MONTREAL — One of Quebec's greatest filmmakers whose celebrated works won international praise, died early Saturday. Gilles Carle was 80.

He battled Parkinson's disease for a number of years and was recently hospitalized following a heart attack and complications from pneumonia.

"His style and inspiration place Gilles Carle among the pioneers who have given Quebec and Canadian cinema its national and international dimension and luminous modernity,"Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean said in a statement issued Saturday.

A statement from Quebec Premier Jean Charest lamented the death of a man who profoundly influenced Quebec culture.

"Gilles Carle was among the most important filmmakers in Quebec, a man of immense talent and who has been recognized internationally," Charest said.

Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois also sent her condolences to Carle's family Saturday and hailed him as an independent thinker who was unbending in his cinematic vision.

"He was more than a filmmaker," she said. "He unconditionally loved the seventh art."

Carle gave his life to cinema.

The prolific director is known for works like La vraie nature de Bernadette (The Real Bernadette), Maria Chapdelaine, Les Plouffes (The Plouffes) and Pudding Chomeur (Bread Pudding).

Born in Maniwaki, Que., he grew up in Abitibi and later moved to Montreal in the 1940s to study drawing.

But he fell in love with film.

Carle's passion for cinema spawned a decades-long career that produced some 30 works, running the gamut from fiction to documentary and television specials.

The themes of his films often touched on sexuality and the trials of everyday people.

In 1961, he began working at the National Film Board of Canada and co-directed, with Louis Portugais, his first film, Manger (Eat).

With some 25 Genies and other Canadian prizes to his name, he is one of the most awarded filmmakers in Canadian history.

In 1990, he won the Palme d'Or for the short film, 50 ans (50 Years).

He was awarded the Governor General Award in 1997 and the Order of Canada in 1999.

Quebec honoured Carle's contribution to cinema in 1990 with the Albert-Tessier Award for culture and he was made a Grand Officer in the National Order of Quebec in 2007.

But his disease began taking a serious toll on his health in later years.

His last film, Mona McGill et son vieux pere malade, (Mona McGill and her Ailing Father) touched on sickness, aging and death.

Quebec actor Micheline Lanctot remembers Carle as a formidable artist with an extravagant imagination.

"He had a profoundly original spirit," she said.

But his disease left him mute and confined to a wheelchair.

"It was difficult seeing him in that state," said Lanctot.

"When you knew him with his verve and his vigour and his effervescence, it was difficult to see him confined like that."

No date has been set for his funeral.