This one must have been really confusing at the time, but now looks like woodshedding and, what’s more, a repository of film styles that wouldn’t be picked up again until the 80s and 90s. One catches premonitions of many future auteurs in here, including Lynch (in the early exchange between Anna Karina and a hollering midget); Greenaway (the atmosphere of inscrutable conspiracy); Jarmusch (the deader-than-deadpan dialogue, in a smorgasbord of accents); the Coens circa Big Lebowski (rough handling of the Chandlerian plotting style); Tarantino (casual gun- and time-frame-play); magnificent Andersons P.T. (the bizarre barroom scene is reprised in Magnolia) and Wes (virtually everything); and Hal Hartley (virtually everything else).
And you know what, it’s still confusing, especially as a farewell to Karina (this was their last full-length film together, made as their marriage was ending). In a touching reversal of the two-timing steps Godard so often made her go through, this time she’s the very model of the faithful wife, out searching for her husband’s murderer. Instead of Godard’s voice on the soundtrack, as per usual, this time Karina narrates. There’s something fitting about the director ceding some control to his star, at least nominally (“UN FILM DE J L G / JOUE PAR AK” the titles state) before they go their separate ways; and ultimately, Made in USA feels like Karina’s film too, in a way that, great as they are, Vivre sa Vie, Bande a part and Pierrot le fou don’t. What he cedes control of, of course, is pretty close to chaos. But love, especially failed love, can be confusing.
by Evan Kindley | Source: DVD Projection
22 May 2008 11:21 PM | Submit Comment
