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Jean-Luc Godard

French and Swiss film director (1930–2022)

38.44body-of-work score · ranked #3 of 2631 directors · 39 films in our library

A director's score is the sum of their films' composite canon scores — methodology.

Born
December 3, 1930 · 7th arrondissement of Paris
Died
September 13, 2022 · Rolle
Nationality
France, Switzerland
Work
film director, actor, screenwriter, cinematographer
Movement
French New Wave
Reference
Wikipedia · Wikidata
Portrait of Jean-Luc Godard
Gary Stevens · CC BY 2.0

The director who filmed thinking

No filmmaker did more to convince cinema it could think out loud. Roger Ebert wrote in 1969 that "no other director in the 1960s has had more influence on the development of the feature-length film," and the claim has only hardened since: the jump cut as expression, quotation as style, the essay as a film form — the toolkit of every self-aware filmmaker since runs through Godard.

From Cahiers to the barricades

Born in Paris on December 3, 1930 into a wealthy Franco-Swiss Protestant family and raised largely in Switzerland, Godard came to movies as a writer first. He co-founded the short-lived Gazette du cinéma with Éric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette in 1950 and was publishing in Cahiers du Cinéma by January 1952, sharpening the polemics that would become the French New Wave. Breathless (1960) — financed by producer Georges de Beauregard from a story idea of Truffaut's, shot by Raoul Coutard with the script written day by day — detonated the movement's house style; critic Richard Brody put it best: after it, the film "moved at the speed of the mind." There followed the most concentrated great run in modern cinema, much of it with Anna Karina: My Life to Live (1962), Contempt (1963), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou (both 1965), closing the decade with Weekend (1967) and its "End of Cinema" title card — which he almost meant. He helped shut down the 1968 Cannes festival, dissolved himself into the Marxist Dziga Vertov Group through 1973, then rebuilt cinema from video up with Anne-Marie Miéville, his partner until his death. The late work — the monumental video essay Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988–1998), the 3D Goodbye to Language (2014, Cannes Jury Prize), The Image Book (2018, awarded a Special Palme d'Or) — kept him avant-garde into his nineties. He died on September 13, 2022 in Rolle, Switzerland, by assisted suicide, at 91; a family member said he was "not sick, he was simply exhausted."

What the numbers say

Our library holds 39 of his films — more than any other director — and ranks him #3 of all directors by total body of work. Yet his highest-scoring single film, Breathless, sits at #59 overall — one lone entry in the Must-See top 100, from the man the body-of-work ledger puts third all-time. That inversion is the most Godard-shaped data signature imaginable: peers like Kubrick concentrate their canonical weight in a few consensus masterpieces, while Godard's reputation is a distributed system — nine films scoring above 1.3, a 1983 Venice Golden Lion (First Name: Carmen) sitting beside honorary awards from the Academy (2010) and the Césars (1987, 1998) given for the whole edifice rather than any one wing. The polls cannot agree on which Godard is essential because the project was the masterpiece.

Where to start

Breathless for the shock, My Life to Live for the heart, Contempt for the beauty, Pierrot le Fou for all three at once. If those land, the other twenty-six are waiting — and by then you won't be asking for a ranking.

Films in our library, ranked

Ranked by composite canon score across 20+ authoritative lists, awards and polls — our ordering, with every placement citing its evidence on the film's page.

  1. 1
    BreathlessÀ bout de souffleMust-See #59

    1960 · France · drama, crime

    Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #14 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #38 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1960 #3

    3.9513 citations
  2. 2
    ContemptLe MéprisMust-See #158

    1963 · France / Italy · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1963 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 directors' poll #46 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #54

    3.008 citations
  3. 3
    The Image BookLe Livre d'imageMust-See #198

    2018 · Switzerland / France · documentary

    Palme d'Or winner 2018 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2019 #1 · Film Comment year-end poll 2019 #18

    2.743 citations
  4. 4
    My Life to LiveVivre sa vieMust-See #278

    1962 · France · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1962 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #157 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1963 #5

    2.327 citations
  5. 5
    Pierrot le FouMust-See #341

    1965 · France / Italy · romance, drama, comedy

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1965 #1 · Sight & Sound 2022 critics' poll #85 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1967 #5

    2.135 citations
  6. 6
    Bande à partMust-See #366

    1964 · France · crime, romance, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #1 · TIME All-TIME 100 · Scorsese's 39 essential foreign films

    2.057 citations
  7. 7
    WeekendMust-See #404

    1967 · France / Italy · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1967 #3 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1969 #4 · Ebert's annual top 10 1969 #3

    1.968 citations
  8. 8
    AlphavilleAlphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

    1965 · France / Italy · sci-fi, drama, crime

    Berlin Golden Bear winner 1965 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1965 #5 · Criterion Collection spine #25

    1.664 citations
  9. 9
    First Name: CarmenPrénom Carmen

    1983 · France / Switzerland · drama

    Venice Golden Lion winner 1983 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1984 #3

    1.502 citations
  10. 10
    Every Man for HimselfSauve qui peut (la vie)

    1980 · Austria / Switzerland / France · drama

    Sarris's annual top 10 1980 #1 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1980 #3 · Kehr's annual top 10 1981 #5

    1.275 citations
  11. 11
    Goodbye to LanguageAdieu au langage

    2014 · France / Switzerland · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2014 #2 · Film Comment year-end poll 2014 #2

    1.262 citations
  12. 12
    Masculin Féminin

    1966 · France / Sweden · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1966 #4 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1968 #7 · Criterion Collection spine #308

    1.195 citations
  13. 13
    Hail MaryJe vous salue, Marie

    1985 · France / United Kingdom / Switzerland · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1985 #1

    1.001 citation
  14. 14
    Passion

    1982 · France / Switzerland · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1982 #2 · Kehr's annual top 10 1984 #4 · Kehr's annual top 10 1989 #null

    0.993 citations
  15. 15
    A Woman Is a WomanUne femme est une femme

    1961 · France / Italy · comedy, romance, musical

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1961 #2 · Criterion Collection spine #238 · Sarris's annual top 10 1964 #10

    0.943 citations
  16. 16
    Nouvelle Vague

    1990 · France / Switzerland · fantasy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1990 #3 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1990 #6 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.793 citations
  17. 17
    Film Socialisme

    2010 · France / Switzerland · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 2010 #3 · Film Comment year-end poll 2011 #11

    0.782 citations
  18. 18
    La Chinoise

    1967 · France · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1967 #10 · Sarris's annual top 10 1968 #3 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.653 citations
  19. 19
    Détective

    1985 · France · crime, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1985 #2

    0.631 citation
  20. 20
    For Ever Mozart

    1996 · France · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1996 #2

    0.631 citation
  21. 21
    Number TwoNuméro deux

    1975 · France · documentary

    Hoberman's annual top 10 1977 #2 · Kehr's annual top 10 1977 #5 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.623 citations
  22. 22
    Notre musique

    2004 · France / Switzerland · drama

    Film Comment year-end poll 2004 #6 · Hoberman's annual top 10 2004 #3

    0.612 citations
  23. 23
    Two or Three Things I Know About HerDeux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle

    1967 · France / Italy · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1967 #9 · Criterion Collection spine #482 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.573 citations
  24. 24
    King Lear

    1987 · France / United States · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1987 #10 · Criterion Collection spine #1249 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.563 citations
  25. 25
    Hélas pour moi

    1993 · France · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1993 #10 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1994 #5

    0.482 citations
  26. 26
    Allemagne 90 neuf zéroAllemagne année 90 neuf zéro

    1991 · France · drama

    Hoberman's annual top 10 1992 #3 · Hoberman's annual top 10 1995 #4

    0.472 citations
  27. 27
    In Praise of LoveÉloge de l'amour

    2001 · France / Switzerland · drama

    Film Comment year-end poll 2002 #13 · Kehr's annual top 10 2002 #6

    0.442 citations
  28. 28
    A Married WomanUne femme mariée

    1964 · France · drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1964 #4

    0.431 citation
  29. 29
    Six in ParisParis vu par…

    1965 · France · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1965 #4

    0.431 citation
  30. 30
    Here and ElsewhereIci et ailleurs

    1975 · France · documentary

    Kehr's annual top 10 1981 #4 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.332 citations
  31. 31
    The CarabineersLes Carabiniers

    1963 · France / Italy · comedy, drama

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1963 #8

    0.321 citation
  32. 32
    France/tour/detour/deux/enfants

    1977 · France · documentary

    Hoberman's annual top 10 1986 #2

    0.321 citation
  33. 33
    Far from VietnamLoin du Vietnam

    1967 · France · documentary, drama

    Kinema Junpo Best Ten (International) 1968 #9

    0.301 citation
  34. 34
    Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma

    1986 · France · thriller

    Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1986 #9

    0.301 citation
  35. 35
    Made in U.S.A

    1966 · France · crime

    Criterion Collection spine #481 · Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.272 citations
  36. 36
    Le Petit Soldat

    1963 · France · war, drama

    Criterion Collection spine #1010

    0.161 citation
  37. 37
    Tout Va Bien

    1972 · France / Italy · drama

    Criterion Collection spine #275

    0.161 citation
  38. 38
    AnticipationAnticipation, ou l'Amour en l'an 2000

    1967 · France / Italy

    Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.111 citation
  39. 39
    Power of the SpeechPuissance de la parole

    1988 · France · drama

    Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

    0.111 citation

Complete filmography

All 107 directorial credits recorded on Wikidata, in chronological order; films in our library link to their canon-score page.