Anna Karina was the guest of honor at the 31st Creteil Film De Femmes International Women's International Film Festival which ran 13-23 March in Paris. Karina who served as the head of the jury at Creteil 15 years ago was honored with a retrospective of the films she starred in such as Pierrot le Fou, and Made in USA - including two films, which she directed Vivre Ensemble in 1972 and Victoria (2008), a musical road movie which debuted at the Pusan Film Festival in South Korea. Her first film The Girl with the Shoes was made in Denmark when she was 14 in 1954.
Anna Karina is perhaps is best known for Vivre Sa Vie made in 1962, "living the life", which in French has an implied meaning, living as a prostitute. Made in USA is an elliptical fantasy film of intrigue set in an imaginary town called "Atlantic Cite" with a very young Marianne Faithful singing "As Tears Go By". The film made in 1966 is an adaptation of a story by the American crime writer Donald Westlake and because Godard never paid him it has never been shown in the USA. So the Castro screening this week in San Francisco is a must see! Godard compares the struggles of the right and left to the brother and sister in Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terrible. Anna Karina plays Paula Nelson who is out to avenge the murder of Richard. We don't know what his last name is because whenever it is mentioned , phone plane or care noise drowns it out. Godard makes inventive use of the camera and music, with colorful backgrounds and interesting shots, but the heavy hitter in the film is the trench-coated gun toting Paula Nelson - Karina. Every line spoken by Anna Karina is delivered with cool determination, "like a Walt Disney movie only with blood". And now on to Anna Karina! (interview follows).
For Movie Magazine this is Moira Sullivan Paris.

© 2009 - Moira Sullivan - Air Date: 4/01/09