Jean-Luc Godard Won’t Receive His Oscar in Person
By
October 25, 2010
It’s official: Jean-Luc Godard will not be attending the Governors Awards on November 13 to accept his honorary Oscar. According to the Los Angeles Times, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak said Godard “reiterated his thanks for the award and also sent his good wishes to the other individuals being honored the same night—Kevin Brownlow, Francis Ford Coppola and Eli Wallach—who he refers to as ‘the three other musketeers,'” but Godard won’t be appearing in person to accept the award. The academy will accept it on his behalf and send it to him in Switzerland.
If you’re wondering why the 79-year-old filmmaker wouldn’t want to come to America to receive an Oscar, the New York Times has a clue:
“Anne-Marie Mieville, Mr. Godard’s wife and collaborator, said her husband was put off by the fact that the award was being given out at an event held several months before the Oscars ceremony. Ms. Mieville said: ‘He’s getting old for that kind of thing. Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?’ One day later, the Academy said it had received a handwritten note from Mr. Godard indicating he might make the trip after all.”
Personally, we’re Breathless at the news, which seems to demonstrate some measure of Contempt for the Academy. Why is Godard so insistent on aligning himself with a Band of Outsiders who rebuff the Oscar honor? He can’t spend a Weekend in the States to receive an award Made in USA? It’s no way To Live One’s Life.
