JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO (1933 - 2021)

Jean-Paul Belmondo, considered to be one of France's greatest movie stars that is probably best known to American viewers for his breakthrough role as criminal, Michel Poiccard in Jean-Luc Godard, "Breathless", passed away on September 6th. The influential actor, who has been credited with helping put a bright spotlight on French and European cinema beginning in the 1960's, died at the age of eighty-eight.

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, outside of Paris, Belmondo was the child of Algerian-born, Italian sculptor, Paul Belmondo and painter, Sarah Rainaud-Richard. The young Belmomdo was very interested in sports and was briefly an undefeated, amateur boxer as a teen. Not happy with how his face was beginning to look as a boxer, he soon shifted to acting, studying at the Conservatoire of Dramatic Arts. Belmondo began to perform on stage and appeared in short films and small, supporting roles in features. After co-starring with Lino Ventura in the 1960 gangster film, "Classe tous risques (Consider All Risks)", Belmondo would go on to make the film that would jumpstart his career.

With American star, Jean Seberg on board, Jean-Luc Godard decided to cast the relatively unknown Belmondo to co-star in his low-budget crime-drama, "À bout de souffle" (which translates to 'Out of Breath'). François Truffaut wrote a treatment of the story, based on a newspaper article, and Godard wrote the script as he went along during filming. With the use of real locations, a documentary-style of filming and jump-cuts (highly unconventional at the time), "Breathless" became one of the films that helped usher in the French New Wave (nouvelle vague) and is still considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever in cinema. The actor would work with Godard again for "Une femme est une femme (A Woman is a Woman)" in 1961 and "Pierrot le Fou" in 1965, both co-starring Anna Karina.

This began Belmondo's long career in front of the camera, having appeared in around seventy-five feature films and worked with some of the great filmmakers from Europe; Claude Chabrol ("À double tour, Leda (Web of Passion)"), Louis Malle ("Le Voleur (The Thief of Paris)"), François Truffaut ("La Sirène du Mississippi (Mississippi Mermaid)" with Catherine Deneuve), Marcel Ophüls ("Peau de banane (Banana Peel)" with Jeanne Moreau), Vittorio De Sica ("La Ciociara (Two Women)" with Sophia Loren), Jacques Deray ("Par un beau matin d'été (Crime on a Summer Morning)") and Jean-Pierre Melville ("Léon Morin, prêtre (Léon Morin, Priest)"; "Le Doulos (The Finger Man)"; "Il giorno più corto (The Shortest Day)").

What was notable about Belmondo is that he never attempted to go Hollywood with an English-language film as the actor stated he had no interest in struggling to learn the language. He won the César Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté (Itinerary of a Spoiled Child)" in 1989 and received several honorary awards for his extraordinary career which includes the Palme d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival and an Honorary César in 2017.