Claude Chabrol, one of France's most eminent film directors and a pioneer of the influential New Wave style that revolutionised French cinema, died today at the age of 80, the association of film directors said.
Chabrol, a close friend of legendary New Wave directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard who broke with French cinematic tradition, was a prolific film-maker with some 60 movies to his name, including Hell and The Butcher.
News of Chabrol's death, which was initially announced by a Paris town hall cultural official on his website, was greeted with outpourings of regret from France's cultural world.
"Each time that a director disappears, a particular way of looking at the world and an expression of our humanity is lost forever," France's Association of Film Directors said in a statement on Chabrol's passing.
Reuters