Plot

A French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.

Not satisfied with the script for his new movie, producer Jeremy Prokosch hires screenwriter Paul Javal to write a new one. Javal seems oblivious to Prokosch's obvious interest in Javal's pretty wife Camille. As Javal becomes ever more engrossed in writing the screenplay, Camille comes to resent him, thinking her husband is pushing her into the producer's arms for his own benefit.—garykmcd

After a solemn declaration of love, devotion, and everlasting adoration, financially hard-pressed French playwright Paul Javal asks insecure Camille, his fatally beautiful young wife, to join him on a trip to Rome's eerily empty Cinecittà studios. But there, summoned by coarse American producer Jeremy Prokosch to improve and commercialise Fritz Lang's screen adaptation of Homer's "The Odyssey", Paul eventually succumbs to compromise and marital sin. As a result, Paul can only witness the rapid disintegration of his once cloudless relationship unfold in the materialistic producer's iconic, sun-kissed villa in Capri. The mistake is unforgivable, and the burden unbearable. And now, as intolerable uncertainty replaces love, cold contempt is all that's left.—Nick Riganas

In Capri, an Italian crew makes a German film of Homer's "Odyssey"; Fritz Lang directs with American money. Jeremy Prokosch, the producer, with his sneer and his red Alfa Romeo, holds art films in contempt and hires writer Javal to help Lang commercialize the picture. Against this backdrop, we watch the breakup of Javal's marriage to Camille, a young former typist. It opens with the couple talking in bed, she asking for assurance that he finds her attractive. Later that day, he introduces her to Prokosch and, unawares, blunders unforgivably. In their apartment and in public, Camille expresses her hurt and change of heart as Javal slowly grasps the source of her contempt.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>