The Guardian reported on Monday that Jean-Paul Belmondo, the male protagonist in the French New Wave film "Exhausted," died at the age of 88, and his lawyer confirmed the death.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported
Belmondo was one of the most well-known male film stars in the French New Wave movement of cinema, and in the 1960s, Belmondo redefined the beauty of male stars: masculine, even a little evil, leading a trend among Young French people at that time.
Belmondo has acted in more than 80 films in his lifetime, spanning 50 years, working closely with French directors, from Truffaut and Godard to Claude LeRouche.
Belmondo was born on 9 April 1933 on the banks of the Seine on the outskirts of Paris, the son of a sculptor and a painter to a painter. Although from a family of arts, he initially chose not to inherit the family mantle, but became an amateur boxer, even winning more than 10 matches. But then he gave up boxing and focused on acting.
His trademark bumpy nose was the result of a fight on the school playground, not in the boxing ring. It can be seen that he has been a rebellious boy since he was a child.
In 1958, after participating in some theatrical stage performances, Belmondo was given the role of Marcel Carnote's les Tricheurs, a small but impressive role, from which he was given the role of Godard's Exhausted. He plays a somewhat nihilistic who flees after shooting a policeman and is eventually shot himself.
It was a revolutionary film in which Godard reconstructed the art of cinema with a variety of bold filming techniques. Some people say that since then, the movie, everything is different. After the huge success of "Exhausted", Belmondo also became a hot A-list actor.
Since then, several of his works, including Léon Morin, prêtre (1961) with Jean-Pierre Melville, Moderato cantabile (1960) with Peter Brooke, and Pierrot le fou (1965), with Godard, have become his most talked about masterpieces.
In 1988, Belmondo won a César Award (an Oscar in France) for Claude Lelouch's film The Lion, and in 2016, the Venice Film Festival awarded him the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of his outstanding contribution.