JEAN-LUC GODARD, born in Paris on December 3 1930, died last week in Switzerland, taking his own life. He was the son of Odile and Paul Godard. His wealthy parents came from Protestant families of Franco–Swiss descent.
 
He was to become the enfant terrible of French cinema and one of the founders of the 1960s Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), that ushered in a whole new, revolutionary approach to film-making.

He was arguably the most influential French filmmaker of the post-war era. He and a number of like-minded film-makers revolutionised the motion picture form through experimentation with narrative, continuity, sound and camerawork. During his lifetime he made over 100 films – a formidable output.

He began his career as a film critic for the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinema. He criticised mainstream French cinema and established conventions over innovation and experimentation. In response, he and like-minded cinema afficionados like Rivette, Chabrol, Truffaut, Agnes Varda and Chis Marker, began to make their own films challenging the traditional conventions and Hollywood escapism.