Made in U.S.A. (film)

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Made in U.S.A.
Directed by	Jean-Luc Godard
Produced by	Georges de Beauregard
Written by	Jean-Luc Godard Donald E. Westlake
Starring	Anna Karina Jean-Pierre Léaud
Music by	Robert Schuman Ludwig von Beethoven
Cinematography	Raoul Coutard
Release date(s)	1966
Running time	90 min.
Language	French
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Made in U.S.A is a 1966 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard unofficially based on Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake)'s novel The Jugger. This is Godard's twelfth feature film. Because neither Godard nor the producer paid the book's adaptation rights and following legal action by Westlake, the film has been more or less impossible to see in the United States. This film stars Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, László Szabó and Yves Afonso. The film is also greatly inspired by the Howard Hawks film The Big Sleep.

1 Plot
2 Cast (first billed only)
3 Filming
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Paula Nelson (Anna Karina), a female version of Humphrey Bogart's hard boiled detectives, 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 his death. In her hotel room, she meets Typhus, which she ends up knocking out. His dead corpse is later to be found in the apartment of David Goodis (Yves Afonso), a writer. Paula is arrested to be interrogated because of the death of Typhys. From the on, she encounters many gangsters, who are all dead by the end of the movie. The 90 minute film has an infamously difficult to follow plot. Godard decided he would make a detective film with a deliberately incoherent narrative.

[edit] Cast (first billed only)

Anna Karina as Paula Nelson
Jean-Pierre Léaud as Donald Siegel`
László Szabó as Richard Widmark
Marianne Faithfull as Herself
Ernest Menzer as Edgar Typhus
Kyôko Kosaka as Doris Mizoguchi
Yves Afonso as David Goodis
Marc Dudicourt as Barman
Rémo Forlani as Workman in bar
Jean-Luc Godard as Richard Politzer (voice)
Sylvain Godet as Robert MacNamara
Claude Bouillon as Inspector Aldrich
Claude Bakka as Man with Marianne Faithfull
Philippe Labro as Himself
Jean-Pierre Biesse as Richard Nixon

[edit] Filming

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 censure of La Religieuse, a movie by Jacques Rivette 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).