Made in USA (Godard)

Jean-Luc Godard

Set in an alternate-universe fictional location of Atlantic-Cité, MADE IN USA is a typically oblique Godardian blend of political intrigue and self-referential humour in the guise of a nominal thriller plot. Paula Nelson (Anna Karina) is a journalist who has been covering the war in Morocco who has just returned to Atlantic-Cité. She has received a telegram from her one-time fiancé Richard, but when she arrives there she finds that he has been killed. Following various leads, while under surveillance herself by the police and other mysterious figures, she attempts to find out who killed Richard.

“It’s like being in a Disney film starring Humphrey Bogart. A film with a political message”, Anna Karina remarks at one point in the film, and indeed, with its mysterious figures in cars, North African connection, murky police activities and other-worldly absurdity, MADE IN USA is like a Technicolor version of LE PETIT SOLDAT set in an ALPHAVILLE universe. But the self-referentiality of Karina’s comment also alerts us to the meta-fiction construct of the film that looks ahead to Godard's breaking down of the artificial construct of the movie that would come to its definitive destruction in WEEKEND, the director thereafter seeking new ways of presenting his ideas on film. Not only do the characters often refer to themselves as characters in a film, in one scene they attempt to make an inventory of every object in a barroom, deconstructing the film down into mere words on a page. Godard continually alerts us to the fact that words are a fictional construct that both his film and political ideologies are built upon – characters type poems, read books, quote from books, indulge in wordy political discourse and sloganeering (again prefiguring the bold intertitles and political messages of LA CHINOISE and WEEKEND) – but just because they make coherent sentences, doesn’t mean they have validity. However “fiction triumphs over reality”, Godard’s film tells us (is there really any need for film criticism when the film is as self-reflective and self-analytical as this?) and the film meanders through its obscure plot to a notional ending. What is the purpose of all this, you might ask? And well you might…

Noel Megahey DVD Times

Jean-Luc Godard

Born in 1930 in Paris, France. Spent his childhood in Switzerland. Studied Ethnology in Paris. Critic for “Cahiers du Cinéma”. One of the founding members of “Nouvelle Vague”.

2010 FILM SOCIALISME
2004 NOTRE MUSIQUE
2000 ELOGE DE L'AMOUR
1999 THE OLD PLACE
1988-98 HISTOIRE(S) DU CINEMA
1996 FOR EVER MOZART
1995 2 x 50 ANS DE CINEMA FRANÇAIS
1994 JLG/JLG
1993 HELAS POUR MOI
1993 LES ENFANTS JOUENT A LA RUSSIE
1991 ALLEMAGNE NEUF ZERO
1990 NOUVELLE VAGUE
1987 KING LEAR
1987 SOIGNE TA DROITE
1986 DETECTIVE
1985 JE VOUS SALUE MARIE
1983 PRENOM CARMEN
1982 PASSION
1981 LETTRE A FREDDY BUACHE
1980 SAUVE QUI PEUT (LA VIE)
1978 FRANC-TOUR-DETOUR-DEUX ENFANTS
1976 SIX FOIS DEUX
1975 NUMERO DEUX
1975 ICI ET AILLEURS
1971 TOUT VA BIEN
1969 LE VENT D'EST
1967 WEEK-END
1967 ONE PLUS ONE / SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
1966 MASCULIN - FEMININ (D)
1966 DEUX OU TROIS CHOSES QUE JE SAIS D'ELLE (Livre)
1966 MADE IN USA
1965 ALPHAVILLE
1965 PIERROT LE FOU
1964 BANDE A PART
1964 UNE FEMME MARIEE
1963 LE PETIT SOLDAT
1963 LES CARABINIERS
1963 LE MEPRIS (DIE VERACHTUNG)
1962 VIVRE SA VIE
1961 UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME
1959 HISTOIRE D'EAU
1960 CHARLOTTE ET SON JULES
1959 TOUS LES GARÇONS S'APPELLENT PATRICK
1959 A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (AUSSER ATEM)

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Made in USA (Godard)