Godard died by assisted suicide at age 91.
French New Wave auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s lasting legacy on cinema was embodied by the thousands of tributes to the late “Breathless” director.
Godard died at age 91 of assisted suicide in Switzerland, where the elective injection is legal. “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted,” a Godard family member told press outlets. The director’s longtime legal advisor Patrick Jeannere confirmed to The New York Times that Godard suffered from “multiple disabling pathologies.”
“He could not live like you and me, so he decided with a great lucidity, as he had all his life, to say, ‘Now, it’s enough,’” Jeanneret said.
Fellow directors, film critics, and actors paid tribute to the late “Band of Outsiders” icon.
French President Emmanuel Macron honored Godard in a social media statement, writing, “It was like an appearance in French cinema. Then he became a master. Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers, had invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art. We are losing a national treasure, a look of genius.”
“Last Night in Soho” director Edgar Wright penned, “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…As one of a zillion examples, I discovered while making my @sparksofficial doc that myself & Russell Mael had made, 25 years apart, near identical Breathless/Godard spoofs at college. His was ‘Très sérieux’ and mine was ‘À Bout De Lemon Souffle’. Apologies JLG. Nous t’aimons! x.”
Lena Dunham wrote, “Anna Karina looking up at Godard adoringly like we all have for so many years… RIP JLG- you filmed the things that made us flirt with new realms and we will miss you as you turn the next life black & white.”
James Gunn took to Twitter, writing, “RIP Jean-Luc Godard, one of the giants of cinema & one of the progenitors of the French New Wave. His films aren’t always easy, but his work affects most directors today, whether they know it or not. My favorite film of his is the glorious ‘Breathless.’”
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn tweeted, “RIP. Jean-Luc Godard, maestro of cinema, eternal badass. He challenged the world with images and chronicled its decline. He WAS the movies, and they will live forever.”
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
RIP Jean-Luc Godard, one of the giants of cinema & one of the progenitors of the French New Wave. His films aren’t always easy, but his work affects most directors today, whether they know it or not. My favorite film of his is the glorious “Breathless”. pic.twitter.com/P42u08rl4h
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) September 13, 2022
Godard has passed away… https://t.co/SE6lRQU5yT
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 13, 2022
Anna Karina looking up at Godard adoringly like we all have for so many years… RIP JLG- you filmed the things that made us flirt with new realms and we will miss you as you turn the next life black & white pic.twitter.com/tBzXAOma2e
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 13, 2022
Goodnight to Jean-Luc Godard, a titan of cinema whose work introduced the world to a new cinematic lexicon and exerted an incalculable influence on modern cinema that refused to wane in his more than six decades of filmmaking. pic.twitter.com/IJIm3nC88j
— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 13, 2022
Ce fut comme une apparition dans le cinéma français. Puis il en devint un maître. Jean-Luc Godard, le plus iconoclaste des cinéastes de la Nouvelle Vague, avait inventé un art résolument moderne, intensément libre. Nous perdons un trésor national, un regard de génie. pic.twitter.com/bQneeqp8on
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 13, 2022
#RIP Jean-Luc Godard, maestro of cinema, eternal badass. He challenged the world with images and chronicled its decline. He WAS the movies, and they will live forever. https://t.co/MCuMsusaqJ pic.twitter.com/asNExgbJCP
— erickohn (@erickohn) September 13, 2022
The best way to pay proper tribute to Godard? Watch a ton of his movies. A little guide @ryanlattanzio and I put together for @IndieWire today for you neophytes wanting to know where to start. https://t.co/4YB25MqqnM
— Christian Blauvelt (@ctblauvelt) September 13, 2022
Waking up to news that Jean-Luc Godard has passed. It was inevitable. We all die; one of life’s few certainties; the punchline of a cruel joke. He was 91. No superlative tribute from me because, no words. I can only offer this, published to my Instagram account in December 2015. pic.twitter.com/4cwXMDiIzf
— Tambay Obenson (@TambayObenson) September 13, 2022
“Le cinéma n’est pas à l’abri du temps. Il est l’abri du temps.”
Jean-Luc Godard, 1930-2022 pic.twitter.com/qHEpF1gqbQ— La Cinémathèque (@cinemathequefr) September 13, 2022
Cinema was not merely an art form, but a way of life for Jean-Luc Godard. An iconoclast to the very end, may he rest in peace.
Our own @dave_kehr on his life and legacy in The New York Times: https://t.co/bje45lq9lN pic.twitter.com/gY5Gnh0BMu
— MoMA Film (@MoMAFilm) September 13, 2022
Godard never stopped revolutionizing the language of cinema, giving us a beginning, middle and an end, not in that order. Godard’s work has been a cornerstone of TIFF’s Cinematheque programming for decades. pic.twitter.com/ivUIEjLjlh
— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 13, 2022
I think that if you love movies and are interested in how they developed over the last century, you have to keep checking in with Jean-Luc Godard’s films periodically throughout your viewing life. There’s no way to grasp fully how movies got from there to here without him. >
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) September 13, 2022
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The post Hollywood Remembers Jean-Luc Godard: Filmmakers Pay Tribute to New Wave Iconoclast appeared first on Al Jazeera News Today.