French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann has died at the age of 92.
The writer – who was best known for his nine-and-a-half-hour Holocaust documentary ‘Shoah’ – passed away at his home in Paris, although the cause of death has not yet been revealed.
‘Shoah’ is widely considered to be the foremost film on the Holocaust, featuring testimonies from victims, who describe the horrors inflicted by the Nazis during World War Two.
Lanzmann – who was also born in Paris in 1925 – was the son of Eastern European immigrants, and he was part of the French resistance during the conflict.
Prior to his film-making career, Lanzmann studied literature and philosophy and he subsequently spent time with the intellectual heavyweights Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
The landmark film of his career was undoubtedly ‘Shoah’, which was the result of 12 years work – including 300 hours of interviews – between 1974 and 1981.
In his autobiography, Lanzmann later wrote: "I knew that the subject of the film would be death itself. Death rather than survival.
"For 12 years I tried to stare relentlessly into the black sun of the ‘Shoah’."
The award-winning documentary has received nearly universal praise since its release in 1985, with critic Roger Ebert describing it as "one of the noblest films ever made".
Although none of his subsequent efforts achieved the same level of acclaim, Lanzmann never officially retired from film-making.
Lanzmann was married three times and had two children, Angelique and Felix, who died from cancer in 2017.
Claude Lanzmann dies aged 92
