Switzerland: Mr. Jean-Luc Godard, the daringly innovative director and provocateur who changed the course of 1960s filmmaking and left a lasting impact with his unconventional camerawork, distinctive narrative style and penchant for radical politics, has died at the age of 91.
The renowned director’s work brought a new excitement and boldness to cinema and influenced Hollywood veterans from Mr. Martin Scorsese to Mr. Quentin Tarantino.
Mr. Godard was one of the world’s most celebrated directors, known for classics such as “Breathless” and “Contempt,” which defied convention and helped kick start a new way of filmmaking with handheld camera work, jump cuts and existential dialogues.
“Jean-Luc Godard died peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones,” Mr. Jean-Luc Godard’s wife, Mrs. Anne-Marie Mieville, and the producers revealed in a statement published by leading media outlets.
Mr. Godard will be cremated and there would be no official ceremony.
“A movie should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order,” the veteran director once remarked.
Mr. Godard was not alone in creating the French New Wave, a credit he shares with at least a dozen peers, including Mr. Francois Truffaut and Mr. Eric Rohmer, most of the friends are from the trendy, bohemian Left Bank of Paris in the late 1950s.
During the long career, Mr. Godard received an honorary Cesar in 1987 and 1998, and an honorary Academy Award in 2010.
Despite Mr. Godard’s disillusionment with contemporary Hollywood, the director was enamored with the great American directors of the past.