dir. Jean-Luc Godard

• year: 1963

• country: France and Italy

• run-time: 101 minutes

Doors 19:30 - Film 20:00

£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)

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Brigitte Bardot plays Camille Javal, the wife of a French playwright who has settled in Rome. When he accepts an offer to work on a screen adaptation of the ‘Odyssey’ with a sleazy American producer, Camille grows increasingly suspicious and unnerved with her husband. With their marriage unravelling at a heightened pace, they decide to join the film crew in Capri, where they stay at the famous Villa Malaparte. Godard knowingly uses Bardot’s iconic status to stage her body against interior and exterior architectural forms, building up sweltering tension before disaster strikes.

Part of 'Built Upon Bodies', a season showcasing a selection of films that explore the relationship between the human body and the built environment. Taking as a starting point the infamous scene in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Contempt’ of Brigitte Bardot sunbathing on the roof terrace of the Villa Malaparte in Capri, the season draws attention to how filmmakers across different genres have staged interactions between architecture and gendered bodies to iconic and haunting effect.