Francis Coppola‘s publicist Kathleen Talbert has sent out the following message about Tetro, Coppola’s latest film, and the Cannes Film Festival: “Since there has been much speculation in the press about the Cannes line-up,” she staites, “we want you to be aware that Francis Coppola has declined to bring his new film Tetro, starring Vincent Gallo, to Cannes.

“Below is his statement. If you choose to use it, I would ask that you use it in its entirety. Oh, and just to correct another misconception — Tetro [has been] shot in black and white and color.” Todd McCarthy‘s Cannes lineup piece that ran in Variety yesterday mentioned that Tetro (a) is a prospective Cannes attraction and (b) has been shot in black and white.

“While I very much appreciate the invitation,” Coppola’s statement reads, “this is an independent film, self-financed and self-released, and I felt that being invited for a non-competition gala screening wasn’t true to the personal and independent nature of this film. More important than Cannes, our team can focus all our time, energy and resources into the U.S. release this June 11th.”

HE translation #1: “As some of you have gathered since the release of Youth Without Youth, the words ‘independent film,’ ‘self-financed’ and ‘self-released’ as they concern yours truly are euphemisms for confounding, difficult to stay engrossed in, draggy, mind-numbing, etc.” HE translation #2: “If we take our film to Cannes we’ll get killed by the critics and the word will go out everywhere so why do it? We can only lose.”

Tetro will open on 6.11 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, D.C.