I agree with the final statement regarding Contempt that Camille’s death “is not against women per se,” and want to elaborate on what I think it is about.
First, we must remember that Camille’s death in Contempt does not stem from or have a purpose in the narrative of the film. Her death is very random and unpredictable in terms of the narrative, but there are a couple interpretations that can be pulled out from her death. On one hand, her death represents Brigitte Bardot’s status as a tool of capitalist, big budget film companies that Godard and fellow New Wavers critique. She dies in Prokosch’s shiny red car, which is a symbol of wealth and capitalism. On the other hand, Cubists, Modernists, and other abstract art movements influenced Godard heavily; the film tells us that life is made up of pieces, memories, flashbacks, desires, and history; Camille’s death can be a symbol for the uncertainty of existence and the randomness of death. Her death highlights the existential undertones of the film in that there is no God or higher power who decides who dies and who lives, contrary to what Greek myths claim. Another important theme in the film following existentialism is chronic homelessness. Her death really brings out this point as it is intercut with Paul’s glancing out into the ocean. Paul and the spectator think they have reached some kind of conclusive end, but, as Fritz Lang says in the film, “Death is not the end.” Camille is a symbol of home for Paul, but now that she’s dead, he has no home. Both he and the spectator from her death on must begin a new odyssey of searching for an understanding of home in the face of chronic homelessness.