Anna

Seen again almost 40 years after the film was first shown on French TV, "Anna" strikes the imagination with its blend of smiling superficiality and its visual creativity. In a way, it is a cousin film of Antonioni's "Blow up", but its deep concern is to fully commit itself in remaining on the edge of things, enjoying a beautiful winter sun light, wondering when and where I will find love, chasing images... The film music, written by Serge Gainsbourg, is very consistent, far from the sheer collections of accumulated songs that most musicals consist in nowadays. Despite its given impression of being improvised, it is also the result of a very thorough visual and cinematic work, with a lot of attention put into colors and lights, which look still stunning today. Last but not least, it seems to have paved the way to bigger productions such as Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz". "Anna" is a fascinating witness of the 1960's culture in Europe.

This made for TV movie was shown several times a day, all summer long, at the Pavillon Français, Expo 67, in Montreal. My big sister used to go and watch it everyday, so much that she knew all the songs, the plot etc. I must admit that I became a big fan too. I was 11 and my sister was two years older. The movie has become part of our childhood memories. It's not an exceptional movie, but it reached us at a time of our lives when we were discovering the world and it has stayed with us. The theme song: "Sous Le Soleil Exactement" (Under the Sun, Exactly) was sung by main actress, Anna Karina, who was ADORABLE! I would LOVE to buy a copy, if one could be found, either in VHS or DVD. That would make a great present for my sister.

While of course "Anna" could hardly have any greater retro hipster value, it's hard to get around the fact that it's pretty shapeless and amateurish in many respects. Sure, they were trying to go for a loose, spontaneous feel. But that just means the plot is paper-thin and rudderless, people barely seem interested in mouthing the lines to their pre-recorded songs, and it's hard to tell just how much attention was put into the occasional choreography, because the scenes deploying it are so raggedly shot and edited. The goofiest, most surreal stuff is at the very beginning and in the last 15 minutes or so. It's fun, but not enough to redeem the whole, somewhat too-random enterprise.

Everyone acts naturalistic save Anna Karina, playing a more cartoonish take on the stock ingenue who (here's the entire plot) turns out to be beautiful-and the mystery model our hero was looking for-when she takes her "bookish" glasses off. (It's totally a Marlo Thomas-in-"That Girl" performance, which is to say a proto-manic pixie dream girl.) Marianne Faithful looks like she's about to nod off during her brief appearance, which may well have been the case. Jean-Claude Brialy comes off best, simply by managing to hold the screen without looking artificial or bewildered, despite the fact that he has to spend most of the time looking quizzically into space, searching for his elusive quarry. If you're fascinated by Serge Gainsbourg (who just sort of hangs around in various scenes, without any defined role), I'm sure the soundtrack has major appeal, but this quasi-pop opera has throwaway and sometimes downright irksome passages as well as some very good songs.

I was very glad to see "Anna" at last, but can't say I'll ever be inclined to watch it again. It's the kind of hard-to-find curiosity that's much more interesting in the imagination, BEFORE you actually see it. Think of it as the equivalent of the paper dresses that were briefly a fad in the same era: Cool, disposable, impractical, a conversation piece likely to fall apart completely if used more than once.