Enigmatic Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard, creator of such movies as À Bout de souffle (Breathless) and Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language), has passed away at the age of 91.
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El director de cine francosuizo Jean-Luc Godard muere a los 91 años
The co-founder of the Nouvelle Vague film movement is celebrated as a groundbreaking artist who constantly stretched the boundaries of movie making. He constantly experimented with new forms of narration and use of jump cuts.
The Swiss interior minister, Alain Berset, tweeted a tribute to the director, saying: “Switzerland has lost one of its greatest filmmakers. His works have inspired generations of directors around the world, his immense legacy and influence will go down in history.”
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Je suis très touché par l’annonce du décès de Jean-Luc Godard. La Suisse perd l’un de ses plus grands cinéastes. Ses œuvres ont inspiré des générations de réalisateurs dans le monde entier, son héritage et son influence immenses marqueront l’histoire. pic.twitter.com/IUNmIMbGGHExternal link
During a prolific career, Godard shot around 150 films and videos and remained active right up until his death. The critically acclaimed À Bout de souffle was filmed in 1959 and screened in 1960 and he more recently won a special Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018 for his work Livre d’image (The Image Book).
In 2010, the director was awarded an honorary Oscar but declined an invitation to pick it up in person during the ceremony in Hollywood. He also drew controversy for his critical views on Israeli politics, which brought accusations of antisemitism from some quarters.
The Franco-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard is interviewed in Italy in 1969.
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Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris in 1930.
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Jean-Luc Godard directs Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Breathless, 1959.
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Jean-Luc Godard with Anna Karina, Rome, 1962.
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A scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Week-end” with Mireille Darc and Jean Yanne, 1967.
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Rockstars Mick Jagger (right) and Bill Wyman (left) with Jean Luc Godard during the filming of “Sympathy for the Devil”, 1968
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Jean-Paul Sartre and other intellectuals held a press conference at the “La Cause du Peuple” printers to support the newspaper they sold in the street. Sartre was filmed by Jean-Luc Godard assisted by Jean-Pierre Bamberger, Paris, 1970.
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A scene from the 1980 film “Every Man for Himself” by Jean Luc Godard, featuring Isabelle Huppert.
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Jean-Luc Godard in Zurich, 1990.
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Jean-Luc Godard at the Grand Prix Design award ceremony at the Zurich Design Museum on November 30, 2010.
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The house of Anne-Marie Miéville and French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard in Rolle, canton Vaud, on September 13, 2022.
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Godard was born into a wealthy Parisian family of Swiss origin on December 3, 1930. He spent his childhood in Nyon, overlooking Lake Geneva in western Switzerland. After studying ethnology in Paris, he planned to become a writer, then a painter before turning to the cinema. He became a Swiss citizen in 1953.
Other notable films from the director include Le Mépris (Contempt, 1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (Pierrot the Madman, 1965), La Chinoise (1967), King Lear (1987) and the eight episodes of Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998).
His muses included Anna Karina and Anne Wiazemsky, both of whom he married. He has lived with Swiss filmmaker Anne-Marie Miéville in Rolle, on the shore of lake Geneva in western Switzerland, since 1977.
Godard died peacefully on Tuesday, September 13, “surrounded by his loved ones” in Rolle, his widow announced.
Some media have reported that Godard died by assisted suicide, which is legal in Switzerland.
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Swiss cinemas left breathless by Godard’s 90th birthday
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Cinemas across Switzerland are busy planning retrospectives for the 90th birthday on Thursday of Franco-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.
Film director Godard scoops special award in Cannes
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Jury president Cate Blanchett said the 87-year-old had “constantly redefined cinema” during his career and that Image Book “almost sat apart from the other films, almost outside time and space”. The media-shy director did not attend the ceremony and remotely conducted a press conference last week via social media. The special Palme d’Or adds to…
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However, Godard – known for films like Breathless and Sympathy for the Devil – has told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that he will not attend the ceremony. “He reiterated his thanks for the award,” Academy president Tom Sherak said in a statement, “and also sent his good wishes to the other…
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The startling three-dimensional effects in Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film “Adieu au langage” (Goodbye to language) are the work of Fabrice Aragno. swissinfo.ch interview.
Godard film takes cinema audiences on enigmatic journey through time
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It took 70-year-old Godard five years to make the “Eloge d’amour” (in praise of love), which traces four stages of love – meeting, physical passion, arguments and separation – through the experiences of three couples who are young, adult and elderly. As well as love, the film deals with contemporary subjects such as homelessness, globalisation…
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Godard said his birthday is nothing to get excited about, and denied that he even had a party planned. He said he was too preoccupied with his next film “Eloge de l’amour”, which is due to be released next year. Godard was born in Paris to a Swiss father, who was a doctor in Nyon,…
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French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard has been chosen to receive the 2015 Swiss Film Honorary Award in March in Geneva
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