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CANNES: Enigmatic Terrence Malick, absent at the premiere of his much-anticipated “The Tree of Life” at the Cannes film festival, is in town, but just avoiding the cameras, organisers said Tuesday.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux, who knows the American director well, told AFP that Malick arrived Sunday but opted to stay away from both the red-carpet premiere and a press conference earlier in the day.
“I convinced him to enter the theatre at the conclusion of the gala evening screening by promising him that there would not be press cameras,” Fremaux said.
“At the end of the film, we allowed time for applause, then saw to it that the cameras were placed on the ground, and Brad Pitt welcomed Terrence Malick who was given a round of applause.”
Malick had otherwise spent Monday “hiding in order not to be photographed” by the legions of news photographers and videographers who are covering the festival that ends on Sunday.
For his part, Pitt and his partner Angelina Jolie skipped the post-premiere soiree for “Tree of Life” in favour of an impromptu late-night dinner at an intimate Cannes restaurant.
In competition for the Palme d'Or, the top prize at Cannes, “The Tree of Life” which stars Pitt as the oppressive father of an all-boy Texas family in the 1950s, and co-stars Sean Penn, got mixed plaudits from critics.
