This weekend, enterprising British newspapermen approached Jean-Luc Godard outside his home in Switzerland, where he quite naturally declined to talk to them, except to say that yes, he had received the letter informing him of his honorary Oscar, news which will no doubt come as a relief to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who had been having quite the difficult time finding him.
Godard’s partner and collaborator Anne-Marie Mieville elaborated to the waiting press, presumably while standing on the porch: “Jean-Luc won’t go to America, he’s getting old for that kind of thing. Would you go all that way just for a bit of metal?”
She said someone would accept the Oscar in November; the reporters, having gotten their quotes, filled out their report with pointed description, and juicy quotes from the clippings file and one of Godard’s neighbors. Then, presumably, enjoyed the remainder of their working holiday in “in the picturesque village of Rolle… on the shores of Lake Geneva.”