French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard, who was a key figure in the French experimental Nouvelle Vague filmmaking movement, has died aged 91, French newspaper Liberation has reported.
Godard was best known for his non-conformist filming style as well as his political radicalism. The director made his mark with a set of incredibly politicised films throughout the late 1950s and 60s and even had a career revival in recent years, releasing films such as Film Soicialisme and Goodbye to Language as he experimented with digital filming techniques.
Godard was born in Paris in 1930 and grew up and went to school in Nyon, on the banks of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva. He moved back to Paris once he finished school in 1949 and found a welcoming home in the “cine-clubs” that became popular in the French capital after the war.
After making a series of short films, Godard went on to produce a string of iconic flicks in the 1960s at an incredible rate. His feature, Breathless, released in 1960, was an experimental tribute to American film noir and is frequently cited as one of the greatest films ever produced.
From 1961 to 1965, he was married to French actor Anna Karina, who also starred in a number of his films including A Woman is a Woman, Pierrot le Fou, Alphaville, and Made in USA
