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Jean-Luc Godard, Filmmaker Who Revolutionized Cinema With French New Wave, Dies by Assisted Suicide

The acclaimed director Jean-Luc Godard died by assisted suicide in Switzerland, where it is legal, his family confirmed.

French film director Jean-Luc Godard, a pioneer of the French New Wave, has died of assisted suicide in Switzerland. The 91-year-old’s legal adviser, Patrick Jeanneret, confirmed the news to The New York Times, saying he had 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 was quoted saying. The Libération newspaper, citing Godard’s wife and producers, reported that he died at his home in Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal. “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted,” the paper cited a relative as saying. Godard, known for films like Breathless, Alphaville, and Contempt, was a revolutionary force in filmmaking, often pushing boundaries and helping to create a whole new generation of filmmakers after he shot to fame in the 1960s, injecting pop culture into dialogues and inspiring future directors like Quentin Tarantino. His most recent film, The Image Book, won the the special Palme d’Or prize at Cannes in 2018. Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang, in comments to France Info radio on Tuesday, called Godard “absolutely unique,” saying, “He wasn’t just cinema, he was philosophy, poetry.”