Jean-Luc Godard, the iconic French New Wave director, dies at 91
French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard has died at the age of 91, the French newspaper Liberation has reported. Godard was a key figure in the Nouvalle Vague scene of the 1950s and ’60s and is widely regarded as having revolutionised European cinema.
Godard was born in Paris in 1930 and grew up in Nyon on the banks of Lake Geneva. He moved back to Paris in 1959 and quickly fell in with the city’s intellectuals. Around this time, he met the likes of critic André Bazin and fellow directors François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol.
Godard soon began writing for new film magazines, including the highly influential Cahiers du Cinema. Forever living up to his reputation as an iconoclast, Jean-Luc defended the techniques and aesthetics of Hollywood’s golden-age directors, though he spurned the Hollywood studio system in his own work – preferring to take his camera to the streets of Paris and work on a shoestring budget. The director also had a soft spot for Hollywood actor Humphrey Bogart, an affection that made its way into his genre-bending 1960 picture Breathless.
Godard is best known for his improvised, radical and playful filming style. His most famous works are 1960s Breathless, 1963’s Contempt and 1965’s Pierrot La Fou. He will also be remembered for his frequent collaborations with Frech actor Anna Karina, to whom he was married between 1961 and 1965. Karina appeared in some of Godard’s most celebrated films, including 1962’s Vivre sa vie and 1964’s Bande à part.
Godard was never afraid of a little controversy. His 1963 film Le Petit Soldat dealt with the French government’s use of torture during the Algerian War of Independence. Though initially banned in France, it stands as one of his most critical and unflinching works.
After a long period of fading relevance, Godard experienced a somewhat surprising career revival towards the end of his life. His 2010 feature, Film Socialisme, arrived shortly after he was handed an honorary Oscar. He also took home the Canne Jury Prize for his 2014 film Goodbye To Language. Godard will be remembered as one of cinema’s great innovators for many decades to come.
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