Books: Contempt by Alberto Moravia

“Contempt,” by Alberto Moravia, is an appropriate title because the main character, Ricardo Molteni, is a contemptible human being. He is brutish, arrogant, narcissistic, yet insecure.

Molteni is an aspiring dramatist who is forced, from his perspective, to write movie screenplays in order maintain a lifestyle that would satisfy his wife Emilia who, in his estimation, “was… what is called a born housewife.” She is from a poor family and used to work as a typist. Molteni believes he rescued her from a potential life of deprivation.

Contempt is a first person narrative in which the protagonist is obsessed with the belief that his wife does not love him. Molteni notices slight changes in Emilia’s behavior, for example she wants to sleep in another room because Molteni likes sleeping with the blinds open and he snores, but Molteni does not believe her. To him, these are signs she is falling out of love with him.

Molteni’s petulance over not being loved is manifested in violent behavior. He pulls her hair, chokes Emilia and twists her fingers when they’re in a restaurant. After the hair-pulling scene, he badgers Emilia into having sex. She reluctantly agrees, but just lies in bed. Molteni then compares her passivity to “an inexpert prostitute.”

Emilia is not the only person Molteni regards as inferior. Battista is an Italian movie producer who physically resembles an ape; “with very broad shoulders, a long body, and short legs… his hair… came down rather low in the middle; thick eyebrows… small eyes; a short, broad nose and a large but lipless mouth… and slightly protruding… His hands were short and thick and covered with black hair.”

To Molteni, Battista’s taste in movies is vulgar. The producer is only interested in churning out blockbuster, action movies.

Battista is not the only character that is compared with a lower life form. Luisa Pasetti looked at her husband “like an affectionate dog with its master.”

His co-screenwriter, Pasetti, does not escape Molteni’s disrespect, who the latter thought was mediocre and was unbelievably psychologically obtuse, “a man without imagination and without nerves, but conscious of his limitations and fundamentally modest.”

Molteni’s scorn for the film industry is further illustrated by his perception that the screenwriter is powerless compared to the director and producer of a film. Also, the screenwriter is “forced to work with people he does not care for, people who are his inferiors in culture and breeding, who irritate him by features of character or behavior that are offensive to him.” Molteni is talking in general, but he is really projecting his own feelings about the film industry.

That is why he can’t stand working with Rheingold, the prospective director of Homer’s Odyssey. Molteni makes the mistake of underestimating the director because he judged him on his appearance. Rheingold had “a broad smile, like a half moon, showing two rows of very regular and altogether too white teeth which I at once imagined, I don’t know why, to be false.” Half moon could be interpreted as half-wit and false teeth could be interpreted as Rheingold being a pseudo-intellectual.

But Rheingold is his intellectual equal. He is not content with directing a common action movie. With Molteni’s help, Rheingold wants to make an intellectually stimulating movie, right under the nose of Battista, the producer. Rheingold challenges Molteni, “you’re intelligent and you must use your brain. Try to use it.”

Molteni is mad at Battista because his interpretation of Homer’s Odyssey is vulgar, and he is mad at Rheingold because his interpretation is a form of vandalism, adding an unnecessary 20th century psychological perspective to a timeless classic.

Contempt was written in 1954. In fact the original title was “A Ghost at Noon.” It’s interesting how a novel from 1954, about the constant struggle between film as art and commercialism, reflects current movie trends. Producers want to make money with action movies. Directors want to tell important stories. Sometimes, it feels like there is no middle ground, an artistic movie that makes a lot of money. Although, Molteni would feel more alienated today, writing movie adaptations of old television shows and sequels of mediocre movies.

Underneath the narrative is Molteni’s incredible insecurity. He is the civilized man working with primitives who do not appreciate him, but is terrified of the idea of not being loved. Self-adoration is not enough to sustain him. He needs somebody else to worship him because that would make selling out, writing screenplays for inferior people, more tolerable.

The constant need for verbal adulation from Emilia is irritating. She is right when she said, “you’re not a man, you don’t behave like a man.” Molteni acts like a spoiled child. Towards the end, Emilia is acting more like Molteni’s mommy than his wife.

Molteni is listening to his wife making dinner preparations. After she’s finished, he timidly pokes his head through the door. He wants to talk to her. “Go wait in the living room… I’m not finished with Agnesina yet… I’ll be there in a minute.” This is a role reversal with the physically abused wife taking firm control of the relationship from her abuser merely by admitting that she does not love him anymore and more importantly does not respect him.

Molteni pushed Emilia, with his constant doubts, into despising him, but it was Molteni’s contempt for everyone that left him isolated and alone.