Lawyer: Director Died by Assisted Suicide

Moviemaking legend Jean-Luc Godard died Tuesday—and it was his decision to do so, lawyer Patrick Jeanneret says. Jeanneret says the 91-year-old French-Swiss director died by assisted suicide in Switzerland, where he had lived for decades, the Guardian reports. The lawyer told AFP Godard "had recourse to legal assistance in Switzerland for a voluntary departure as he was stricken with 'multiple invalidating illnesses', according to the medical report."

A source close to the family told Liberation that Godard was "not sick, he was simply exhausted," and he wanted it to be known that he had chosen to end his life. Jeanneret told the New York Times that Godard, a pioneer of French New Wave filmmaking in the 1960s, wanted to die with dignity and "that was exactly what he did." He said Godard suffered from "multiple disabling pathologies." "He could not live like you and me, so he decided with a great lucidity, as he had all his life, to say, 'Now, it’s enough,'" Jeanneret said. (More assisted suicide stories.)