La Bardot Bedhead

Le Mépris - 1963Isn't Netflix one of the best inventions? Truly. A few months ago I loaded up my queue with all kinds of random films, specifically all those French New Wave classics that I've never seen, and let Netflix send to me what it may. So last night I finally saw Le Mépris, the classic by Jean-Luc Godard, featuring Brigitte Bardot.

Le Mépris roughly translates to "contempt" although when used as a verb, as Bardot's character Camille does, it means "to despise."

It is easy to see why it's such a classic: the strange juxtaposition between modern Rome and ancient Rome, the dialogue constantly running between French, English, German, and Italian, and especially the intimate look at a mid-Twentieth Century marriage. Camille & Paul's apartment is a dream of mid-century mix: white walls, bronze goddesses (reinforcing the Oddyssey subplot,) and bright red sofas in the style of Knoll Associates. It's an important set, a good chunk is filmed in this apartment - the sex, the fight, the baths...it's a significant domestic space for modern film. Sure there's also the talent of Fritz Lang, constantly spewing philosophy, and also Jack Palance playing the American-producer-lothario (yeah, Billy Crystal's Jack Palance,) but we all know why everyone watches this film: La Bardot Bedhead.

La Bardot BedheadBrigitte Bardot should have patented her toussled, sexy, mane and sold it in bottles. How does one get such a perfectly messed-up head of hair? Thousands of dollars in designer hair product has been spent in its pursuit. How? How? How?

Of course, La Bardot's style is always incomparable in its "simple French girl from Provence" kind of way; it's a look that has many imitators. The simple skirts, flat shoes, sheaths...  Le Mépris even features that golden mop pulled back in a sleek headwrap - yes, the kind that are so popular these days. If trying to emulate this look though, I recommend toning down the Cleopatra-style eyeliner. More famous than what Bardot wears in this film is what she doesn't wear. In the original release she may have been wearing a bikini when sunbathing on the roof, but if you get the latest print, she wears what God gave her, and she wears it well. D'uh! It's Brigitte Bardot! Her physical self is conveyed in every role she ever played. It's the way she walks, the way she rolls her eyes, the way she pulls a sheet around her, the way she pouts.

Bardot does La Moue - and everything elseIt's the pout that launched a thousand ships...La moue is the French girl's best accessory. Mysterious, inviting, off-putting, yet completely compelling all at the same time. It's what keeps those nasty French boys on their toes, totally flummoxed, and moving in the wrong direction. Camille's moue is so powerful in Le Mépris that Paul loses her to another man when all she really wants is for him to fight for her.

The is nothing contemptible about Le Mépris, very artsy, very strange, definitely New Wave, and very beautiful...and I don't just mean La Bardot...