Quotes from Anna Karina

In older Hollywood movies, a character will make an entrance, close a door, light a cigarette, sit down, have a drink. In Jean-Luc's movies, you were doing everything at once, and sometimes you wouldn't shut the door all the way.

So I called and said, 'Mommy, I'm doing a political film with Jean-Luc Godard. You have to come and sign the contract.' She thought I was lying, so she hung up the phone. But then she came the next day, even though she had never taken an airplane in her life. She came to Paris and she signed my contract.

I loved the films of Jean Gabin.

Well, I think life is politics anyway. You can't ignore it, but you can go very wrong in politics. You can say what you thought 50 years ago, but maybe you're wrong today.

It could be a little bit sad as a young girl to sit there and wait in front of the telephone that would never ring.

Obviously when I came I wanted to live in Paris. I wanted to work or... if that didn't work out... perhaps go away with a troupe of traveling performers - you must remember I was very young.

We did not see ourselves as remaking cinema at the time, at least not in my view. Myself and the other actors were not part of the industry; we weren't inside the star system. We were running around, shooting in the streets, hiding behind trees to do our makeup. It was a very simple way of working.

We didn't have a script, but with Jean-Luc we didn't really need one. It was like an understanding between us. He would say, 'Anna, a little bit quicker or a little bit slower.' That was all. We didn't do a lot of retakes. With some other actors I know he would do a lot of retakes, but not with me.

Jean-Luc asked me to play a small part in 'Breathless,' the role of Belmondo's former girlfriend. It was just one scene. I asked him what I had to do and he said, 'You have to take your clothes off,' and I said no.

After a while, Godard was going to do 'A Woman is a Woman' with Sami Frey and another actress in the leading lady part but they couldn't do it and so he had to find somebody else. I was not supposed to play the lead in it in the beginning - I originally had one of the smaller parts.

I made films for soaps and I was the Coca-Cola girl for England. I did a lot popular films, too.

I went to South Korea once and I saw young people, about 15, they had skipped school to come see 'Band of Outsiders.'

I went to see Gerard Philipe and Jean Gabin in pictures. Gerard Philipe spoke beautiful French, while Jean Gabin spoke slang. And after a while I realized that when Gabin said, 'What's up, lady?' it meant the same thing as when Philipe said, 'Good evening, madam.'

After all, things are what they are. A message is a message, plates are plates, men are men, and life is life.

At the time we were all just very young people who wanted to have fun and do pictures in a different way than the old folks did it - make it all more spontaneous and more alive and more natural.

'The Madison' we three weeks rehearsed in a nightclub. Brasseur and Frey didn't know how to dance. A choreographer had to teach us how to do the steps.

I had some bad times. We got married because, you know, I was pregnant. But then I lost the baby. Ups and downs. And then when 'Bande a Part' came along, I was in a really bad shape. I didn't want to be alive any more.

There were a lot of ups and downs in my life. And the downs were, you know, very down. Very low.

I am the old story. L'histoire ancienne. But an old story can still be a good story, no?

Jean-Luc didn't like me to say any bad words in real life, and I would always do it on purpose, just for fun. And he would go crazy! Then he had Brigitte Bardot do just that in 'Contempt.' And in that film she also has this line - 'I want red velvet curtains, or nothing at all in the apartment' - which was something I would always say.

I'm always playing mostly the nice girl or the victim. I think it's perhaps what directors think about me.

I always wanted to be an actress, ever since I was a little girl.

It was a strange love story from the beginning. I could see Jean-Luc was looking at me all the time, and I was looking at him too, all day long. We were like animals.

I was lucky enough to meet and marry Jean-Luc who is responsible for any education and culture I have today.