President Macron: Director Jean-Luc Godard is a French National Treasure
Director Jean-Luc Godard’s descendants died on Tuesday (13/9/2022), Swiss time, at the age of 91 years. Apart from being known as a role model for filmmakers of his time, Godard was the figure behind the French New Wave, a movement in the film sector that emerged in the late 1950s.
His departure drew reactions from various parties, from loyal viewers of Godard’s works, colleagues, to French President Emmanuel Macron who paid tribute and said that this sad news was the greatest loss of the national treasure of the French nation.
“…Jean-Luc Godard, New Wave’s most iconoclastic director, has created a very modern and very free art. We lost a national treasure, a genius,” Macron wrote on Twitter.
Ce fut comme une apparition dans le cinéma français. Poetry il en devint un maître. Jean-Luc Godard, le plus iconoclaste des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, avait inventé un art résolument moderne, intense libre. Nous perdons un trésor national, un regard de genie. pic.twitter.com/bQneeqp8on
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 13, 2022
Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris, France on December 3, 1930. The director is the second of four children in a wealthy family of French-Swiss descent. His father was a doctor who owned a private clinic. Meanwhile, his mother was a prominent banker in Switzerland.
Before entering the world of film as a director, Godard was active as a critic. Throughout his career, IMDb notes that he has worked on 131 films, from 1955 to 2018.
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In 1955, the films he directed included popular short films, A Flirtatious Woman. After that, he made documentaries like Operation Concrete and a short film entitled Charlotte and Her Boyfriend in 1958.
Among his hundreds of filmography, there are at least 10 of Godard’s most popular films that Genhype must watch, such as:
- Breathless (1960)
- Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
- Band of Outsiders (1964)
- Pierrpt le Fou (1965)
- Contempt (1963)
- Masculin Feminine (1966)
- A Woman is A Woman (1961)
- Une Femme Mariee (1964)
- Le Petit Soldat (1963)
- Weekends (1967)
RIP Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most influential, iconoclastic film-makers of them all. It was ironic that he himself revered the Hollywood studio film-making system, as perhaps no other director inspired as many people to just pick up a camera and start shooting… pic.twitter.com/KFOnnQ1H6n
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) September 13, 2022
Not only that, he has also won 51 awards and was included in 71 nominations. The awards he has received include the Honorary Award in 2011, the Bambi Awards in 1969, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the European Film Awards in 2007.
His works are scattered in various genres ranging from thrillers, politics, musical comedies, romantic melodramas, science fiction. His creative process is known to move at the speed of thought, transforming familiar genres into more valuable, aesthetic and stimulating.
Just like his filmography, Godard is known to have a radical and rebellious nature that is different from the others. At the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, he appeared at press conferences via video chat instead of physically attending the event.
Director Edgar Wright took to Twitter to express his condolences and wrote that Jean-Luc Godard was one of the most influential iconoclastic filmmakers of all.
“It’s ironic that he himself respects Hollywood’s studio filmmaking system, because perhaps no other director has inspired so many people to just grab a camera and start shooting,” he said.
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Editor: Nirmala Aninda