An embodiment and propagator of the idea of the auteur, back in the late-50's/early-60's - he made quirky, funky-fresh (in their day) films that were part of a "new wave" of French cinema. Became more explicitly political (pseudo-Maoist) in the late 60's, and blended polemic and documentary and experimental ideas into his core techniques - a poster boy for career suicide. He has been a softer, subtler version of that since then, still cool, never lame or predictable.