France film director Claude Chabrol dies at 80

London: One of France`s best-known film directors, Claude Chabrol, who has made more than 50 films during his career, has died at the age of 80.

Chabrol is best known for 1960s and 70s thrillers such as ‘The Unfaithful Wife’, ‘The Butcher’ and ‘This Man Must Die’. He was a member of the French New Wave movement, and his contemporaries included Eric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Godard. "With the death of Claude Chabrol, French cinema has lost one of its maestros," the BBC News quoted French Prime Minister Francois Fillon saying in a statement. French President Nicolas Sarkozy described Chabrol as a "great author and great film-maker". Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe hailed Chabrol as "the inventor of inspired, rich and profoundly human movies". Thierry Fremaux, who runs the Cannes Film Festival, told French radio station, France Info: "Claude Chabrol is part of our national patrimony - for his films and also for his personality." ANI