French New Wave director Jacques Rivette dies aged 87

Director Jacques Rivette, who rose to prominence alongside names such as Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol as part of the French New Wave movement of the Sixties, has died aged 87.

While he may not be quite as well known as as some of his contemporaries, the director's work made a lasting, significant impact upon French cinema.  

He began his career in the Fifties as a critic for the innovative Cahiers du Cinéma magazine, although he later claimed that writing was never his main ambition, stating: "I never considered myself as a critic. My texts had more to do with my desire to make a film.”

His first feature-length film was Paris Belongs to Us (1960). Rivette then went on to direct more than 25 films, including the experimental 1971 piece Out 1, which is famous for being almost 13 hours long (a shorter version, titled Out 1: Spectre, is a more digestible four hours) and 1974's Celine and Julie Go Boating, which remains one of his most popular works. 

In the summer of 1975 the director suffered a nervous breakdown while working on the film Marie et Julien, and his reputation in following years underwent something of a decline.

But he had a “second wind” in the late Eighties and early Nineties, winning critical acclaim for 1991’s La Belle Noiseuse, which starred the French actress Emmanuelle Béart (Manon des Sources,  8 Women), Michel Piccoli and Jane Birkin. 

His final film was 2009’s Around A Small Mountain, which also featured Birkin in a leading role.

Rivette, who had no children, was married to the photographer and screenwriter Marilù Parolini for a short time in the early Sixties. The pair later divorced, although they continued a professional relationship.

Fans of the director's work have been quick to post tributes on social media, with many fondly expressing a particular affection for La Belle Noiseuse (and for Béart's memorable turn in the film as an artist's muse).