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Vintage Godard double from Criterion in July

20 July 2009

Vintage Jean-Luc Godard appears to be back in favour at the moment, what with today's release of Une femme mariée: Suite de fragments d'un film tourné en 1964 by Masters of Cinema (review soon, but I can tell you that the transfer is terrific), and now two more favourites from the director's back catalogue, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle, 1967) and Made in U.S.A. (1966), have been announced for a July US DVD release by Criterion.

In 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, Godard beckons us ever closer, literally whispering in our ears as narrator. About what? Money, sex, fashion, the city, love, language, war: in a word, everything. Considered by many to be among the legendary French filmmaker's finest achievements, the film takes as its ostensible subject the daily life of Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady), a housewife from the Paris suburbs who prostitutes herself for extra money. Yet this is only a template for Godard to spin off into provocative philosophical tangents and gorgeous images. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is perhaps Godard's most revelatory look at consumer culture, shot in ravishing widescreen colour by Raoul Coutard.

The Criterion disc, which will be released in the US on 21st July 2009 at the SRP of $29.95, will feature a new, restored high-definition digital transfer and the following extras;

  • Archival television interviews: the first featuring actress Marina Vlady on the set of the film, the second with Jean-Luc Godard engaged in debate with a government official on the subject of prostitution;
  • New video interview with Godard friend Antoine Bourseiller;
  • A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film;
  • New and improved English subtitle translation;
  • A new essay by Sasha Frere-Jones.

With its giddily complex noir plot and colour-drenched widescreen images, Made in U.S.A. was a final burst of exuberance from Godard's early sixties barrage of delirious movie-movies. Yet this chaotic crime thriller and acidly funny critique of consumerism – featuring Anna Karina as the most brightly dressed private investigator in film history, rummaging through an intricate plot for a former lover who might have been assassinated – also points toward the more political cinema that would come to define Godard. Featuring characters with names such as Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, David Goodis, and Doris Mizoguchi, and appearances by a slapstick Jean-Pierre Léaud and a sweetly singing Marianne Faithfull, this piece of pop art is like a Looney Tunes rendition of The Big Sleep gone New Wave.

Made in the U.S.A. will also be released on 21st July 2009 by Criterion at the SRP of $29.95. A new, restored high-definition digital transfer will be joined by the following extra features:

  • Interviews with stars Anna Karina and Lászlo Szábó;
  • A video piece on the personal and the political in Made in U.S.A. and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, featuring Godard biographers Richard Brody and Colin MacCabe;
  • A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film;
  • Original and re-release theatrical trailers;
  • New and improved English subtitle translation;
  • A new essay by film critic J. Hoberman.