1984 file photo of Jacques Rivette in Paris. (Image Courtesy: AFP)
Jacques Rivette, one of the leading directors of French New Wave cinema, died on January 29, his biographer Helene Frappat told AFP. He was 87.
Mr Rivette, whose 28 films included 1991 hit
La Belle Noiseuse (
The Beautiful Troublemaker) and
Paris Nous Appartient (
Paris Belongs to Us), started out as a film critic like other future French New Wave pillars Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer.
French President Francois Hollande's office issued a statement hailing Mr Rivette as "one of the greatest filmmakers (who) marked several generations."
Former critic and president of the Cannes Film Festival Gilles Jacob said Mr Rivette was "one of the most lucid, most inventive and freest of the New Wave."