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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Vicki Newman

Jean-Luc Godard dead: Director who inspired Quentin Tarantino dies at 91

Film director Jean-Luc Godard has died at the age of 91.

The French-Swiss moviemaker was famous for his French New Wave movies, including Breathless, My Life to Live and Contempt.

Friends close to Jean-Luc announced his death on Tuesday in French newspaper Liberation. His cause of death has yet to be revealed.

Tributes poured in from fans following his passing.

One wrote: "Sad to hear about Jean-Luc Goddard. My first viewing of Breathless remains one of the most important moments for my love of French New Wave and cinema as a whole."

While another fan added: "Jean-Luc Goddard passed away. While I would never claim to be an expert on the man's filmography, if you have any interest in cinema as an art form at all, see Week-End."

Jean-Luc was 91 (EPA)
He inspired a number of today's big name directors (Reuters)

A third chimed: "RIP Jean-Luc Goddard, what a huge loss".

"Sad to hear about the passing of Jean-Luc Goddard. A legend of the film industry," wrote another.

The star was born in Paris in 1930 and rose to fame in the 1960s as a pioneer of the New Wave movement.

Jean-Luc Godard (right) directs Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones during the shooting of the documentary film Sympathy For the Devil (Hulton Archive)

Like many of his contemporaries, he criticised mainstream French cinema's "tradition of quality", saying that it "emphasised craft over innovation, privileged established directors over new directors, and preferred the great works of the past to experimentation".

He had been a film critic, but began making his own movies as a way of hitting back at the ones he didn't like.

Jean-Luc has been considered the most radical French filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s.

His films inspired some of today's best known directors, such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

He was awarded an Academy Honorary Award in 2010, but didn't attend the ceremony.

Jean-Luc was married twice, first to actress Anna Karina from 1961 to 1965 and then to actress Anne Wiazemsky from 1967 to 1979.

Working on Sympathy For the Devil in 1968 (Hulton Archive)

Both of his wives starred in several of his films.

His movies with his first wife Anna, including the critically-acclaimed Bande à part (1964) and Pierrot le Fou (1965) were once cited as the most influential body of work in the history of cinema by Filmmaker magazine.

However, Anna once said that they no longer spoke to each other after their split.

Jean-Luc also worked with the Rolling Stones on their 1968 documentary Sympathy for the Devil.

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