In Italy, Fritz Lang (playing Fritz Lang playing himself) is shooting The Odyssey for an American producer (Jack Palance). Lang was no stranger to meddlesome producers, and this one's approach to the classics is lofty, but not cerebral. "I like gods," Palance says. "I know exactly how they feel." Fritz mourns classical culture but will settle for swords and sandals; like The Odyssey, Contempt is about man against circumstances, and such is the circumstance of cinema. The screenwriter, Paul (Michel Piccoli), meanwhile, becomes lost in Rome. During his odyssey, his wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) enters into a crisis of contempt, and Contempt becomes Camille/Penelope's story. Contempt is a gorgeous, compelling visual experience. It is also an epic stripped bare by its director, leaving dialogue as flat as Jack Palance's face, a circumstance as void as Paul and Camille's marriage: just the filming of a film within a film, which is unstoppable. (JB)