Born December 3, 1930 in Paris from highly placed Swiss parents and graduated at the Sorbonne, after studying in a Swiss boarding school, in Ethnology. Film critic from 1950 he wrote among other magazines for Cahiers du cinema. He shoots his first short films starting from 1955 until in 1958 and he made one together with his critic friend and filmmaker François Truffaut, Une historire d’eau. After the dazzling debut with Breathless gets alternate results among which the best movies remain Alphaville, My Life to Live, Band a a part and the most famous of them Contempt with Brigitte Bardot. He returns to work with Jean Paul Belmondo, the protagonist of the first film, and together they work on another masterpiece Pierrot le fou in 1965. Two years later two other milestones, La Chinoise and Week-end. Very prolific in 1968 he directed a film between fiction and documentary, with the studio performance of the Rolling Stones with the double title One plus One / Sympathy for the devil (reference to the song by the British rock band that is documented in its evolution). In 1972 he involved Jane Fonda, Yves Montand and Vittorio Caprioli in the strongly politicized Tous va bien that will mark a period of impasse that leads him to work only in the video sector. In 1983 great return with First Name: Carmen winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Then he shoots other important films, such as Hail Mary, Detective and Notre musique. He also works with great actors such as Alain Delon in 1990's New Wave and Gerard Depardieu Oh Woe is Me in 1993. Even Woody Allen has a 1987 cameo in King Lear. Singer Patti Smith participates in her Goodbye to language of 2017 and the year next the experimental The Image Book gets a special Palme d’or in Cannes.