ANNA KARINA,HOLLIWOOD ACTRESS/WRITER

ANNA KARINA,HOLLIWOOD ACTRESS / WRITER

Born September 22, 1940 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Birth Name Hanne Karen Blarke Bayer
Height 5' 7¾" (1.72 m)

Mini Bio (1)

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 got married and she became famous with the "Nouvelle vague" movies directed by him, Jacques Rivette or 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's now married to Dennis Berry.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: laurent.onze@infonie.fr

Spouse (4)

Dennis Berry (1982 - present)
Daniel Duval (1978 - 1981) (divorced)
Pierre Fabre (1968 - 1974) (divorced)
Jean-Luc Godard (3 March 1961 - 1967) (divorced)

Trade Mark (1)

She often played put-upon but distant Gallic beauties

Trivia (17)

Friends with actresses Bernadette Lafont, Macha Méril, Alexandra Stewart and Françoise Brion.
Has written three novels.
Appeared in a short film when she was 14, which later won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Studied dance and painting in Denmark.
Fluent in five languages French, Danish, English, Swedish and Italian.
Has worked with film directors such as Agnès Varda, Roger Vadim, Valerio Zurlini, Jacques Rivette, George Stevens, Volker Schlöndorff, George Cukor and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Friends with Jean-Claude Brialy and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
In 1972 set up a production company named Raska.
Recorded the soundtrack album for her TV musical film Anna (1967) with songs written by Serge Gainsbourg and accompanied by her co-star and friend Jean-Claude Brialy on the vocals in a couple of songs.
Companion of Ulli Lommel in the late 1970s. The couple made few movies together, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder 's Chinese Roulette (1976) and Monkey Business (1978), directed by Lommel.
In the 1980s, she lived in Los Angles for a while where she met her fourth husband, Dennis Berry.
Husband Dennis Berry was once married to Jean Seberg (1972-1978) whom Anna's first husband, Jean-Luc Godard, directed in Breathless (1960) (aka Breathless).
Member of the jury at the Montreal International Film Festival in 2005.
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), Le Petit Soldat (1963), Made in U.S.A (1966), Band of Outsiders (1964) and Alphaville (1965).
Daughter-in-law of John Berry.
Used to play the piano.
Thought then-husband Jean-Luc Godard made her look ugly on My Life to Live (1962).
Personal Quotes (10)

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.
I was the youngest actress to win the Best Actress award at the Berlin festival. Everybody was talking about me, and my mother was very proud.
[on her My Life to Live (1962) hair] I said to Jean-Luc, "I want to look very different next time." And he said, "Yes, I would like that, too." So we went to see a hairdresser, and little by little Jean-Luc decided we would cut my long black hair shorter and shorter to get this Louise Brooks style.
My part in Alphaville (1965) was very challenging because it was a very strange part. Coming from this other planet, speaking funny French, not knowing how to express feelings.

It's about being human. It's beautiful, it's touching, it's acting. It's acting and reality at the same time.
I left home when I was 17, because I couldn't get along with my second stepfather, from Denmark. At that age young people can be very brave.