A Look Back at Jean-Luc Godard’s Beautiful Muses
Photo: Getty Images1/8Brigitte Bardot, Contempt, 1963
Brigitte Bardot always exuded a perfect blend of innocence and sex, often complimented by sweeping cat-eyes, big hair, and glossy, plump lips—especially in Contempt, which was about a Hollywood couple and their failing marriage.
Photo: Getty Images2/8Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, 1960
The Denmark-born Anna Karina, who hitchhiked to Paris at age 17 only to be scouted shortly thereafter, married Godard and went on to star in much of his earlier work, including the playful Bande à Part. Despite being the city’s It couple in the 1960s, their relationship unraveled due to drugs and adultery.
Photo: AP Images3/8Jean Seberg, Breathless, 1960
For Godard’s first feature-length film, one that brought him to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time at age 29, Seberg played an American in Paris; her short pixie haircut, though blonde, is reminiscent of a young Winona Ryder.
Photo: Everett Collection4/8Macha Méril, A Married Woman, 1964
The French actress and writer, not to mention former princess, rocked a bob in Godard’s 1964 film A Married Woman, which was about an insecure girl named Charlotte who jumped between her husband and her lover.
Photo: Everett Collection5/8Anne Wiazemsky, La Chinoise, 1967
Wiazemsky was still a wide-eyed student, with brunette bangs hitting at the brow, when she first met Godard and starred in his 1967 film about young Parisian Maoists, La Chinoise. The two married later that year.