French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, the godfather of France’s New Wave cinema, died at 91, newspaper Liberation reported on Tuesday. The cause of death remains unclear.

Born into a wealthy French-Swiss family on December 3, 1930, in Paris, the ingenious “enfant terrible” stood for years as one of the world’s most vital and provocative directors in Europe and beyond, news agency Associated Press reported.

Also Read: Jean-Luc Godard: 5 best movies

Godard was one of the pillars of the French New Wave and is known for films like Breathless and Pierrot le Fou. The man who’s wrongly attributed for saying all he needs is a girl and a gun to make a good movie (It was Griffith who said that) went on to experiment with the film medium in his later life, as evidenced in Goodbye to Language.

He’s known for collaborating with a fixed set of actors, most famous among whom are Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina, who was briefly married to the director as well.

Godard was recently given a lifetime honor at the Kerala film festival where the French auteur spoke of cinema pushing boundaries. He’s always maintained that art is political and has actively supported political causes including the student revolutions in Paris.

The Frenchman is known to have notoriously asked for a shutdown at Cannes in solidarity with the protesting students. Over the years, Godard cemented his position as one of cinema’s greats and has influenced other masters of the craft. Godard was also awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 2010, but did not show up for the event.

Also Read: Who was Jean-Luc Godard?

Nearly a decade after parting ways with Anna Karina, Jean-Luc Godard married actor Anne Wiazemsky in 1967. The couple split in 1979.

Considered to be one of the most radical filmmakers of his age, Godard is known to inspire top directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, according to The Mirror.