Le Mepris (Contempt)

2018
Inkjet on watercolour paper
90 x 60 centimeters

This reimagining strayed so far from its source that there is barely any point of reference left. Normally this would concern me, but as with many of the prints in this series I start out with a broad agenda to allow the work to develop a life of its own, so there is always a risk of that outcome. As it stood, I liked the result mainly for its visual style even though any narrative elements are residual.

As with much of Jean-Luc Godard's New Wave work, his film Le Mepris can be read on many levels, one of which echoed the breakdown of his marriage. The man in this image is so absorbed in reading that he has his back turned on his wife and the exotic surroundings. The latter half of Godard's film is set in the extraordinary 1930's rationalist house Casa Malaparte which is built on a vertiginous headland on the isle of Capri and here it has been substituted with a stark empty modernist box devoid of any furnishings that could be seen as a metaphor for the couple's floundering relationship and a hollowed out modernity. The ancient statue hints at a richer past. This perception was noted in a review of the film by the New Times critic Bosley Crowther who wrote, "Mr. Godard has attempted to make this film communicate a sense of the alienation of individuals in this complex modern world."

Contempt : Wikipedia
Casa Malaparte Is a Strangely Awesome House : Jstor Daily

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