Influential French New Wave director Jacques Rivette dies at 87

(Image credit: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 29 January 2016

French film director Jacques Rivette died on Friday at the age of 87, his producer said; while the cause of death is unreported, Rivette had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for several years. Rivette was an influential director in the French New Wave movement of the 1950s and 1960s, along with the likes of François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Eric Rohmer. He is also known for his important work as a critic for the prestigious Cahiers du Cinéma film magazine, where he was instrumental in helping American filmmakers such as John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Nicholas Ray be taken seriously as artists, as opposed to just entertainers.

Rivette is best known for his films including Paris Belongs to Us, La Belle Noiseuse, Duelle, and Celine and Julie Go Boating, as well as his magnum opus, the 13-hour long Out 1: Nolo Mi Tangere.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.