Jean-Luc Godard, French New Wave Pioneer, Dies at 91 in Switzerland
Jean-Luc Godard passed away through assisted suicide at his residence in Rolle, Switzerland. He was born in 1930 and rose to fame with his 1960 film 'À bout de souffle' (Breathless), which earned the best film award at the Berlin Film Festival. In the 1950s, he honed his craft with short films while contributing to Cahiers du Cinéma. His leftist viewpoints were evident in works such as 'Le Petit Soldat' (1961), 'Vivre sa vie' (1962), and 'Masculin Féminin' (1966). During the 1980s and 1990s, he shifted his focus to video art, culminating in a MoMA retrospective in 1992. He regained attention in 2001 with 'In Praise of Love' and received an honorary Oscar in 2010. His 2014 3D film 'Goodbye to Language' won the jury prize at Cannes. Godard is celebrated as the greatest filmmaker of the twentieth century.
Key facts
- Jean-Luc Godard died by assisted suicide at his home in Rolle, Switzerland
- He was born in 1930 and is regarded as the greatest cinema maker of the twentieth century
- His 1960 film 'À bout de souffle' (Breathless) won best film at the Berlin Film Festival
- He developed his filmmaking style in the 1950s through short films and writing for Cahiers du Cinéma
- His film 'Le Petit Soldat' (1961) was censored until Algeria's independence in 1962
- MoMA staged his 1992 retrospective 'Jean-Luc Godard Son+Image, 1974 to 1991'
- He received an honorary Oscar in 2010, described as 'one of the seminal modernists in the history of cinema'
- His 2014 3D film 'Goodbye to Language' won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival
Entities
Artists
- Jean-Luc Godard
- François Truffaut
- Claude Chabrol
- Jacques Rivette
Institutions
- Cahiers du Cinéma
- Berlin Film Festival
- MoMA
- Cannes Film Festival
Locations
- Rolle
- Switzerland
- Algeria