cinema legend
Film director Jean-Luc Godard dies at the age of 91
French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard has died at the age of 91
© Christof Schuerpf/KEYSTONE/DPA
Jean-Luc Godard modernized cinema and co-founded the Nouvelle Vague. With him, world cinema loses one of the most innovative filmmakers.
The French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard is dead. The doyen, who was considered one of the freest thinkers in cinema, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, as reported by the Swiss news agency SDA, citing Godard’s wife.
He left over 60 films to posterity. Among the best known are “Breathless”, “The Contempt” and “A Married Woman”. Most recently, he shot works that no longer told stories, but were collage-like images of reality.
Jean-Luc Godard changed cinema
The life of Godard is that of an avant-garde artist who changed cinema. In the 1950s he wrote as a film critic for the “Cahiers du cinéma”, the magazine of the great mastermind of French auteur cinema André Bazin. Alongside François Truffaut, he was one of the directors of the Nouvelle Vague. In their writings on film theory, they called for a renewal of French cinema, which they felt had become too conventional. They developed their own narrative structure and made their individual world view their trademark.
With “Out of Breath” Godard became an overnight star. The crime drama starring Jean-Paul Belmondo was shot with a handheld camera. The editing technique of the jump cuts was also unusual at that time. Godard was one of the most innovative directors of his time.
By the late 1960s, Godard was prolific. During these years “The Little Soldier”, “A Woman is a Woman”, “The Outsider Gang” and “Eleven O’Clock at Night” were written. With each film he distanced himself from realistic narrative cinema. He began experimenting with music, tablets and long sequences of images. His late films like “Adieu au Langage” and “Film Socialisme” remained largely misunderstood. His last film essay “Picture Book” was awarded a special palm at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
Godard was born in Paris on December 3, 1930, the son of a Swiss doctor. After a serious car accident in the 1970s, he withdrew more and more from the film world. He remained true to his approach of revolutionizing cinema throughout his life. To the end, Godard explored the boundaries of cinema and film.