MovieChat Forums > Le mépris (1964) Discussion > Question about a certain cut

Question about a certain cut

posted 12 years ago by thilo-950-73752
6 replies | jump to latest

At about 27 minutes, Paul, Camille and Jerry are in Jerry's garden and Paul explains his coming late. There is a closeup of Jerry, and then a wide shot of Camille getting up and saying that she's taking a walk.
That cut of Camille is strangely desaturated as compared to the rest of the movie.
The colors are not as vivid and it seems more grainy, almost as if it had been transferred from a different film print.
Has anybody noticed this too? I have a Japanese Blu-Ray and I was wondering if it's the same on the Criterion Blu-Ray.

Right after this cut, Camille has her first flashback. The flashback seems to be slightly desaturated as well, but I'm not so sure because the setting is different. When we come back to Camille in the garden, the colors are vivid again.

Any thoughts?

[–] dan138zig 12 years ago

It's like that too on the Criterion DVD. Probably intentional by Godard.

[–] queens2010 12 years ago

I kind of just always figured since the film's nearly fifty years old there are bound to be flaws in the transfer.

[–] melinda2001 9 years ago

I don't remember that particular cut but I did notice many other similar devices that I was pretty sure were intentional. In this case it would make sense to desaturate her as I expect she had suddenly become angry so the color left her world. It was a key moment in the film.

[–] Beau_Buffet 8 years ago

As someone who has seen hundreds of old movies in their Blu-Ray versions in the last 3 years, I can tell you this happens quite often.

I would guess it's not intentional, but rather, like you said, transferred from a different film print.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6361) 4 years ago

There were reshoots on this film. Possibly this was one of them, and it was too difficult to match the original conditions.

[–] TheArgentinian (7073) 2 years ago

Or most likely, the original negative was damaged. It's common with older films