"The State of Contempt" -CS

Contempt (1963)

“...but when it comes to making movies, dreams aren't enough.”

This quote, said in the film by Francesca Vanini, represents the struggle of creative control between the 'artists' (the director and screenwriter) and the producer. The producer wants to modify the story of The Odyssey into a sex-filled romp about a neurotic Odysseus for the modern age, while the director wants to stay close to the original source material. This struggle between art and something that will produce revenue is very common in the film industry. The screenwriter, Paul, wavers the line between writing for money and refusing to rewrite the scenes to preserve the original Odyssey. He changes his mind, though, not for the sake of art, but as desperate attempts to win back the love of his wife. There are many dreams present in the film, but they mostly follow three desires: art, money, and love. All of these pull the characters in certain directions that clash with the others in the filmmaking process. There requires a balance between these desires to create a great film, and this is what was missing from their Odyssey film.

The State of Things (1982)

“A lot of things are happening simultaneously.”

For a large portion of the film, this quote, said by Friedrich during his speech, seemed most accurate to the film. When the crew ran out of film and money, the filmmakers had a lot of downtime at their hotel in Portugal. The film follows disparate, fragmented sections of their lives that do not further any kind of plot. While many things were happening simultaneously, they were only the actions of a crew without direction in a foreign land. This lack of plot or story falls in line with the next quote, also said by Friedrich during his speech.

“Stories only exist in stories. Where as life goes by in the course of time without the need to turn out stories.”

The downtime of the crew represents 'real life' where stories do no exist. Once Frierich leaves Portugal for LA the film takes on different feeling, one of having a plot. It is almost as if Friedrich left 'reality' in search of plot. The plot to find more film to continue the plot of his film. To emphasize this even more, he is in Los Angeles/Hollywood, the place where plot is most often constructed. Everywhere he went there were billboards for upcoming movies and strip clubs, which further emphasized the artifice of the plot. The film even ended in a big way, with a shootout. A “Hollywood” ending in Hollywood.

The above moment was one of my favorites of the film. When Friedrich passes over the star of Fritz Lang, it represents his struggle to be a great director. Both men are from Germany but Lang will be always remembered in film history, while Friedrich is just about to fade into obscurity. His big break turned out to be a big bust. His desire to create stories would ultimately be the death of him.