The radical director of Breathless and Alphaville, and who was a key figure in the French Nouvelle Vague, has died.
The medical report confirms that Godard “had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure” because he was “stricken with ‘multiple incapacitating illnesses,” Godard’s legal council, Patrick Jeanneret, told AFP.
“He was not sick, he was simply exhausted. So he had made the decision to end it. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.” Godard’s lawyer Patrick Jeanneret told AFP Godard’s death followed “multiple disabling pathologies”.
Best known for his iconoclastic, seemingly improvised filming style, as well as unbending radicalism, Godard made his mark with a series of increasingly politicised films in the 1960s, before enjoying an unlikely career revival in recent years, with films such as Film Socialisme and Goodbye to Language as he experimented with digital technology.