New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard was in his most creative period during the 60's and thus made some of his most influential works, marking the history of cinema forever. "Breathless", "Pierrot le fou" and "Le petit soldat" are some of them. "Made in USA" is not well-known, but it is also very different from the commercial films of the period and inaccessible to the average film viewer.
Godard characterised this film "un film policier, un film politique, un film poétique", something also written on its poster. I'm thus going to examine it from these three aspects.
Un film policier : "Made in USA" is a loose adaptation of the Howard Hawks feature, "The big sleep" (1946), a classic of the film noir genre starring Humphrey Bogart. Godard's film has a plot resembling a film noir or a policier, about a woman (Anna Karina) searching for the murderer of her lover, Richard P. , in a fictionalised version of an American city, named Atlantic Cité. In her search, she becomes entangled in what seems to be an international conspiracy, with party officials following her every move. Murders, characters ranging from a crime writer (Yves Afonso), to an exuberant barman (Marc Dudicourt) make for a suspenseful atmosphere and the mystery centered around Richard's fate (is he really dead?) gives the film its story, on the surface typical of a film policier.
Un film politique : If on the surface the film is, indeed, a policier, it soon becomes quite clear that Godard's aim was to comment on the state of French and American politics of the period through this movie. The characters are named, among others, Richard Nixon, David Goodis, and Robert McNamara, most of them serving as the enemies of the protagonist. The excellent photography of Raoul Coutard, emphasizing the shiny neon lights and the intense colours of the city, is used to show the superficiality of the modern society. For all the colours and the light, what is hidden behind them is corruption and political incompetence. As for consumerism, it's just another form of fascism, and so is advertisement. In this sense, Godard may have agreed with his fellow compatriot's, Jean Baudrillard's opinions about the consumerist society, as expressed in his book of the same name. To him, consumerism satisfies nonexistent needs in the society, giving value to useless objects based on their exchange value only, and making people leave in a fake reality, that is, a copy of a copy of reality, in which objects act as signs, estranged from their original purpose. In the film, the settings in which Paula walks are real, but nothing in them shows the pressing political problems of the time. Everything is centered around the visual, the shops, the objects.
Un film poétique : "Made in USA", is most of all, a poetic film, but like poetry itself it is often incomprehensible. For the characters, literal language is but a surface way to express their thoughts. The film relies on extensive wordplay to make its points clear, with the characters debating about the meaning of what they say rather what they say. Reinforcing his vision of a fake reality , Godard has his characters use similes. "It seems at if we're in a film, Walt Disney with blood", Karina says at one moment. It seems, because we don't really know. Language itself is distorted by incomprehensible sounds, heard when anyone mentions the infamous Richard P. , and unexpected reactions. In one such scene, a character played by New Wave regular Jean-Pierre Leaud laughs at a joke, and is hit in the head by someone else. Almost mechanically, his face freezes to a serious expression. All this happens inexplicably, without words, but the aforementioned joke. The film's poetic character is its most dominant element, combining the previous two.
For all these reasons, one must treat this film like a book in order to understand it. It requires one's full attention, and is an example of a short movie that communicates so many ideas that its duration feels to be the double of what it is. Like poetry, the film relies on a familiar topic - the film noir convention - to make its points, that is, the director's opinions about politics, clear. Unfortunately, it is too poetic to have any real substance, coming off more as an oxymoron, showing the visual elements of a society that the director despises, and keeping the viewer concentrated on it only because of its being a feast for the eyes. It's an film made in France, but looking like it was "Made in the USA".
Godard characterised this film "un film policier, un film politique, un film poétique", something also written on its poster. I'm thus going to examine it from these three aspects.
Un film policier : "Made in USA" is a loose adaptation of the Howard Hawks feature, "The big sleep" (1946), a classic of the film noir genre starring Humphrey Bogart. Godard's film has a plot resembling a film noir or a policier, about a woman (Anna Karina) searching for the murderer of her lover, Richard P. , in a fictionalised version of an American city, named Atlantic Cité. In her search, she becomes entangled in what seems to be an international conspiracy, with party officials following her every move. Murders, characters ranging from a crime writer (Yves Afonso), to an exuberant barman (Marc Dudicourt) make for a suspenseful atmosphere and the mystery centered around Richard's fate (is he really dead?) gives the film its story, on the surface typical of a film policier.
Un film politique : If on the surface the film is, indeed, a policier, it soon becomes quite clear that Godard's aim was to comment on the state of French and American politics of the period through this movie. The characters are named, among others, Richard Nixon, David Goodis, and Robert McNamara, most of them serving as the enemies of the protagonist. The excellent photography of Raoul Coutard, emphasizing the shiny neon lights and the intense colours of the city, is used to show the superficiality of the modern society. For all the colours and the light, what is hidden behind them is corruption and political incompetence. As for consumerism, it's just another form of fascism, and so is advertisement. In this sense, Godard may have agreed with his fellow compatriot's, Jean Baudrillard's opinions about the consumerist society, as expressed in his book of the same name. To him, consumerism satisfies nonexistent needs in the society, giving value to useless objects based on their exchange value only, and making people leave in a fake reality, that is, a copy of a copy of reality, in which objects act as signs, estranged from their original purpose. In the film, the settings in which Paula walks are real, but nothing in them shows the pressing political problems of the time. Everything is centered around the visual, the shops, the objects.
Un film poétique : "Made in USA", is most of all, a poetic film, but like poetry itself it is often incomprehensible. For the characters, literal language is but a surface way to express their thoughts. The film relies on extensive wordplay to make its points clear, with the characters debating about the meaning of what they say rather what they say. Reinforcing his vision of a fake reality , Godard has his characters use similes. "It seems at if we're in a film, Walt Disney with blood", Karina says at one moment. It seems, because we don't really know. Language itself is distorted by incomprehensible sounds, heard when anyone mentions the infamous Richard P. , and unexpected reactions. In one such scene, a character played by New Wave regular Jean-Pierre Leaud laughs at a joke, and is hit in the head by someone else. Almost mechanically, his face freezes to a serious expression. All this happens inexplicably, without words, but the aforementioned joke. The film's poetic character is its most dominant element, combining the previous two.
For all these reasons, one must treat this film like a book in order to understand it. It requires one's full attention, and is an example of a short movie that communicates so many ideas that its duration feels to be the double of what it is. Like poetry, the film relies on a familiar topic - the film noir convention - to make its points, that is, the director's opinions about politics, clear. Unfortunately, it is too poetic to have any real substance, coming off more as an oxymoron, showing the visual elements of a society that the director despises, and keeping the viewer concentrated on it only because of its being a feast for the eyes. It's an film made in France, but looking like it was "Made in the USA".