While some reviewers have disdained this never-released-in-the-U.S. Godard entry from 1966, “Made in U.S.A.” as a semi-coherent hodgepodge, it’s also been a kind of phantom limb for those who admire the Swissman’s prolific output from that time, immediately preceded by “Masculin féminin” (also 1966) and “Pierrot le fou” (1965) and succeeded by “Two or Three Things I Know About Her” (1967) and “La Chinoise” (also 1967). Complicated rights issues, largely centered on rights to the novel the movie’s kinda-sorta based on, kept it from public view since its New York Film Festival premiere in 1967. A whimsically nonsensical Cold War-era noir plot bobs into view amid the aphoristic cultural-capitalism critique, but Godard’s ideas about how to photograph youth and fads and ex-wife Anna Karina, dressed in bright bold primary colors against other bright bold primary colors, are a delightful eyeful, even if the movie never attains the heights of “Two or Three Things,” which was produced at the same time. A character says we’re watching “Walt Disney with blood,” and that might be right. The richness of the sound and image are enough for grateful ears and eyes, even if “Made” didn’t boast an offhanded café scene where Marianne Faithfull’s singing “As Tears Go By.” The Village Voice’s J. Hoberman wrote a book called “Vulgar Modernism”: here’s a visual concordance of the very idea. 88m. Widescreen. (Ray Pride)
