Cuarón and Hitchcock and Scorsese, Oh My! The Greatest Directors Of All-Time

21. Jean-Luc Godard

Image Source: Variety

He wasn’t the first of the French New Wave directors, but he was the most celebrated. Godard’s seductive first feature, Breathless, wrapped American pulp conventions around an existential romance; shot like a documentary, with handheld cameras, it has influenced several generations of film directors. Armed with an exhaustive knowledge of film history and a 16mm camera, Godard gave permission to future filmmakers to break the rules when it came to story, structure and process.

He had an enormous influence on the emerging national cinemas of the ’60s in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Quentin Tarantino named his production company, “A Band Apart,” after Godard’s Bande à part.