Movie Poster of the Week: The Lesser-Known Films of Anna Karina

Above: Danish poster for Maid for Murder a.k.a. She’ll Have to Go (Robert Asher, UK, 1962).

Next week is a red letter week for New York cinephiles because Anna Karina is coming to town. Nouvelle vague icon, muse of Jean-Luc Godard, and one of the most alluring presences in cinema, Anna Karina, now aged 75 and still gorgeous, is gracing us with her presence at three of New York’s temples of cinema: at BAM on Tuesday, May 3, where she will talk to Melissa Anderson following a screening of A Woman is a Woman; at MoMI on Wednesday, May 4, where she will have a conversation with Molly Haskell following a screening of Pierrot le fou; and at Film Forum on Friday, May 6, where she will kick off a week long run of Band of Outsiders and the accompanying series Anna & Jean-Luc.

It would be easy to fill this post with the iconic posters from the seven films she made with Godard between 1960 and 1966, but I feel that I have featured most of them in previous posts about Alphaville, or Godard in Italian, or The Lesser-Known Posters of Jean-Luc Godard. But Karina made nearly 50 films without Godard, most of which, outside of those she did with Agnès Varda, Jacques Rivette and R.W. Fassbinder, are not so well known. I certainly had no idea until I started research that one of her earliest starring roles was playing a French maid in a bawdy British comedy (Maid for Murder, see above and below) opposite Bob Monkhouse and Hattie Jacques.

So I thought it would be a good idea to delve deep in to Anna Karina’s filmography and find posters for her less well-known films. As I said when I first wrote about Karina in one of my earliest Movie Poster of the Week posts: “Let’s face it: few things look better than Anna Karina in a movie poster.” Unfortunately, as the years went by and she was stuck with more supporting roles and cameos, Karina started to go from full-faced star to a face in a crowd (or in a box) but I have tried to find the posters where she was most resonantly featured. Here are twenty or so of the best in chronological order.

Above: French poster for Tonight or Never (Michel Deville, France, 1960). Designer: Clément Hurel.

Above: French poster for Sun in Your Eyes (Jacques Bourdon, France, 1961). Artist: Jean Mascii.

Above: Italian fotobusta for Sun in Your Eyes (Jacques Bourdon, France, 1961).

Above: UK one sheet for Maid for Murder a.k.a. She’ll Have to Go (Robert Asher, UK, 1962).

Above: US one sheet for Maid for Murder a.k.a. She’ll Have to Go (Robert Asher, UK, 1962).

Above: Spanish poster for Scheherezade (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, France, 1963). Artist: Jano.

Above: 1965 Polish poster for Scheherezade (Pierre Gaspard-Huit, France, 1963). Artist: Baczewska.

Above: French grande for Un mari a prix fixe (Claude de Givray, France, 1963). Designer: Ferracci.

Above: French poster for The Thief of Tibidabo (Maurice Ronet, France, 1964).

Above: French poster for La ronde a.k.a. Circle of Love (Roger Vadim, France, 1964).

Above: French grande for The Oldest Profession (Godard, Autant-Lara, Bolognini, De Broca, Indovina and Pfleghar, France, 1967).

Above: French grande for The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1967). Designer: Vaisseur.

Above: Belgian poster for The Stranger (Luchino Visconti, Italy, 1967).

Above: Spanish poster for The Magus (Guy Green, UK, 1968).

Above: UK quad for Before Winter Comes (J. Lee Thompson, UK, 1969).

Above: US one sheet for Before Winter Comes (J. Lee Thompson, UK, 1969).

Above: US one sheet for Laughter in the Dark (Tony Richardson, UK/France, 1969).

Above: UK poster for Michael Kohlhaas a.k.a. Man on Horseback (Volker Schlondorff, Germany, 1969).

Above: French grande for L’alliance a.k.a. The Wedding Ring (Christian de Chalonge, France, 1971). Designer: Barbara Bacha.

Above: French grande for Rendezvous at Bray (Andre Delvaux, France/Belgium, 1971). Designer: Ferracci.

Above: French poster for Vivre Ensemble (Anna Karina, France, 1973). Designer: Vaisseur.

Above: German poster for Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, West Germany, 1976).

Above: French poster for Chaussette Surprise a.k.a. Surprise Sock (Jean-François Davy, France, 1978).

Posters courtesy of Heritage Auctions, Posteritati, Kinoart.net and eBay.

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