Effortlessly chic and disheveled in that cute, existentialist way, she sings and pouts, bangs covering her perfectly lined eyes. Anna Karina, the actress, model, singer, wife and muse of Jean-Luc Godard, defined New-Wave feminine cool.
As a dancing would-be criminal in Band of Outsiders, Anna sports a loose sweater, boyfriend hat and a low ponytail. She pairs a stuffed-dog purse with matching red sundress as Marianne in Pierrot Le Fou. Elsewhere, Karina's characters don Technicolor tights, blue berets, ballet flats, and tousled hair—all the better for emotionally tormenting lovers, protesting the government and stripping. Wherever she is, whatever she's doing, she's trouble.
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To enjoy Anna Karina's particular brand of ennui, pick up Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard, a comprehensive new biography by New Yorker editor and critic Richard Brody. Better yet, stop into Film Forum where the "Godard's '60s" series celebrates 50 years of French New Wave until June 5th.
The trailer for Pierrot le Fou
Anna Karina in the famous dance scene in Band of Outsiders
Anna Karina and Serge Gainsbourg singing Sous le Soleil Exactement, 1967