During his decades-long career, Gilles Carle won a slew of major Quebec, Canadian and international prizes. His Parkinson's disease left him mute and in a wheelchair in later years. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

One of Quebec's greatest filmmakers, whose 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.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest released a statement lamenting 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.

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 1940 to study drawing. But he fell in love with film.

Carle's passion for cinema spawned a decades-long career that produced 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 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 at Cannes for the short film 50 ans (50 Years).

Last film about aging and death

Carle was awarded the Governor General's Award in 1997 and the Order of Canada in 1999. Quebec honoured his 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 père malade, (Mona McGill and Her Ailing Father) touched on sickness, aging and death.

Quebec actor Micheline Lanctôt remembered Carle as a formidable artist with an extravagant imagination.

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

His disease left him mute and confined to a wheelchair.

"It was difficult seeing him in that state," Lanctôt said. "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 Carle's funeral.