Cryptic crossword clue
Absence of old French actor/director, apparently, in unknown writer’s commentary 10

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 10 letter word ANNOTATION

A
N
N
O
T
A
T
I
O
N

Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "commentary" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case commentary = annotation.
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.
This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.

What does ANNOTATION mean?

ANNOTATION noun
  1. A critical or explanatory commentary or analysis
  2. A comment added to a text
  3. The process of writing such comment or commentary
  4. Metadata added to a document or program
  5. Information relating to the genetic structure of sequences of bases

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