Jean-Luc Godard still hasn’t responded to the letters, emails and phone calls from the Academy telling him that he’s been voted an Honorary Oscar, but an Australian newspaper tracked down the elusive filmmaker in a small Swiss town last week and got the word about his plans:
To the surprise of nobody, he won’t show up to accept his Academy Award.
This news came not from Godard himself, but from his partner Anne-Marie Mieville. When approached by a reporter from the Australian, Godard acknowledged that he had received the letter from the Academy, then turned on his heels and walked away.
But Mieville said that he wouldn’t be attending, and supplied a couple of reasons.
“Jean-Luc won’t go to America, he’s getting old for that kind of thing,” she said. “Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?”
The director also pointed out to her, she added, that the award is bestowed not at the main Oscar ceremony, but at a separate, non-televised event.
“He just told me, ‘It’s not the Oscars,’” she said. “At first he thought it was going to be part of the same ceremony, then he realized it was a separate thing in November.”
Honorary Oscar winners who receive their awards at the Governors Awards ceremony – which most people think is a lot more fun than the actual Oscar show – are also invited to attend the Academy Awards and be recognized there.
Mieville suggested that Godard, rather than refusing the award, would probably send “someone from his production team” to represent him at the Governors Awards.
Considering that Godard’s written missives over the past two decades have been enigmatic, political and filled with swipes at figures like Steven Spielberg, one thing is clear: If Godard also writes a speech for his representative to deliver, it could be an awfully entertaining night.
