Forming Couples
Godard's Contempt

Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit

Special Lecture Series 6

Legenda

1 December 2003  •  34pp

ISBN: 1-904713-00-9 (paperback)

ContemporaryFrenchFilm


With Contempt ('Le mépris'), dating from 1963, the French writer and director Jean-Luc Godard (1930-) made his first and much-debated big-budget feature, whose all-star cast included Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Parlance and Fritz Lang. The central theme of the film is the contempt a wife, Camille, suddenly feels for her husband, Paul, bringing to an end the intimate relationship the couple enjoyed and compelling him to find the reason his wife has turned away from him. The authors examine the appeal of contempt both for Camille and for Godard, turn our attention to the effects of contempt in the world, and explore how contempt affects the range and kinds of movement allowed for in the visual field with which Godard works. Forming Couples was delivered as the Zaharoff Lecture at the Taylor Institution in the University of Oxford in Autumn 2001.

Leo Bersani, Emeritus Professor of French at the University of California at Berkeley, specializes in 19th- and 20th-century literature, psychoanalysis, literature and the visual arts, and cultural criticism. Ulysse Dutoit, Lecturer in French at at the University of California at Berkeley, specializes in the visual arts, particularly film and painting.

Reviews:

  • ‘Perhaps more than those of any other director, the films of Jean-Luc Godard attract the attention of smart people who devote immense time and energy into figuring out what they mean... Certainly, Bersani and Dutoit are masters of this game and their recent essay represents something of a model exercise in this genre of criticism.’ — William S. Lewis, French Review 80.5, 2007, 1134-35

Bibliography entry:

Bersani, Leo, and Ulysse Dutoit, Forming Couples: Godard's Contempt, Special Lecture Series, 6 (Legenda, 2003)

First footnote reference: 35 Forming Couples: Godard's Contempt, leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, Special Lecture Series, 6 (Legenda, 2003), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Bersani and Dutoit, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Bersani, Leo, and Ulysse Dutoit. 2003. Forming Couples: Godard's Contempt, Special Lecture Series, 6 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Bersani and Dutoit 2003: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Bersani and Dutoit 2003: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)


This Legenda title was first published by European Humanities Research Centre, University of Oxford but rights to it are now held by the Author.


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