New Delhi: Film director Jean-Luc Godard, known as the godfather of French New Wave cinema, died on September 13 at the age of 91. People close to the filmmaker informed the media about the demise. The cause of death is yet to be revealed. He was regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers ever and is known for such classics as ‘Breathless’ and ‘Contempt’.
If you are a film student or a cinema enthusiast, then you must be knowing his name. His movies broke with the established conventions of French cinema in 1960 and he began with a new wave of filmmaking, with handheld camera work, jump cuts and existentialism.
Godard was born into a rich Franco-Swiss family on 3 December 1930 in Paris’s plush Seventh Arrondissement. His father was a doctor and his mother was the daughter of the founder of Banque Paribas, then an investment bank.
Godard’s work dealt with philosophy and human relationships. Existentialism and Marxist philosophy were major themes in his movies. When he went on to study mathematics at the Lycée Buffon in Paris, he instead went to watch movies and thus failed at his studies. That led to him hanging out with many cinema enthusiasts and his love for cinema did not stop when he returned to Switzerland.
From reading and writing about cinema to making his own film, it was his journey to become one of the most loved filmmakers in the history of filmmaking. He has inspired many directors such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. In 2010, he was given an Honourary Oscar, but he did not travel to the USA to receive it.