Anna Karina

We did not see ourselves as remaking cinema at the time ... we weren’t inside the star system. We were running around, shooting in the streets, hiding behind trees to do our makeup.

Hanne Karin Bayer (22 September 1940 – 14 December 2019), known as Anna Karina, was a Danish-born French actress, director, writer and singer.

Quotes

Lots of resistance. People really didn’t like it. ‘What is she doing here? This is not her job, she should stay being an actress.’ But I just wanted to see if I could do it, that’s all.

One day in Los Angeles, I went to a museum and paid $25 and what did I see? White cubes! What’s going on? I go back to the ticket booth and said: ‘I want my money back. I don’t want to look at white cubes.’

• I came to the showroom to show pictures, and [Coco Chanel] said, “Okay, we’ll make a test to see if you can do it.” I was a little girl—about 17-and-a-half—and so I went into the makeup room and I did my makeup, and my hair, and the eyes to get them a little bit bolder. This woman came in with a big hat, she was 66 or 65 or something like that, but very beautiful! Kind of militaire. She said, “What is your name little girl?” I was talking to the makeup lady, and said, “My name is Hanne Karin Bayer.” She said, “Hanne Karin Bayer? And you want to be an actress? You’ve got to call yourself Anna Karina.” And I said, “Oh that sounds good, thank you, Madame.” Afterwards everybody told me it was Coco Chanel. Two weeks later I got my photo on the cover of Elle magazine and I really got work. That was a big honor at the time, and they called me “Anna Karina,” but they spelled it the wrong way in the beginning, with a “C,” the Italian way.
  • As quoted in "The Women of Anna Karina" by Colleen Kelsey, 3 May 2016, Interview (interviewmagazine.com)

• We did not see ourselves as remaking cinema at the time, at least not in my view. Myself and the other actors were not part of the industry; we weren’t inside the star system. We were running around, shooting in the streets, hiding behind trees to do our makeup. It was a very simple way of working.
  • As quoted in "Anna Karina Recalls Her Life in Film With Jean-Luc Godard" by Glenn Kenny, 4 May 2016, The New York Times (nytimes.com)

• As soon as we were happy, he tried to get at us by another means, another path. He provoked a new ordeal. One could have thought that it bored him, happiness.
  • On Jean-Luc Godard, as quoted in Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers : What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World's Greatest Directors (2014) by Robert Schnakenberg

The Guardian interview (2016)

Quotes from "Anna Karina on love, cinema and being Jean-Luc Godard's muse: 'I didn’t want to be alive any more'" by Xan Brooks, 21 January 2016, The Guardian (theguardian.com)

• Lots of resistance. People really didn’t like it. ‘What is she doing here? This is not her job, she should stay being an actress.’ But I just wanted to see if I could do it, that’s all. And I wrote novels. And did singing – two albums, or did I say that already?
  • On making her directional debut in her 1973 film Vivre ensemble

• I like the earlier [Jean-Luc Godard films] better. The earlier ones are human, the later ones abstract. Like Cubist paintings – not so fun. One day in Los Angeles, I went to a museum and paid $25 and what did I see? White cubes! What’s going on? I go back to the ticket booth and said: ‘I want my money back. I don’t want to look at white cubes.’
  • On Jean-Luc Godard's filmography

RFI Musique interview (2018)

Quotes from "Anna Karina, l'inspirante", RFI Musique (https://musique.rfi.fr/) 4 May 2018, Radio France Internationale

• Serge savait ce qu'il voulait, perfectionniste, on a beaucoup répété, on se parlait même en verlan. Je me suis rarement autant amusée avec un homme, nous étions très complices.
  • Serge [Gainsbourg] knew what he wanted. A perfectionist. We rehearsed a lot, we only spoke in verlan. I hardly have much fun with a man, but we were very close.

• J'imaginais que j'allais voyager avec des gitans et que j'allais chanter dans la rue. Un peu comme Piaf. Je connaissais toutes les chansons des chanteuses réalistes, Damia, Berthe Sylva, Fréhel. Je me rappelle aussi que je voulais me marier avec Louis Armstrong
  • I imagined that I was going to travel with gypsies and that I was going to sing in the street. A bit like [Edith] Piaf. I knew all the songs of the [chanson realist] singers; Damia, Berthe Sylva, Fréhel. I also remember that I wanted to marry Louis Armstrong.

• Si j'écris mon histoire, c'est telle que je l'ai vécue. Je dis toujours la vérité. Je ne vais ni enjoliver ni noircir le tableau.
  • If I write my story, I would tell it as I lived it. I always tell the truth. I am not going to embellish or smear the image.

Quotes about Anna Karina

• She left me because of my many faults; I left her because I couldn’t talk movies with her.
  • Jean-Luc Godard, as quoted in "An Exile in Paradise" by Richard Brody, The New Yorker (20 November 2000)

External links

• Anna Karina on IMDb