| Made in U.S.A. | |
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Movie Poster |
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| 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 Schuman Ludwig van Beethoven |
| Cinematography | Raoul Coutard |
| Release date(s) | 1966 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Made in U.S.A is a 1966 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Greatly 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), it stars Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, László Szabó and Yves Afonso. 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.[1] Criterion released the film on DVD in July 2009.[2]
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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, 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.
Afonso's character is reportedly named after David Goodis.
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, 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.[3]
Made in U.S.A "has rarely been seen in the U.S.A.";[3] 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."[4] 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:[3]
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