Director Robert Enrico dies

Robert Enrico: Oscar and Cesar winner

Oscar-winning French film director Robert Enrico has died aged 69 after a long illness.

He worked with Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon and Lino Ventura at the height of French cinema in the 1960s and was best known for action and thriller movies.

Bardot appeared in the film Boulevard du rhum

He was born to Italian immigrant parents in the northern town of Lievin in 1931 and began his film career with a series of short films that brought him to international critical attention.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge won him the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival in 1962 and an Academy Award for best short film two years later.

Cesar award

Based on a story by American writer Ambrose Bierce, the black-and-white film portrayed the hallucinations of a man awaiting death in a hangman's noose.

The film caught the public's imagination in the US when it was shown on the Twilight Zone TV series.

He directed Les aventuriers (The Adventurers) in 1966 which starred Alain Delon, Boulevard du rhum (Rum Boulevard) with Brigitte Bardot and the British actor Bill Travers.

His 1976 Le vieux fusil (The Old Gun) starred Philippe Noiret and Romy Schneider and won him a best film Cesar, France's most prestigious movie award.