Rang in MIFF this year with these two, Saturday and Sunday nights. They're part of the Anna Karina retrospective (as a matter of fact, she was up on stage saying a few words before and after each), though as it happens, she wasn't the main reason why I saw either; I'm still quite giddily infatuated with Godard and was keen to see
Alphaville on a big screen [
previously], and I was really drawn to
Anna (which isn't one of his) by the program description of it, which suggested that it would be all frothy, colourful, romantic, Gainsbourg-scored Paris-in-the-60s whimsy. Indeed, though she's been a big part of my Godard experience (as, I suppose, she must be for
everyone's Godard experience), she's never specifically registered with me before.
Seeing these two back to back has highlighted two things: (1) she really is only a moderate actor; and (2), despite (1), she's a spectacular movie star. In
Anna, she's terribly affected (although arguably that's consonant with the mood of the film as a whole); in
Alphaville, as elsewhere, she's wonderfully inscrutable and utterly compelling, just as she was in
Bande à part,
Made in U.S.A. and
Vivre sa vie.
It almost goes without saying, I enjoyed both, though
Alphaville very much more than
Anna.
(
Anna w/ Steph and Nicolette;
Alphaville w/ Steph, Kai and Ruth)
