Jean-Luc Godard passed away at the age of 91. He was a French-Swiss film director and screenwriter who influenced a generation of filmmakers around the world. Godard is often credited for spearheading the revolutionary French New Wave of cinema and was praised by many filmmakers.
He rose to prominence in the 1960s and is considered to be arguably the most influential French filmmaker of the post-war era. Several prominent celebrities and politicians have expressed condolences on his demise. Let’s find out more about the life of the genius filmmaker.
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Who Was Jean-Luc Goddard?
Goddard passed away at the age of 91 on September 13 in Rolle, Switzerland. According to BBC, a family representative said he died by assisted suicide.
His legal advisor Patrick Jeanneret said that the filmmaker “had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure as he was stricken with ‘multiple invalidating illnesses’, according to the medical report“.
Goddard received critical acclaim and global recognition for his 1960 crime film ‘Breathless‘. It was the film that kick-started the new wave of cinema. His frequent use of montage and homages to film history later become his signature style.
Jean-Luc has often been featured in the list of the greatest filmmakers in history. One of the last auteurs, Goddard alongside a group of fellow directors and critics including François Truffaut, Godard rewrote the rules of cinema. He wrote and directed more than 100 films in his nearly six-decade career.
After making distinct political films for two decades, Godard switched to more traditional fictional films. His most recent films include ‘Goodbye to Language‘ (2014) and ‘The Image Book‘ (2018).
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French President Emmanuel Macron Mourns His Death
Swiss law allows assisted suicide which Goddard chose to end his life with. A person close to his family said that “it was his decision and it was important to him that people know about it.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences via Twitter and wrote: “He was like an apparition in French cinema. Then he became a master of it. Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers, invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We have lost a national treasure, a man who had the vision of a genius.”
Ce fut comme une apparition dans le cinéma français. Puis il en devint un maître. Jean-Luc Godard, le plus iconoclaste des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, avait inventé un art résolument moderne, intensément libre. Nous perdons un trésor national, un regard de génie. pic.twitter.com/bQneeqp8on
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 13, 2022
Filmmaker Edgar Wright said: “It was ironic that he himself revered the Hollywood studio filmmaking system, as perhaps no other director inspired as many people to just pick up a camera and start shooting…”
Goddard is survived by his wife Anne-Marie Mieville. The couple had been living in Switzerland for a few years.
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