Long before such megastar couples as Warren and Annette, and
Guy and Madonna, it was Jean-Luc and Anna who were the biggest
international movie stars around.
The infamous Jean-Luc Godard and his wife, Anna Karina, seemed
to appear in nearly every French film of the 1960s. As BAMcinematek’s
"JLG + AK = The Films of Jean-Luc Godard & Anna Karina"
series demonstrates, the Godard-Karina pairing was a true rarity
among movie couples.
Even though as director, Godard was not above showing his beloved
wife off to her best onscreen advantage, it was tempered by his
strict adherence to the most alienating aesthetic to ever grace
the silver screen.
From his first feature, 1959’s "Breathless," Godard
fought against linear narratives and melodrama with various visual
and aural innovations: jump cuts, asynchronous sound, third-person
narration, even whole sequences unrelated to what is going on,
like a song-and-dance number out of left field. And even Karina’s
sunny presence never derailed Godard from his experimentation.
Godard has remained amazingly prolific for more than 40 years,
but his early work is his most revolutionary and lasting, for
two obvious reasons. First, the 1960s were an era of great social
and political upheaval, and Godard’s guerilla style of directing
lent itself well to commenting on current events without becoming
irrelevant; and secondly, at that time, Godard’s innovations
were still new and novel, not old-hat and dated.
"JLG + AK" includes all of the films in which Godard
directed Karina (seven features and one short), as well as another
director’s feature in which the fun couple appeared. Even though
they were only married from 1961 to 1964, their artistic relationship
lasted until 1967. Their first film together, "The Little
Soldier" (showing March 18-19), remains one of Godard’s
most controversial: its unapologetic Algerian War stance caused
it to be banned in France for years, and Karina’s appearance
as a woman who causes an Algerian sympathizer to question his
motives is one of her most unforgettable roles.
In contrast, "Made in USA" (March 21) is Godard at
his most obvious: taking on the pervasive Americanization of
French culture, Godard found he had an ambivalent relationship
with the country that so dominates the world. Dedicated to Samuel
Fuller and Nicholas Ray, "Made in USA" shows that Godard,
against his better judgment, appreciates American movies to a
fault. (Scheduled with "Made in USA" is the 1967 short
"Anticipation or Love in the Year 2000," the couple’s
last film together, wherein Godard directs Karina as a prostitute
who "invent(s) the kiss" with an alien.)
"Pierrot le Fou" (1965), with then-superstar Jean-Paul
Belmondo as a bored playboy who runs away with Karina, an innocent
girl wanted by the mob (March 22-24), is as close as Godard got
to straightforward drama, but it has a few Godardian twists.
In 1964’s "Band of Outsiders" (March 25-26), Karina
is the fresh-faced temptress coercing two gullible young men
into a life of casual crime, but she’s one-upped by her husband,
whose inventiveness has reached its considerable peak: the sprint
through the Louvre and the out-of-the-blue dance number are still
as fresh as ever, although the cutesy "minute of silence"
now feels more like an hour.
Karina gives what may be her greatest performance in "My
Life to Live" (March 28-29), the 1962 drama that watches
its heroine careen from loving housewife to dead prostitute in
90 minutes. And 1965’s "Alphaville" closes the series
on March 30-31 with a science-fiction tale, Godard-style, subtitled
"The Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution." It follows
a futuristic detective (Eddie Constantine) whose planned hit
is complicated when he falls for his would-be victim’s lovely
daughter, played by Karina, of course.
"A Woman Is a Woman," Godard’s 1961 Technicolor valentine
to musicals and to his wife, begins the series on March 14. Also
released in 1961 was Agnes Varda’s "Cleo from 5 to 7"
(March 27), a study of a singer (Corine Marchand) nervously awaiting
the results of some medical tests. During her travels, she looks
in on a movie, a silent film starring none other than Mr. and
Mrs. Godard! Varda’s movie retains its uncomplicated urgency,
nearly the equal of Godard at his best, of which most of the
films in the BAMcinematek series are prime examples.
"JLG + AK = The Films of Jean-Luc
Godard & Anna Karina" runs March 14 through March 31
at the BAMcinematek, 30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place. Tickets
are $9; discounts available for students, senior citizens, children
under 12 and BAM Cinema Club members. For more information, call
(718) 636-4100 or visit www.bam.org.
