Pegram needs a Godard festival

Yesterday Maria and I went to see the Godard movie playing at the Belcourt, Made in U.S.A. It was made in 1966 but never released in the US because of rights issues. It was made quickly, and does seem tossed off, a bunch of riffs barely strung together. Now some of the riffs are good, like a scene in a bar that works out an extended language philosophy game and ends with Marianne Faithfull singing "As Tears Go By" a capella. There are also lots of nice looking people in the movie, starting with Anna Karina.

In one of the early scenes in the movie, she is in a hotel movie reading a book, and later on one of the other characters is reading the same book. It's Adieu La Vie, Adieu L'Amour, which is the French translation of a book by Horace McCoy. I assume it's the French title for Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, which was the basis for a Jimmy Cagney movie. It's one of a bunch of nearly constant film references in the movie, starting with a dedication to Sam Fuller and Nicolas Ray, and including a name check to the King Vidor movie Ruby Gentry and a major character is named David Goodis, who was the author of Dark Passage and the book that Truffaut turned into Shoot the Piano Player.

Now here's the interesting thing. Horace McCoy (1897-1955) was born, in off all places, Pegram, TN, and grew up in Nashville. Pegram really needs to capitalize on the Godard connection to their native son. (Sounds like a job for Lain York!)