After deciding to give an Honorary Oscar to Jean-Luc Godard, it seems the Academy is having trouble tracking the auteur down:
The motion picture Academy has spent almost 24 frantic hours trying to reach the iconoclastic filmmaker (“Breathless”) to inform him he’s getting an honorary Oscar — and by late Wednesday they still hadn’t been able to find him.
Presumably he has no idea he’s received the honor.
Comments
12 responses to “Paging Jean-Luc Godard”
That doesn’t surprise me at all. He’s an incredible artist, but something of a cranky old man these days. Tracking him down is almost as hard as finding a real picture of Bigfoot, or Terrence Malick for that matter.
Will he show up to New York Film Fest?
The NYFF apparently has received no communication back from him about attending this year.
It would appear possible he never intends to leave his home in Switzerland ever again.
Do they want him to show up? His acceptance speech will no doubt be some awkward rant about how much he hates hollywood.
Actually, few critics loved Hollywood (or at least some of American film) as much as Godard in his days at Cahiers du Cinema. He worshiped many director (quite a few of whom never won Oscars).
If he sends a statement, it could be a bit awkward, but also very witty, articulate and provocative (he speaks excellent English).
He probably read it here already. :)
If nothing else, local media in Geneva (near where he lives) would have gone out to his home to get a comment.
I think In Praise of Love, at the absolute least, leaves little doubt about Godard’s view of modern Hollywood, many decades after the very different Hollywood he was reviewing in his Cahiers years. I can’t conceive of him holding the Academy Awards in anything but contempt, unless he just agrees to be bemused by them, or politely grateful to be honored.
“I can’t conceive of him holding the Academy Awards in anything but contempt…”
No pun intended.
I’d like to see Godard make a speech just to see him break up the Academy Awards circlejerk.
To this day Godard claims Hitchcock is his favorite director of all time. And when doing interviews for his latest movie he said he is a huge fan of the American tv show House, M.D.. So there are exceptions even for him.
Good for him. Fuck ’em.