Creative Marriages

Has any other couple exerted as potent an influence on the course of movie history as Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina? Before, during, and after their tumultuous marriage, this director and actor interwove their personal lives and their art in seven films that changed the face of cinema. In BAND OF OUTSIDERS, Karina’s portrait of a soulful innocent enabled Godard to transform a juvenile-delinquent crime novel into a pulp JULES AND JIM. And in PIERROT LE FOU, her embodiment of a freedom-loving hedonist and homicidal femme fatale anchored Godard’s pop-art hybrid of film noir, road comedy, guerrilla theater, and social-political farce. Karina wasn’t just the image, but also the inspiration and spirit of the most poetic and accessible movies Godard ever made.