PARIS - - French film maker Eric Rohmer, director of numerous critically acclaimed films including "My Night at Maud's", died on Monday at the age of 89, his producer Margaret Menegoz told AFP.

Relatives said he had been hospitalized a week ago but did not give further details of his condition.

Rohmer's films, widely distributed abroad, explored relationships and love affairs with understated performances and delicate attention to visual detail.

He emerged in the 1960s as a key member of the French New Wave of realist film making, working with other masters of the genre such as Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

But Rohmer distinguished himself in his own work by a gentler style, with understated, articulate performances and soft colors.

One typical work from 1983, "Pauline at the Beach", told the story of a 15-year-old girl's summer by the seaside, reflecting his fondness for observing adult romances through the eyes of a young female protagonist.

Another series of films, "Six Moral Tales" in the 1960s and 1970s, were a modern retelling of 18th century fables.

They included "My Night at Maud's", a characteristically subtle tale about sex, romance and religion which won an Oscar nomination for best foreign film and brought Rohmer international fame.

Rohmer set up his own production company, Les Films du Losange, and made 24 feature films over a 50-year career.

He described his style of cinema as one of "thoughts rather than actions? as, dealing "less with what people do than what is going on in their minds while they are doing it."

Former culture minister Jack Lang, in a statement reacting to Rohmer's death, called him "one of the masters of French cinema" and hailed his "original and revolutionary stature".