60s Style Icon Anna Karina

She may not be as well known as some movie icons, but Anna Karina, queen of French cinema's New Wave, is sugar and spice and everything nice. All bangs and black cat-eyes, She made it the rage to be oh so cool and chic...

Born Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer in Copenhagen in 1940, Karina spent her early years in and out of foster homes, living unhappily with her mother and stepfather, bored with school and looking for a way out. She arrived in Paris as a teenager in the late fifties, broke and unable to speak French. At Les Deux Magots café on the Left Bank, Karina was discovered by a woman looking for fresh-faced models. And so it began. It is said that Coco Chanel was the one who helped her refine her professional name to Anna Karina.

After starring in 'Le Petit Soldat' with Jean-Luc Godard as the director... The couple fell in love and got married in 1961. The two made 2 of her iconic films, 'Une Femme est Une Femme' and 'Pierrot Le Fou'.

In 'Pierrot Le Fou' The movie's colors are all red, white, and blue... The plot is ridiculous at times, but Anna and her co-star Jean Paul Belmondo, made this movie easy on the eyes...

One of the saddest things I read about her was an interview with Jean-Luc Godard...

In an interview done decades after their 1967 divorce, in the midst of talking about their collaborations in the 60’s that helped define the New Wave movement, the interviewer suddenly asked them, “can one be happy again after having such an intense relationship?”
In a rough translation, Anna Karina responds “Yes, one can be happy, but in a different way.”
Godard essentially responds “No, I believe one can be much happier.” 

Anna Karina begins to tear up and excuses herself from the interview...