French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard passes away at 91

A prominent figure in the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Luc Godard, who was also a Swiss-French director whose cinematic style transformed cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s, died at the age of 91.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted tribute to the filmmaker saying that the country had lost a national treasure. He stated it was like an apparition in French film, and then Jean-Luc Godard became one of its masters. He also said that Jean-Luc Godard, the most outspoken of the New Wave directors, produced a genuinely modern, highly free art form. We have lost a national treasure with a brilliant viewpoint, he added. The family stated that Godard, 91, died of assisted suicide after suffering from several conditions.



The French New Wave's auteur helped change mainstream film arena in the 1960s, and he spent the remaining of his career pushing the limits and redefining cinematic form. In Godard's first movie, the 1960 crime drama Breathless, the spectators saw an American actor, Jean Seberg, alongside a then-unknown Jean-Paul Belmondo. He portrayed an impoverished teenage car thief, who idolised Hollywood films' gangsters. Following the shooting of a police officer, he flees to Italy with Seberg, his pregnant girlfriend, who seems practically uninterested in him.

Godard's work, like his filmography, had an eccentric, rebellious element. He attended a news conference via video chat rather than in person at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

During his lengthy career, he got honorary César awards in 1987 and 1998, as well as an honorary Academy Award in 2010. Members of the film industry have paid their respects via social media.

FAQ

What are some notable works of Jean-Luc Godard?
Some of the notable works of Jean-Luc Godard are “Tout Va Bien” (1972), “Week-End” (1967), “My Life to Live” (1962), “Film Socialisme” (2010), etc.