Le Mépris and the Horizons UWG French Film Festival: Living West

By: Asa Nolan Crane

The Horizons film festival serves as one of West Georgia’s premier opportunities to culture the students of UWG.
On March 5 at 6 p.m. the International Languages and Cultures program, or ILC, held a subtitled  showing of Jean-luc Godard’s Le Mépris  in the nursing building room 106, and was introduced to the audience by Dr. Allison Umminger, an English and film professor at UWG.

The film opens with playwright Paul Javal, played by Michel Pico, in bed with his wife Camille Javal, played by Brigitte Bardot. A sense of mistrust builds from Camille as Paul is offered to rewrite a script for a rendition of The Odyssey. As the movie goes on, a sense of contempt grows from Camille.

Le Mépris is not completely in French, as there is a director played by the real world German Director Fritz Lang, who speaks German and English throughout the film. Another titular character, American producer Jeremiah Prokosh, played by Jack Palance, is limited to English only, and serves as the antagonist of the film. All dialogue between Paul, Lang and Prokosh are mediated by the polyglot film assistant Francesca Vanini, played by Giorgia Moll.

Besides the Horizons French Film Festival, ILC and members from other departments host a multitude of festivals, including the International Film Festival in the fall semester, and short film festivals that take place around Halloween and Valentines day.

“We are really conscious about the fact that this festival is an opportunity for our language students to see language in action.” says French Professor Claire Ezekiel. “Language is an actual living and breathing thing.”

There are two more films being shown by ILC this semester; Mars Express is set to be shown on March 26th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, and Orlando: My Political Biography is set to be shown April 17th 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Both will be playing in the Nursing building room 106.

“It’s to contextualize these films so that students are left with a better understanding of how interconnected the French world is,” said French Professor Dr. Lisa Connell. “The French speaking world is not one thing.”