Eric Rohmer dies, aged 89

Film world mourns French auteur and New Wave giant.

by Amber Wilkinson

French auteur Eric Rohmer has died. His production company Les Films du Losange have confirmed his death.

The director who would have been 90 this March, was editor-in-chief of the hugely influential Cahiers Du Cinema between 1956 and 1963 before turning his hand to filmmaking and becoming one of the founders of the French New Wave movement alongside Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

He made his feature debut in 1959 with The Sign Of Leo (Le signe du lion) although it would be a decade before he would find critical success with My Night At Maud's (Ma nuit chez Maud), which was nominated for best screenplay and foreign language film at the Oscars and took home the Palme d'Or from Cannes.

He directed more than 45 films and TV documentaries in a career spanning 50 years, the last of which was The Romance Of Astrea And Celadon (Les amours d'Astrea et de Celadon) about an illicit affair between a shepherd and shepherdess.

After making the film he told one interviewer: "Over the course of my career, I don’t think I’ve ever stopped taking risks. But measured, well thought-out risks. "

He received a career Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 2001. Read our full obituary, here.

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