One of the greats of “actresses your girlfriend likes to use as desktop wallpaper but hasn’t seen any movies of” has died. Anna Karina was 79 and is survived by a lot of Tumblr gifs. She started her career in cabaret at the age of 14 and ran away from home to be involved in showbiz full-time soon after. She was spotted by Jean-Luc Godard on a subway advert for Palmolive, and became an instant muse for the horny new-wave auteur. They made eight films together, including A Woman Is a Woman, Bande A Parte and Alphaville, with Karina often cast as a figure of complicated, longing sexuality. The pair eventually became married and had a tempestuous (read: “abusive” relationship), often flaring up while on set. After they split, Karina put all her time working with pervy French artists behind her, and recorded an album with Serge Gainsbourg.
Anna Karina
22 September 1940 – 14 December 2019
Died aged 79 (unique hit)