Jean-Luc Godard is considered the most radical French filmmaker of the 1960s and 1970s, and his approach in film conventions, politics and philosophies made him arguably the most influential director of the French New Wave movement. Godard criticized mainstream French cinema’s ‘Tradition of Quality,’ which emphasized craft over innovation, and privileged established directors over new directors. To challenge these conventions of traditional Hollywood in addition to French cinema, Godard and like-minded critics for the Cahiers du Cinema decided to make their own films. Along with presenting knowledge of film history through homages and references, several of Godard’s films expressed his political views; while being an avid reader of existential and Marxist philosophy. When Godard debuted his first film Breathless in 1959, the radical technique of irregular jump-cuts which broke the eye-line match rule in continuity editing, was a very startling innovation for audiences at the time. The film also incorporated random bursts of pop music and sound effects, while audiences listened to characters spout off spontaneous dialogue, sometimes even directly to the audience. Breathless became a revolutionary breakthrough in the way films were conceived while Godard also employed quotations from several elements of popular culture, specifically American film noir. Godard viewed film-making as an extension of criticism and was more interested in redefining film structure and style than actually being understood by the public. Most of the films earlier on in Godard’s career like Vivre sa vie (1962), Contempt (1963) Band of Outsiders (1964) and Pierrot le fou (1965), integrated more film homages than any of his New Wave colleagues. Godard loved to quote and give visual citations towards cinema, as film directors like Samuel Fuller, Fritz Lang and Nicholas Ray were constantly referenced or discussed. Godard, known to be extremely literary would sporadically quote passages by William Faulkner, Dylan Thomas and Bertolt Brecht, while randomly citing musicians on the soundtrack, like Mozart, Picasso and J.S. Bach. Politics were never far from the surface in Godard’s earlier films but it wasn’t until the late 60’s when Godard became much more political, speaking up about both the Algerian and Vietnam war, which was escalating at the time and greatly infuriating Godard. Films like Masculin Féminin (1966), 2 or 3 Things I know about Her (1967) and Weekend (1967) were far less conventional and more abstract, nihilistic and allegorical, integrating explicit collage-like essays. Godard’s work has been central to narrative theory, challenging both commercial cinema norms and film criticism’s vocabulary. He is said to have created one of the largest bodies of critical analysis of any filmmaker since the mid-twentieth century and in 2010 was awarded an Academy Honorary Award, but did not attend the award ceremony.