If you’re overdue for an intro to Jean-Luc Godard, here are 6 films to start with

The rebellious iconoclast at the epicenter of the French New Wave and one of film’s most influential makers, Jean-Luc Godard, who died Tuesday at 91, leaves behind a colossal legacy of more than 100 feature films, shorts and documentaries. Where to begin?

As a young critic for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1950s, Godard and his contemporaries first challenged cinematic conventions in words. Then they reshaped the medium from behind the camera, as Godard did in his rebellious first feature, the Nouvelle Vague classic “Breathless” (1960). Through the end of the 1960s, the director produced a prolific body of now-iconic works, including “A Woman Is a Woman” (1961), “Contempt” (1963), “Band of Outsiders” (1964), “Alphaville” (1965), “Masculin Féminin” (1966), “Two or Three Things I Know About Her” (1967) and “Week-end” (1967).

Later, Godard’s interrogations of cinematic possibilities became more engaged with radical French politics, such as 1972’s “Tout Va Bien,” starring Jane Fonda and co-directed with Jean-Pierre Gorin; unexpected artworks, like his 1987 adaptation of “King Lear”; and nonfiction (more recent avant-garde film essays “Goodbye to Language” and “The Image Book,” his final feature). Some of Godard’s most celebrated films, like “Band of Outsiders,” are not currently available to stream. (Criterion has it on disc — viva la physical media.) But there are still plenty of options if your DVD/Blu-ray player is collecting dust.

In particular, the Criterion Channel has a nine-film tribute to Godard with titles such as “Le Petit Soldat” (1963) and “Every Man for Himself” (1980) and numerous interviews with Godard throughout his career.

Here are 6 features you can stream now to start your dive into the legendary filmmaker’s canon, and where to find them.

‘Breathless’ (1960)

Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.
Rating: Unrated.
Streaming: Amazon Prime: Rent/Buy | Apple TV+: Rent/Buy | HBO Max: Included | VUDU: Rent/Buy | Criterion: Included | Kanopy: Included

All you need to make a movie, Jean-Luc Godard famously proposed, is a girl and a gun, and he proved that formula the first time out of the box with his 1960 “Breathless,” the fatalistic romance that started a revolution.

Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a brash French hooligan and Jean Seberg as the American in Paris he loves against his better judgment, “Breathless” caused a sensation when it took its place as one of the first examples of what came to be known as la Nouvelle Vague, a.k.a. the French New Wave.

Godard and his New Wave confederates, such as Francois Truffaut (who wrote the “Breathless” treatment) and Jacques Rivette (who has a wordless cameo as a hit and run victim), were frustrated film critics (is there any other kind) who wanted to turn mainstream film upside down. (Read more) — Kenneth Turan

‘My Life to Live’ (Vivre sa vie) (1962)

Running time: 1 hour 23 minutes.
Rating: TV-14.
Streaming: | HBO Max: Included | Kanopy: Included | Criterion: Included

As Times staff writer Mark Olsen wrote in his 2016 profile of the actor, Anna Karina’s “enigmatic mix of carefree insouciance, emotional transparency and chic style made her a good fit for Godard’s distinctive blend of spontaneity and precision” — and there may be no more formidable example than “Vivre Sa Vie.” Karina, who was married to Godard from 1961 to 1967, had already collaborated twice before with the director, on “A Woman Is a Woman” and “Le Petit Soldat,” but it’s as Nana, a woman who abandons her family to pursue a career as an actress and ends up in a seedy world of sex work, that she emerged most forcefully as the “muse” of the New Wave — and exemplified the phrase “tragic beauty.” She also helped prove that Godard’s filmmaking prowess translated to a dramatic register as well as it did comedy or crime. —Matt Brennan