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Anna Karina in The Truth About Charlie (2002)

Biography

Anna Karina

Overview

  • Born
    September 22, 1940 · Frederiksberg, Denmark
  • Died
    December 14, 2019 · Paris, France (complications from surgery)
  • Birth name
    Hanne Karin Bayer
  • Height
    5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Biography

  • Born in Denmark, she came to Paris at 18. She met Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin and started as a top model. She met Jean-Luc Godard about a cameo in Breathless (1960), but she had to be naked and she refused to play in the movie. One year later, they wed and she became famous with the "Nouvelle Vague" movies directed by him, Jacques Rivette, and Agnès Varda.

    In 1967, Serge Gainsbourg wrote his only film musical Anna (1967) for her, with the hit "Sous le soleil exactement". Then, she went to Hollywood for a few movies and came back to Paris. She wrote and directed Vivre ensemble (1973) after her divorce from Pierre Fabre. She later remarried, to Dennis Berry.
    - IMDb mini biography by: laurent.onze@infonie.fr

Family

  • Spouses
      Dennis Berry(December 27, 1982 - December 14, 2019) (her death)
      Daniel Duval(1978 - 1981) (divorced)
      Pierre Fabre(1968 - 1974) (divorced)
      Jean-Luc Godard(March 3, 1961 - 1967) (divorced)
  • Children
      Child

Trademarks

  • She often played put-upon but distant Gallic beauties

Trivia

  • Fluent in five languages French, Danish, English, Swedish and Italian.
  • Has written three novels.
  • Made 8 movies with ex-husband Jean-Luc Godard: My Life to Live (1962), A Woman Is a Woman (1961), The Oldest Profession (1967), Pierrot le fou (1965), The Little Soldier (1963), Made in U.S.A (1966), Band of Outsiders (1964) and Alphaville (1965).
  • Thought then-husband Jean-Luc Godard made her look ugly on My Life to Live (1962).
  • In the 1980s, she lived in Los Angles for a while where she met her fourth husband, Dennis Berry.

Quotes

  • Some people have scripts and scripts and lots of scripts, and they change it all the time. Even though [Jean-Luc Godard] had no script, he had it all in his heart and in his brain. He can explain it to you in a way where even if you get the dialogue five minutes before in the morning and you have to shoot it later, at least you have an idea about it, because he takes his time to explain things and to do the movements with you. There was always lots of rehearsal.
  • When I had my cover on Elle magazine, everyone wanted to work with me, you know... I earned a lot of money in six months, because I did Coca-Cola for England, Palmolive, Pepsodent for the Germans. Everything I could find. So that's how Jean-Luc Godard saw me, because on one side of the Champs Elysées I was selling one brand of soap, and on the other I was selling Palmolive.
  • [on the different filmmakers she worked with] Everybody, even all the people with talent and genius, they had their own kind of way. But there is one way they are all the same: They're very human, and they have this sense of giving to you. It doesn't matter what kind of way they're doing it, as long as it's getting to you-as long as you're on the same road.
  • I don't want to do just "Hello, goodbye," only for very, very good directors like Jonathan Demme, who asked me to sing this tango in his film The Truth About Charlie (2002). If not, I really take my choices, because I'm too old to say yes to everything, and also, I've done too many good things to go do whatever now.
  • Jean-Luc Godard would say, "Don't you understand that if somebody is going to work, he's going to work at least eight hours a day? Why would you not work eight hours a day in front of your mirror to learn about yourself, to learn about what you're doing, to learn how ridiculous you can be, how good you can be, how stupid you can be, and so-and-so?" Of course, he was right that we should all do that every day, even when we're not working, because after all, everybody's working eight hours a day.

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