Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Bayer;[1][2] 22 September 1940 – 14 December 2019)[3] was a Danish-French film avant garde actress, director, writer, and singer. She was French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard's collaborator in the 1960s...In 1972, she set up a production company, Raska, for her directorial debut, Living Together (Vivre ensemble, 1973), in which she also acted. The film screened in the Critics’ Week lineup at the 26th Cannes Film Festival.[6]She later wrote and acted in Last Song (1987)(directed by her last husband, Dennis Berry, about whom more presently) Karina wrote, directed and starred in Victoria (2008), a musical road movie filmed in Montreal and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. The lead character, played by Karina, has amnesia.[14] Richard Kuipers praised it in Variety as "a pleasant gambol through the backwoods of Quebec."[31].
Music and writing
Karina maintained a singing career.[26] At the end of the 1960s, she scored a major hit with "Sous le soleil exactement" and "Roller Girl" by Serge Gainsbourg. Both songs are from the TV musical comedy Anna (1967), by the film director Pierre Koralnik, in which she sings seven songs alongside Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Brialy. Karina subsequently recorded an album, Une histoire d'amour, with Philippe Katerine, which was followed by a concert tour. In 2005, she released Chansons de films, a collection of songs sung in movies.
Karina wrote four novels: Vivre ensemble (1973), Golden City (1983), On n'achète pas le soleil (1988), and Jusqu'au bout du hasard (1998).[7]
While working together on Le Petit Soldat, Karina and Godard began a relationship and married in 1961.[32] Eventually, Karina served as a cinematic muse to Godard, appearing in eight of his films, including Alphaville, Bande à part, and Pierrot le Fou, during their five-year marriage and after. Karina liked being the muse. "How could I not be honoured?" she told Xan Brooks of The Guardian in 2016. "Maybe it's too much, it sounds so pompous. But of course I’m always very touched to hear people say that. Because Jean-Luc gave me a gift to play all of those parts. It was like Pygmalion, you know? I was Eliza Doolittle and he was the teacher." At this, she briefly channels Henry Higgins. "By Jove," she says. "I think she's got it."[10]
The couple became, according to The Independent, "one of the most celebrated pairings of the 1960s."[26] A writer for Filmmaker magazine called their work "arguably the most influential body of work in the history of cinema."[33]
Despite the critical success, their relationship behind the scenes was described as tumultuous; they fought on film sets, Karina fell ill several times, and Godard was often absent without explanation.[23][18][34] One Godard film from this period which does not feature Karina, Contempt (1963), is said to be based on their difficult relationship.[16] The couple divorced in 1965.[18]
After divorcing Godard, Karina remarried three times; she was married to French actors Pierre Fabre from 1968 to 1974 and Daniel Duval from 1978 to 1981, and to American film director Dennis Berry from 1982 until her death.[18][36]
Karina died at the age of 79 on Saturday, 14 December 2019, at a hospital in Paris. According to her agent, Laurent Balandras, the cause of death was cancer.[14] However, her husband, Dennis Berry, said that the cause was not cancer, but a complication following a muscular rupture.[37]
from 2014 Twitter, thence to the Giant Sand/Howe Gelb thread:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkKDg-rIEAAOATD.jpg
Joan Vich Montaner @joanvich
. @howegelb_ estuvo ayer grabando un dueto con Anna Karina (sí, ¡Anna Karina!). Mañana empieza su gira española.
Dennis Berry!
Dennis Charles Berry (August 11, 1944 – June 12, 2021)[1] was an American-French film director, actor, and screenwriter.[2] He was the son of director John Berry.
Selected filmography
La Collectionneuse (actor, 1967)
Paulina Is Leaving – Paulina s'en va (actor, 1969)
Promise at Dawn (actor, 1970)
Borsalino (actor, 1970)
The Big Delirium (director, 1975)
Last Song (director, 1987)
Chloé (director, 1996)
Stargate SG-1 (director, 1997)
Highlander: The Raven (director, 1998)
Adventure Inc. (director 2 episodes, 2003)
Mata Hari (director, 2016 TV series)[3][4]
― dow, Monday, 28 March 2022 19:33 (two years ago) link