RFI: Anna, you didn't end up working with Philippe Katerine by chance, did you? Tell us how you met.

Well, I was on tour at the time, performing with Bruno Cremer in an Ingmar Bergman play, "After The Rehearsal". We happened to be performing in Chalon-sur-Saône one night and after the show the theatre manager, Jean-Marc Grangier, came up to me and said, "Anna, I'd really love to see you get up on stage and sing!" And I turned to him and said, "Are you sure? I don't think anyone would be particularly interested in hearing me sing. Anyway, it's too late now."
But Jean-Marc insisted on his idea, saying "No! No! Really, I'll take care of everything!" It was Jean-Marc who came up with the idea of working with Katerine. He sent me all his albums - in fact, I knew who Katerine was already as I'd heard his songs on the radio and really loved what he did. So when his name came up I said yes immediately and Jean-Marc called Katerine's record company, Barclay. They thought the whole thing was a bit of a joke at first though. You know, they thought I wanted Katerine to accompany me on guitar while I went round the Paris clubs singing "Sous le soleil exactement!". But one month later Katerine and I finally got round to sitting down to dinner together and one of the first things he said to me was, "It would be a great pleasure to write for you!". I found out later that Katerine is a major film fan and I was his favourite actress. Anyway, the very next day I had my first song, and the day after that I had two .

RFI: And what about Katerine, is he one of your favourite songwriters now?
Yes, I feel what he's managed to do is create a real portrait of me, like a short film. He's a very talented melodist and a real poet. In fact, I'd definitely rank Katerine among my all-time favourites - Gainsbourg, Léo Ferré, Trenet, Aznavour. As far as I'm concerned, he's up there with the greats .

RFI- Katerine's admiration of you is shared by a lot of other people from his generation and even by film fans who are a lot younger. You're one of the great legends of the Nouvelle Vague, I mean, you made films with people like Godard, Truffaut and the others . How do you feel about this kind of adulation?
I'm very pleased by people's reactions. I'm always surprised at the attention I get, but at the same time I have to admit it's very flattering too. I think a film like "Pierrot le Fou" really stuck in the minds of film-goers who saw it at the time. "Pierrot le Fou" was really 'in' when it came out and I think it's still really fashionable today too. Young people who've seen the film don't come up to me and say, "I saw this old film with you in the other day". They say, "I saw this really amazing film! It had everything in it - everything we want to live and experience, all our dreams." I think young people see "Pierrot le Fou" as a very modern film, because the spirit and emotions it evokes are timeless. You get the feeling it's something that could happen to anyone any day.

RFI- Talking of emotion, "Aimons l'amour" - on which you duet with Katarine - comes across as a bit of an ironic/incestuous song. I'm thinking in particular of lines like "J'aurais pu être ta maman/ J'aurais pu être ton enfant" (I could have been your mother/ I could have been your child) .
It's quite flattering at first . Actually, I think Katerine was a bit scared about presenting the song to me to begin with. I remember the first time he sang it to me I asked him, "Do you have a problem with having written a song like that?" And his response was, "No, not at all!" So I said, "OK, in that case I don't have a problem with singing it!" (Laughs)
At the end of "Au pied du moulin" there's a brief interlude where we hear you reciting a list of women's names . What's that all about? They're the names of characters I've played in films. It was Katerine's idea. One day he asked me whether I could remember the characters I'd played in my films. Then the pianist, Philippe Eveno, wrote a melody line and we just switched on the tapes and started recording . The names are: "Mélissa, Suzanne Simonin, Odile, Natacha, Eléonore Rouméovitch, Mona" .

RFI: So you remember all the characters you've ever played?
Well, I've made around 70 films in my career so, you know, there are obviously a few which have slipped my mind! (Laughs)

RFI: Can you 'become' a song in the same way you can 'become' a role in a play or a film?
No, there's a big difference when you perform in theatre because you're playing to an audience. Generally, I find when I'm working in a studio I get a bit less out of it . Whenever I've sung in public I've always felt such a warmth from the audience that afterwards I find it a bit sad and depressing to go and work in the studio. Another thing is, when you're recording you're always striving towards this idea of absolute perfection which, of course, you never manage to achieve. What I love about performing live in a play or in concert is that there's always something different. You never have two evenings which are exactly the same - I mean, we're human beings not machines - and I find this very exciting and moving in a way.

RFI- Apart from Katerine, is there any other contemporary musician you'd have enjoyed working with on your new album?
Well, I really like Thomas Fersen, but what he does isn't exactly me. What's great about what Katerine's done is that he's created something which corresponds to me exactly. He's really managed to hit the right note. Katerine's work is an absolute gift to me. It's like a childhood dream that's finally come true.

Interview: Frédéric Garat
Translation: Julie Street

Anna Karina "Une Histoire d'Amour" Barclay / Universal