Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1922 - 2008.
Alain Robbe-Grillet, the French writer who pioneered the so-called "new novel" genre in the 1950s, died Monday at the age of 85, the Academie Francaise (French Academy) said.... In a series of essays published in 1963 Robbe-Grillet developed the theory of the "new novel" which sought to overturn conventional ideas on fiction-writing....
He was also associated with the "New Wave" of French filmmaking, writing the screenplay for Alain Resnais's L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) and making several films under his own name.