Made in U.S.A. (1966 film)

Made in U.S.A.

Movie Poster
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by Georges de Beauregard
Written by Jean-Luc Godard
Donald E. Westlake (novel The Jugger)
Starring Anna Karina
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Music by Robert Schumann
Ludwig van Beethoven
Cinematography Raoul Coutard
Release dates
 1966
Running time
 85 minutes
Country France
Language French
Budget $50,000[1]
Box office $95,209[2]

Made in U.S.A is a 1966 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. It stars Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, László Szabó and Yves Afonso. It was inspired by the Howard Hawks film The Big Sleep and unofficially based on the novel The Jugger, by Richard Stark (a.k.a. Donald E. Westlake). Because neither Godard nor the producer paid the book's adaptation rights and following legal action by Westlake, the film was long unavailable in the United States. The film had its U.S. premiere on April 1, 2009 (three months after Westlake's death) at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in a newly restored print distributed by Rialto Pictures.[3] Criterion released the film on DVD in July 2009.[4]

Plot

Paula Nelson (Anna Karina) goes to Atlantic City to meet her lover, Richard Politzer, at an unknown point in the future (maybe 1969). Once there, she learns that Richard is dead and decides to investigate. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, whom she ends up knocking out. His corpse is later found in the apartment of David Goodis (Yves Afonso), a writer. Paula is arrested and interrogated. From then on, she encounters many gangsters.

Cast

Background

The movie was shot at the same time as Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Godard did it to help his friend and producer, Georges de Beauregard, in difficulties after the censorship of The Nun, a movie by Jacques Rivette, that he produced.

This is the last full-length movie where Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard collaborated. He again directed her in a segment (called "Anticipation, ou: l'amour en l'an 2000" (Anticipation: or Love in the Year 2000)) of the movie Le plus vieux métier du monde (1967).

Marianne Faithfull has a cameo in a cafe scene where she sings "As Tears Go By".

Characters in the film are named for such real-life personages as Don Siegel, Kenji Mizoguchi, Richard Widmark, Robert McNamara, David Goodis and Richard Nixon. Paula Nelson is probably named for Baby Face Nelson, about whom Siegel had made a film starring Mickey Rooney

The film is dedicated to "Nick and Sam," referring to Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller, "Hollywood mavericks who were objects of filial awe and Oedipal aggression" for Godard.[5]

Reception

Made in U.S.A "has rarely been seen in the U.S.A.";[5] it was shown at the 1967 New York Film Festival, promptingThe New York Times to call it an "often bewildering potpourri of film narration, imagery and message" and point out that "Anna Karina, as the questing girl friend, supplies not only a luminous beauty but also a unifying thread of humanity."[6] Over forty years later, A.O. Scott saw it at Film Forum and said while it is "far from a lost masterpiece, it is nonetheless a bright and jagged piece of the jigsaw puzzle of Mr. Godard’s career"; he suggested a number of "reasons for non-Godardians" to see the film:[5] The film holds a rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

There is, for one thing, a pouting and lovely Marianne Faithfull singing an a capella version of 'As Tears Go By.' There are skinny young men smoking and arguing. There are the bright Pop colors of modernity juxtaposed with the weathered, handsome ordinariness of Old France, all of it beautifully photographed by Raoul Coutard. There are political speeches delivered via squawk box. And of course there is a maddening, liberating indifference to conventions of narrative coherence, psychological verisimilitude or emotional accessibility.

References

  1. ↑ Box Office Information for Made in U.S.A. IMDb. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Made in U.S.A, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  3. ↑ Made in U.S.A. from Rialto Pictures
  4. ↑ Made in U.S.A from The Criterion Collection
  5. 1 2 3 Scott, A. O. (January 8, 2009). "Godard's '60s Policier, Set in Atlantic City, France". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  6. ↑ "Movie Review:Made in U.S.A.". The New York Times. September 28, 1967. Retrieved 2011-05-23.
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