Jean-Luc Godard dies at 91. Top things to know about father of French new wave cinema

French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard died on Tuesday. He was 91-year-old. Jean-Luc Godard was a pioneer of excellence and a key figure in the Nouvelle Vague movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s that revolutionised cinema.

Godard made his mark in the 1960s with a series of increasingly politicised films noted for their nonconformist, almost improvised filmmaking fashion, along with his unbending radicalism. He surprisingly enjoyed a career revival in recent years thanks to the experimentation with digital technology he took part in with films like Film Socialisme and Goodbye to Language.

He criticised mainstream French cinema's tradition of quality, arguing that it valued craftsmanship over innovation, privileged established directors over new directors, and promoted classics over contemporary works. He was a film critic but began making movies himself so he could retaliate against the movies he did not like. As a filmmaker, he inspired directors like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese with new verve and daring.


French filmmaker Jean-Luc has been regarded as one of the most radical of the 1960s and 1970s. In the year 2010, Jean-Luc was bestowed an Academy Honorary Award. With over 100 films to his name, the most recently released in 2018, some thought Godard's career was becoming wilfully discreet.




Having been born into a Franco-Swiss family in Paris in 1930, Godard grew up and went to school on the banks of Lake Geneva in Nyon, Switzerland. Following his return from school in 1949, Godard was drawn to the intellectual "cine clubs," which blossomed in Paris after the war and were considered to be the crucible for the French New Wave. The Filmmaker magazine once referred to his movies with his first wife, Anna, as the most influential films in cinema history. This refers to Bande à part (1964) and Pierrot le Fou (1965), both critically acclaimed.

The French president, Emmanuel Macaron, in a tweet upon his demise, said Godard was "the most iconoclastic of the Nouvelle Vague" and a "master" of cinema.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: Which was the first movie by Jean-Luc Godard?
Answer 1: In Breathless, Godard turned from being a film critic to becoming a director. The stars, Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, were glamorous in a new, casual way, and the editing was quick and bold. The script was semi-improvised, and the camera was constantly moving.

Question 2: Was Godard married?
Answer 2: During his lifetime, Godard was married twice: first to actress Anna Karina from 1961 to 1964 and later to heroine Anne Wiazemsky from 1967 to 1979. He produced several films starring both of his wives.