Made in U.S.A (1966)

In the near future, leftist writer Paula goes from Paris to the French town of Atlantic-Cité when she learns of the death of a former colleague and lover, Richard P. Is she there to ... See full summary »

Director:

Jean-Luc Godard (as JLG)

Writers:

Jean-Luc Godard, Donald E. Westlake (novel) (as Richard Stark)

Stars:

Anna Karina, László Szabó, Jean-Pierre Léaud

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anna Karina	...	Paula Nelson (as AK)
László Szabó	...	Richard Widmark (as LS)
Jean-Pierre Léaud	...	Donald Siegel (as JPL)
Marianne Faithfull	...	Marianne Faithfull (as MF)
Yves Afonso	...	David Goodis (as YA)

Storyline

In the near future, leftist writer Paula goes from Paris to the French town of Atlantic-Cité when she learns of the death of a former colleague and lover, Richard P. Is she there to investigate? On the surface, faces are beautiful, colors bright, clothes trendy. Beneath, little is clear: some talk to Paula as if she's Alice in Wonderland, corpses pile up, and ideological struggles insert themselves. A murder victim's nephew and a political party's hired hands hover around Paula. Is obscuring things her goal or is it life that's obscure?

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Plot Keywords:

french new wave | nouvelle vague | murder | shot in the head | in joke | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French English

Release Date:

27 September 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Made in USA

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,125, 11 January 2009, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$81,105, 26 April 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anouchka Films, Rome Paris Films, S.E.P.I.C.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The characters are all named after filmmakers, actors, writers and political figures. Examples: David Goodis (pulp writer), Doris Mizoguchi (named after directer Kenji Mizoguchi), Donald Siegel (director), Paul Widmark (named after actor Richard Widmark) etc...

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Connections

Referenced in The Hunter: A Conversation with Author Donald E. Westlake (2007)

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Soundtracks

As Tears Go By
Written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham
Performed by Marianne Faithfull

User Reviews

A barbaric and idiotic comment

It's probably useless to say anything against Godard, since it's some kind of an unwritten law, that Godard is a cinematic god, and if you don't confess your belief to him, you're a vulgar idiot. - still I have to say that he's one of the most overrated directors in film history.

Yeah, sure I admit his historical value, the man made a huge change in to the course of film making, and I respect him for that. I have also read Godard's book about the structure and nature of film, and found it very fascinating. Still, for a man who knows a lot about the structure of cinema, a decision to throw every single characteristic in storytelling away, feels very strange to me. It just doesn't work. He, if anybody should know, that they don't exist for nothing.

I can see why he achieved this "film god" status. He was something never seen before, something outrageous. But hey people, let's face it. An hour long political essay disguised as a movie is not "beutifully poetic" or what ever you want to call it. It's just plain boring. No one ever has anything else to say about Godard's movies, than they are "surrealistic" and have such a "strangely poetic mood" in them. Like it's some kind of a magnitude. Poetic or not, The characters are unidimensional and flat.

If you want poetic movies with surrealistic mood, I suggest you to watch for example Robert Bresson's, Andrei Tarkovsky's or Krzysztof Kieslowski's films. They have a lot more in them than just the mood.