Brad Pitt and Sean Penn's new film The Tree Of Life divided critics as it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday (16May11), garnering boos and lacklustre applause from the audience.
Director Terrence Malick's long-awaited film, his first since 2006, shows Pitt as a brutal and strict father, while Penn plays his eldest son as a grown man.
It debuted for the Cannes crowd at a press screening earlier this week, but the movie failed to impress the notoriously tough film critics, with several giving long boos while others handed the film a very short round of applause.
But Malick was not there to witness the varied reaction to his work - the famously shy moviemaker did not turn up to the screening.
Pitt defended Malick's decision to stay away, insisting it is not up to the director to "sell" the movie, adding: "I don't know why it's accepted that people who make things in our business are then expected to sell them, and I don't think that computes with him. He wants to focus on the making of it, not the real estate, selling the real estate. It is an odd thing for an artist to start something and then be salesman."
The film's producer Sarah Green added, "Mr Malick is very shy, and I would say that I believe his work speaks for itself."