Anna Karina (born Hanne Karin Bayer), a prominent part of ‘French New Wave film-movement’ first appeared as a teen in a Cannes prize-winning Danish short-film (1959).
After moving to Paris, Karina achieved success as model. Her debut film appearance was in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film ‘Le petit soldat,’ but it was released in 1963. Her first released film was French-comedy ‘Tonight or Never’ (1961), followed by Godard’s musical romantic-comedy ‘A Woman Is a Woman’ (1961) as a striptease dancer ‘Angela,’ the role which earned her ‘Silver Bear for Best Actress.’
Karina starred in six more films of Godard, her then-husband, including drama-film ‘My Life to Live’ (1962), ‘Bande a part’ (1964), award-winning sci-fi neo-noir ‘Alphaville’ (1965), ‘Pierrot le Fou’ (1965), crime-comedy ‘Made in USA’ (1966), and segment ‘Anticipation’ in comedy-film ‘The Oldest Profession’ (1967).
During this period, Karina also appeared in comedy-film ‘She’ll Have to Go’ (1962), romantic-film ‘Sun in Your Eyes’ (1962), titular role in adventure film ‘Sheherazade’ (1963), drama-film ‘Circle of Love’ (1964), comedy-film ‘All About Loving’ (1964), WWII film ‘The Camp Followers’ (1965) and others.
Further, Karina starred in drama-film based on novel by Denis Diderot, ‘The Nun’ (1966), historical-drama film ‘Lamiel’ (1967), director Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Stranger’ (1967), mystery-film by Guy Green ‘The Magus’ (1968), J. Lee Thompson’s comedy-drama war-film ‘Before Winter Comes’ (1968), amongst others.
Karina played ‘Elizabeth Kohlhaas’ in drama-film ‘Man on the Horseback’ (1969). Her further appearances were in drama-film ‘Justine’ (1969), ‘Laughter in the Dark’ (1969), crime-film ‘The Time to Die’ (1970), mystery-film ‘The Wedding Ring’ (1971), drama-film by Andre Delvaux ‘Rendezvous at Bray’ (1971), and thriller ‘The Salzburg Connection’ (1972).
Karina wrote, starred-in and made directorial debut in drama-film ‘Vivre ensemble’ (1973), which was shown at ‘26th Cannes Film Festival.’ Next, she was in Franco Brusati’s comedy-drama film ‘Bread & Chocolate’ (1974), Reiner Werner Fassbinder directed psychological-drama ‘Chinese Roulette’ (1976), Alexandre Arcady’s ‘Last Summer in Tangier’ (1987) and Delvaux’s ‘The Abyss’ (1988).
Karina wrote and starred in ‘Last Song’ (1987), and appeared in Jacques Rivette directed ‘Up, Down Fragile’ (1995) and comedy-film ‘I, Cesar’ (2003). She directed and starred in road-film ‘Victoria’ (2008), which was her final film appearance.