Jean-Luc Godard has made almost 100 films in his career, although few can name any made after the creative outburst in the 60s that propelled him to the forefront of France's Nouvelle Vague (New Wave). One of a group of self-styled auteurs and film critics, he made films that were fresh, exciting, and along with Truffaut, Rivette, Rohmer, and Chabrol, in extremely good company.

Most famously, his first feature, and only commercial success, was "A Bout de Souffle" (1960) with its unconventional jump-cuts, energetic handheld camerawork, and an ultra-cool Jean-Paul Belmondo aping Bogart. This period also gave us noirish science fiction in the shape of "Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution" (1965), and the violent polemic of "Week End" (1968) to name but a couple.

Thereafter, Godard entered the most overtly politicized period of his career with the formation of the Dziga-Vertov group. Named after the Russian cinematic pioneer who made "Man With a Movie Camera" (1929) these films ("Cinétracts" (1968), "British Sounds" (1970)) took the reaction against staid film making that had defined the Nouvelle Vague and turned it into an instrument of proletarian revolution. Theoretically, at least.

Godard became increasingly isolated, and his films more inaccessible, with a couple of comparatively commercial ventures, "Sauve qui peut" (1979) or "Helas pour moi" with Gerard Depardieu (1993) being the exceptions. Nowadays he's better known for providing cineastes the world over with soundbites, sometimes insightful, often self-effacing, and frequently blaming Hollywood for the death of the medium. Being French, he still gets funding.

Discover more about Godard from the British Film Institute.

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