Brody was much more critical of Godard's personal weaknesses, almost to the point of taking pleasure in exposing them; MacCabe is much more demure, sometimes to the point of vagueness. He does a good job giving equal weight to all of the stages of Godard's films, he seems as energized by the post-60s work as by the "classics".

Before this film Michel Piccoli was more of a a stage actor although he had done lots of bit parts in films (he had a small part in LE DOULOS earlier the same year), not sure if this was considered a breakout or star-making role for him.

jean-luc godard’s contempt is a movie about how being in the most beautiful place in italy with the most beautiful woman in the world actually sucks

— Alex Shephard (@alex_shephard) September 23, 2023

i own the brody (inherited from my cousin, who has reached that serene age where he no longer needs to care abt the things that energised him in his vibrant documentary-making youth)
but have not yet cracked it open. i borrowed the mccabe years ago (from ian penman no less) while i was writing the if…. book, and in that context found it extremely underwhelming. mccabe puts in the work articulating the director's own current line and purpose on whatever project is current at the time, but brings next to no critical perspective from anywhere else, so it ends up reading like a succession of thumbs-uppy NFT leaflets for a godard season

critical support for the avant-garde can be hard! but yr colin mccabe ffs

I'm not sure I'd hang with Michel Piccoli either tbh

The Brody bio, which I read exactly a year ago, is as daft in its judgments as you'd expect. Crumbles in its last third but a fun thing.

I'm not sure I'd hang with Michel Piccoli either tbh

what is this about Piccoli, Lang, Palance?

Brigitte Bardot was absolutely amazing in this philisophically challenging film, and she completely defined it