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Legendary Director Jean-Luc Godard Dead At 91

Closing Ceremony - The 71st Annual Cannes Film Festival

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Leena Nasir Entertainment Reporter
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Legendary French film director Jean-Luc Godard died Tuesday at the age of 91.

Godard’s partner, Anne-Marie Mieville, released a statement saying he died peacefully in his home in the Swiss town of Rolle, on Lake Geneva, and was surrounded by his closest loved ones as he passed, according to the New York Post. He died by assisted suicide, according to BBC.

“We have lost a national treasure, the eye of a genius,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. He went on to call Godard the “most iconoclastic of the New Wave directors” and credited him with inventing “a resolutely modern, intensely free art form.”

Godard’s avant-garde approach to cinema distinguished him from other directors, and he quickly became known as one of the most provocative, revolutionary directors of his time. He was credited as being the leader of the New Wave movement in French cinema.

The iconic director got his start in the entertainment industry in the 1950s as a film critic and released his first film, “Breathless,” in 1960.

Over his nearly 60-year career, Godard made a name for himself as a convention-defying stylist and as a boldly political director with steadfast left-wing political views, the Post reported.

He was a passionate advocate of the Palestinian cause, and was often accused of antisemitism in spite of his repeated insistence that he was sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, according to the Post.(RELATED: Famous Actor From ‘The Sopranos,’ Robert ‘Bob’ LuPone, Dead At Age 76)

Godard’s filmography includes “My Life to Live” (1962), “Contempt” (1963), “Alphaville” (1965), “La Chinoise” (1967) and the experimental “Film Socialisme” (2010). His breakthrough film, “Breathless” is hailed by many critics as movie that changed the course of filmmaking, according to Entertainment Weekly.