Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year’s recipients of their annual honorary Oscars, with Francis Ford Coppola, silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, 94-year-old actor Eli Wallach all set to be feted. But there’s one other person set to be honored who doesn’t even know he’s won anything yet: Jean-Luc Godard.
Bruce Davis, the Academy’s executive director, said on Wednesday, “We have tried by telephone, by fax, by emails to various friends and associates. We have sent a formal letter by FedEx. But we have certainly not been told he will show up at this point.”
The groundbreaking filmmaker has a particularly dim view of Hollywood and of late, doesn’t seem particularly interested in going through the motions for press or promotion. Earlier this year he didn’t bother making the trip to Cannes to attend the planned (and subsequently canceled) press conference for his latest project, “Film Socialisme.” And with a rumored aversion to flying because he can longer elegantly chain smoke cigarettes while reading Balzac and communist literature, it will be pretty much nothing short of a miracle if he bothers to make his way to Los Angeles in the fall to receive an industry award from a group he could probably care less about. [THR]
