Words: Tom Ward
Born on the 9th of April 1933, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Jean Paul Belmondo would define a cinematic movement as the star of the French New Wave of the 1960s, starring in films such as Breathless (1960) and That Man From Rio (1964).
He was, in the words of the New York Times, a “magnetic star of the French New Wave.” The New Yorker, meanwhile, has called him “an Accidental Revolutionary of the French New Wave”, and the BFI eulogised him as “the epitome of Gallic cool”.
It’s this latter – Belmondo’s impact on the world of cool – which will arguably be his lasting legacy following his death on 6th September in Paris after suffering from ill health for two decades.
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