Legend Godard snubs Cannes, again

In his now traditional no-show, film legend Jean-Luc Godard failed to turn up for Friday’s premiere of his new movie at the Cannes film festival.

It is the third time since 2004 that the reclusive Swiss-French director has snubbed the world’s top film festival, also staying away in 2010 and 2014.

In contrast, two other contenders for the Palme d’Or top prize from Iran and Russia are desperate to attend but have been banned from travel by their governments.

Four years ago, Goddard blamed mysterious “problems of a Greek type”—at the height of the euro crisis—for keeping him away from the premiere of his “Film Socialism”.

His new film, “The Image Book”, has received a decidedly lukewarm response, with New York Times critic Matthew Anderson calling it an “incomprehensible mash-up of poor pictures and choppy sound”.

Godard announced later that he would give a news conference on the film by FaceTime Saturday, a method famously used by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the failed coup there in 2016.