Raoul Coutard, the most famous cinematographer of the French New Wave movement, died on Tuesday, aged 92.

The Frenchman shot some of the biggest films of the 20th century, including Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, Francois Truffaut's Jules and Jim and Costa Gavras' Z.

Coutard passed away on Tuesday night, near Bayonne, France, and the cause of death is still unknown.

The legendary filmmaker was born on 16 September, 1924 in Paris, where he grew up to become a sergeant in the colonial infantry during the Indochina War.

While stationed in Laos, Coutard became an army photographer before doing freelance work for Paris Match and Life magazines.


It was there that he met French filmmaker Pierre Schoendoerffer, with whom he collaborated on his first films, including The Devil's Pass and Ramuntcho.

Image: Coutard worked with Godard in some of the French director's most famous films

His collaboration with the French New Wave movement - an informal gathering of young French authors who rejected classic literature - began with his connection with Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard worked with Coutard in his 1960, unscripted, radical art house film Breathless which marked the start of the New Wave.

The cinematographer became famous for his work shot with a handheld camera and his use of natural light - a technique which went hand in hand with the radical visual style and lack of rules of the movement.

Image: Coutard was Truffaut choice for cinematographer in Jules et Jim and Shoot the Piano Player

"The images were not polished," he said about his work.

"Union rules were not respected and I was doing both lighting and framing, which was not done at the time at all."

His career lasted nearly half a century and included over 80 features.

He was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes for his directorial debut Haoa Binh and won the César Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Le Crabe-Tambour.

He was said to be suffering from a long illness.