Anna Karina, who died earlier this week aged 79 of cancer, will be remembered for her singular contribution to French cinema. Her achievements were legion. In 1961, she starred in Jean-Luc Godard’s Une Femme Est Une Femme. Their marriage later that year led to one of the great wife-husband collaborations, bringing eight collaborations including Vivre Sa Vie and Pierrot Le Fou. They stand alongside some of the greatest films of the nouvelle vague – Agnes Varda’s Cleo de 5 a 7 and Francois Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cents Coups.
But it is for her performance in Godard’s 1965 film Alphaville that I will remember her best. The hero of the piece is a proto-Deckard, Lemmy Caution, played by Eddy Constantine.
