Anna Karina (1940-2019)

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Dylan
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Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#1 Post by Dylan » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:11 am


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domino harvey
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Re: Passages

#2 Post by domino harvey » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:14 am

Awful. One more legend of French cinema gone

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tenia
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Re: Passages

#3 Post by tenia » Sun Dec 15, 2019 5:34 am

I was lucky enough to attend to a screening on Oct 4th of Vivre ensemble she was presenting. The presentation quickly turned into a 30 min discussion that finally last at least 45 min. She was extrememy funny and sincere, but also very modest about her fame, her talent and the luck she had to work with many giants. It was refreshing to find she kept kind of a childish innocence and she was absolutely adorable all along.
There was also a screening of The Nun right after Vivre ensemble, with a small lunch in between and she spent most of it chatting with whoever was coming to her, signing stuff, etc.
Having such a recent memory of her makes her passing very strange to me.

j99
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Re: Passages

#4 Post by j99 » Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:10 pm

Anna Karina is one of the great icons of European cinema. The Godard films alone are worthy of legendary status, but she was also excellent in Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette. A sad day, and it does feel like the end of an era, even though Godard is still hanging in there.

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knives
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Re: Passages

#5 Post by knives » Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:13 pm

And Deville.

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hearthesilence
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Re: Passages

#6 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:33 pm

tenia wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 5:34 am
I was lucky enough to attend to a screening on Oct 4th of Vivre ensemble she was presenting. The presentation quickly turned into a 30 min discussion that finally last at least 45 min. She was extrememy funny and sincere, but also very modest about her fame, her talent and the luck she had to work with many giants. It was refreshing to find she kept kind of a childish innocence and she was absolutely adorable all along.
There was also a screening of The Nun right after Vivre ensemble, with a small lunch in between and she spent most of it chatting with whoever was coming to her, signing stuff, etc.
Having such a recent memory of her makes her passing very strange to me.
Same here. She was in NYC not that long ago and did the same at MoMI and Film Forum. I'm a bit stunned that she's suddenly gone.

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Re: Passages

#7 Post by artfilmfan » Sun Dec 15, 2019 1:22 pm

Very sad news. Rest In Peace, Anna.

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aox
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#8 Post by aox » Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:35 pm

What a great actress. Loved her work. Rest in Peace.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#9 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:04 pm

Tragic. I was just reading David Wills’ analysis of her ambiguous double “yes” in the Cambridge Film Handbooks’ Pierrot le fou before seeing the news. One of the very, very best, and yeah Deville’s Ce soir ou jamais is one of my personal favorites of her roles.

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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#10 Post by beamish14 » Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:11 pm

Such a shame that her great work in Tony Richardson's Laughter in the Dark has unrecognized due to the film's lack of availability.

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Oedipax
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#11 Post by Oedipax » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:13 am

Too sad for words, really.

I was lucky to be in her presence once - I saw a screening of Rivette's La religieuse at the Reflet Medicis cinema in Paris back in October 2018 where Karina was present to do an introduction. I had taken my seat and at the last minute, decided a trip to the bathroom would be a good idea before things got started. As I ran up the stairs (the screening room was on a lower level), Anna Karina was being led down by her entourage. I paused on the landing and scooted up against the wall to give her plenty of room to pass; there was a brief moment where she looked in my direction and I smiled back. I got back to my seat in time to hear the full introduction, where as mentioned above, her humility and enduring innocence were on full display. She was so touched by how many young people were there to see this movie she'd made so long ago, and had been banned and unseen for a long period. I assumed she would be with us for a long time to come, she was in such high spirits and still so lucid...

I snapped a few so-so shots of her from my seat (didn't have a longer lens with me), which can be seen here: 1 2 3

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Oedipax
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Re: Passages

#12 Post by Oedipax » Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:21 am

j99 wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:10 pm
A sad day, and it does feel like the end of an era, even though Godard is still hanging in there.
And speaking of Godard, this is happening right on the eve of a huge Godard retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise, complete with a reported in-person appearance by Godard. He'll be there on February 1st before a screening of Anne-Marie Miéville's Après la reconcilliation - there's an Miéville retrospective running as well. The retrospective already had a palpable air of finality to it: a pretty exhaustive revisiting of (nearly?) all his works, an extremely rare in-person appearance, introductions given by a number of Godard collaborators throughout the years... plus his recent inquiry to Libération about wanting to see his pre-written obit, if one existed (he was told it hadn't yet been written), and his comments in the most recent Cahiers du Cinéma interview where he said he wasn't sure if he would have the strength to finish his next film or not. To think that Karina's passing will be hanging over all of this now as well, it's a really melancholy thought.

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Re: Passages

#13 Post by j99 » Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:40 am

Oedipax wrote:
Mon Dec 16, 2019 1:21 am
j99 wrote:
Sun Dec 15, 2019 12:10 pm
A sad day, and it does feel like the end of an era, even though Godard is still hanging in there.
And speaking of Godard, this is happening right on the eve of a huge Godard retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise, complete with a reported in-person appearance by Godard. He'll be there on February 1st before a screening of Anne-Marie Miéville's Après la reconcilliation - there's an Miéville retrospective running as well. The retrospective already had a palpable air of finality to it: a pretty exhaustive revisiting of (nearly?) all his works, an extremely rare in-person appearance, introductions given by a number of Godard collaborators throughout the years... plus his recent inquiry to Libération about wanting to see his pre-written obit, if one existed (he was told it hadn't yet been written), and his comments in the most recent Cahiers du Cinéma interview where he said he wasn't sure if he would have the strength to finish his next film or not. To think that Karina's passing will be hanging over all of this now as well, it's a really melancholy thought.
Has Godard commented on her death? I’m not sure what relations were like between the two after the divorce. Godard is 89 now, so not surprising he’s winding down.

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tenia
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#14 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:55 am

There was this awful (as usual) idea from Ardisson in 1987 to invite Karina without telling her Godard would pop up. Godard is absolutely cruel and tactless in the way he describes their past relationship, and this was something like 20 years after they last saw each other. Starting at about 4 min 30, he basically says out loud their relationship wasn't that good and certainly not The One True Love, that he pretty much used her as a muse because of how many great directors had one but he realised that wasn't really working in real life, and end up saying he was so much happier once they weren't together (5 min 30).

I wouldn't be surprised this pops up at the Retrospective if someone has Godard talking about Karina.

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Oedipax
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#15 Post by Oedipax » Wed Dec 18, 2019 11:31 am

I strongly doubt Godard will put out any kind of definitive statement, but it's pretty much inevitable it will come up at the retrospective, yeah. There could always be a short film like the kind he made for Rohmer's passing.

Though not really comparable, when the Costa Concordia disaster happened in 2012 after he had filmed on it for Film Socialisme, he was asked about it in an interview and declined to comment.

I don't know if there's anything in particular to be gleaned from Karina's absence in the announced program for the retrospective, given that she was happy to appear at other screenings in Paris. Marina Vlady will be there, for instance. It's possible she was already known to be quite ill when the retro was at the planning stages.

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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#16 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Dec 18, 2019 12:22 pm

tenia wrote:
Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:55 am
Godard is absolutely cruel and tactless
Unbelievable. He's an angel, and you will not speak this way of him on this forum

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domino harvey
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#17 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:22 pm

If only there was a great recent comedy about how Godard was an asshole, I’m sure it would be met with open minds and arms here!

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tenia
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#18 Post by tenia » Wed Dec 18, 2019 3:41 pm

My point wasn't so much that he's an asshole in general (he seems like one), but in a more closely related fashion to Karina that seemed to answer about "what relations were like between the two after the divorce".


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barryconvex
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#20 Post by barryconvex » Wed Dec 25, 2019 4:34 am

Even If her career had ended after Bande à Part she would still be a legend. My favorite actress of all time.

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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#21 Post by barryconvex » Mon Jan 20, 2020 6:06 am

A few months before she died I restarted my efforts to see all Karina's early performances outside of her work with Godard and her cameo in Cleo From 5-7. I doubt I'll ever get to see everything as she was remarkably busy during the first dozen or so years of her career and also because many of these films are either lacking English subs or only available through back channels or bootlegs. I'll need to revisit The Camp Followers and Appointment in Bray as I recall little about them but here are a few others I've watched in the last few months:

Laughter In The Dark- Karina has the Lolita role in this Nabokov adaptation about a man who finds himself instantly smitten with a movie theater usherette at the cost of his wife, child, fortune, health and everything else not nailed down. As played by Nicol Williamson (who had to pinch hit after a drunken Richard Burton got sacked for being Richard Burton) he's so weak willed that she has little trouble encroaching into his domestic life, moving herself onto his property and installing her ex boyfriend as her personal assistant. They quickly rekindle their romance right under his nose (Karina tells Williamson he's gay to quell his suspicions) until they're caught in the act; crossing the one line that Williamson has drawn which could kill the whole hustle. What happens afterwards is where director Richardson loses his way, as what should've been satiric turns mean spirited and cruel. It's an unusual role for her: the frisky young gamine bit she could do in her sleep by this stage of her career but the outright cruelty the part calls for is something new and Karina handles it with aplomb. I'm not certain but I think she dubbed in her own voice and it occasionally veers into a strange French/cockney hybrid. Like Eliza Doolittle after six months in Montmartre. The accent is maybe not her wisest acting decision but I can't say it particularly bothered me. She's never looked more stunning but the movie is solidly mediocre.

The Magus- Karina has a not very interesting supporting role here as the stewardess girlfriend of Michael Caine, who has been assigned to a teaching position on a small Greek island. She's mostly jealous and nagging as Caine's attention wanders to a really young Candice Bergen amid some hooey about magic, games of chance and the island's history with the nazis. This being a movie shot in Greece means Anthony Quinn is on hand and he's cast here as the title character, a wealthy businessman who may be using his magic powers to fuck with Caine's head. What is truth and what is illusion seems to be the the story's main undercurrent and I actually enjoyed a good amount of this. It's certainly not hard to look at and both Caine and Quinn respect the material enough to play it straight.

Justine- I'm unable to make a full assessment of the film as I couldn't complete it. I can say however, that the amount of ridiculousness I did consume from the film's first 45 minutes far exceeded my recommended daily quota. Karina has another small role as a belly dancer who has a fling with Michael York; winding up sick in his Alexandria apartment after being dosed with Spanish fly. I'm not sure what part she plays in the plot, or if there is a plot but I can say that Jack Albertson shows up to kvetch and Anouk Aimee runs around naked in the surf. The pan and scan MOD dvd looks utterly horrible (another reason I couldn't complete this) and I was ready to blame everything, including the lackluster dvd, Michael York's career and Karina's failed marriage to Godard, on Cukor but apparently he inherited this mess after Joseph Strick left the project. So, it's all his fault.

Ce Soir Ou Jamais (AKA Tonight or Never)- Dom and blu have covered this one pretty thoroughly in the Deville thread and I don't have much to add. If anyone ever has a question about who Karina was or what she should be known for, I would submit that this belongs in the same breath with her work with Godard. Her first two feature roles in this and Une Femme Est Une Femme opened within a few weeks of each other in September of 1961 and they're the probably the best two introductory parts any actor of her generation ever received. The entirety of Ce Soir Ou Jamais takes place in a Paris loft where a group of friends are having a party. As the alcohol flows, as feelings are revealed and relationships teeter Deville winds his way through the human condition like he's been preparing for this film his entire life. It's a perfect movie in a way that only a handful of others are and right there in the middle of it, the film's heart and soul and the new wave's spiritual personification is 21 year old Karina: multitudes contained even then behind that bewitching pair of eyes, the most beautiful ever captured on film.

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tenia
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#22 Post by tenia » Mon Jan 20, 2020 6:21 am

For those interested (and who can understand French), the Cinémathèque of Grenoble uploaded the 45 min discussion with Anna Karina, recorded in Oct 2019, after which Vivre ensemble and La religieuse were shown (that's the screening I mentioned earlier).

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Ovader
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Re: Anna Karina (1940-2019)

#23 Post by Ovader » Wed Nov 15, 2023 8:43 pm

A 4K restoration of ANNA will be released on November 29 in cinemas (I assume only in France but correct me if I am wrong) by Malavida Films. I have no idea if this portents a home video release in the near future or not.

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