Jean-Luc Godard, a trailblazing filmmaker who pioneered the revolution of French New Wave cinema, has died at 91 by assisted suicide.
Godard, who was born in Paris in 1930, died “peacefully at home” with his wife, the Swiss filmmaker, Annie-Marie Miéville beside him. His legal representative, Patrick Jeanneret told the AFP news agency that the Franco-Swiss filmmaker “had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure as he was stricken with ‘multiple invalidating illnesses’, according to the medical report”.
The French paper, Libération quoted an unnamed source, close to the family, who stated the following: “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted. So he had made the decision to end it. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.”
Jean-Luc Godard rose to fame for his iconic 1960s masterpiece, À bout de souffle (Breathless). Godard wrote his own rules with his first feature film, employing sharp cutting editing techniques, and famously writing the script on the day of shooting, feeding the lines to the actors prior to calling action, which created a spontaneous and documentary-like feel.
So spontaneous, in fact, that he was the first known creator to break the fourth wall, sometimes leaving in the clapper at the beginning of the shot, or including the audience or the crew in the take, making for an immersive, and spontaneous experience.
Whilst being well known for his great filmmaking, Godard was also known for his outbursts. In particular, when he was angered by producer, Iain Quarrier’s brutal recut of his 1968 Rolling Stones documentary, Sympathy for the Devil. Godard punched him in the face when it was shown in London.
Godard was a huge cinephile before he donned the director’s hat. He would often attend the same movie countless times in one day, studying, observing, living, and breathing the very art form that he would one day go on to be known for. His work influenced directors such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, the former paying tribute to Godard via social media:
Martin Scorsese's statement on the passing of Jean-Luc Godard pic.twitter.com/6fSba2Ny1M
— Awards Daily (@AwardsDaily) September 13, 2022
Jean-Luc Godard on Quentin Tarantino: ⁰“Tarantino named his production company after one of my films. He’d have done better to give me some money.”#JeanLucGodard RIP#Newwave #Nouvellevague pic.twitter.com/fHVfIc2KfB
— La femme merveilleuse invisible (@larwoolf) September 13, 2022
French President, Emmanuel Macron, took to Twitter to pay tribute to the great filmmaker as well: “He was like an apparition in French cinema. Then he became a master of it. Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers, invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We have lost a national treasure, a man who had the vision of a genius.”
Ce fut comme une apparition dans le cinéma français. Puis il en devint un maître. Jean-Luc Godard, le plus iconoclaste des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, avait inventé un art résolument moderne, intensément libre. Nous perdons un trésor national, un regard de génie. pic.twitter.com/bQneeqp8on
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 13, 2022
