Jean-Luc Godard is one the most influential film-makers of the last fifty years. Scorsese, Tarantino, Wong Kar-Wai and Lars von Trier are but a few of the directors who have fallen under the spell of his free-wheeling style. In his 1960s heyday Godard - always in dark shades, cigarette in hand - epitomised European cool. But he subsequently grew into one of the most formidable artists the cinema has produced. Writer and film-maker Richard Brody, one of the few to have interviewed Godard in his Swiss retreat, here offers an accessible account of this extraordinary and fascinating artist.