China Entertainment's My Artistic Career

Chapter 257 Cannes
The three major European international film festivals have a profound impact on Chinese films.

In 1988, "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival. It was the first top international A-type film festival award won by a Chinese film. From then on, the three major international film festivals in Europe have subconsciously influenced Chinese movies, Chinese filmmakers, even if they just create a little disturbance on their red carpet, it will cause a commotion in the Chinese film industry.

Filmmakers from that era have always been influenced by the artistic pursuit of these film festivals, so for a long time, you can see that their works want to take the commercial route while retaining the foundation of artistic films. color.For example, "Hero", "Jing Ke Assassins the King of Qin", "The Promise", "Night Banquet", "House of Flying Daggers", "The Orphan of Zhao", "The City Full of Golden Armor" and so on.

It is precisely based on this swinging attitude that this group of people has neither been fully recognized for their artistry nor received commercial feedback commensurate with their investment.

The latecomers saw this unwelcome result, so they began to slowly go to the other extreme, either joining the business and embracing the box office, that is, people like Ning Hao and Xu Zheng; or they took a more thorough attitude. 'Dedicated' to the artistic standards of Europe's three major international film festivals, the so-called sixth generation directors.

Of course, there is no doubt about the influence of the three major European companies, and even Hollywood blockbusters will take the opportunity to promote them.

The Cannes International Film Festival is the most influential and artistically high-level film festival in the world. At this time every year, tens of thousands of directors, actors, producers, journalists, film critics and ordinary audiences from all over the world gather in the south of France. This small town with a population of less than [-] participates in the world's top film event.

Of course, for most people who attend the film festival, winning awards is secondary. Watching films, communicating, and even doing business are the most important. The Cannes Film Festival gathers major blockbusters from around the world, and the annual turnover and transaction volume are They are all very large, several times larger than other film festivals.

When He Hua brought "A Day Trip", he not only had the ambition to win awards, but also hoped that the film would sell for a good price.

After checking into the hotel on the day of arrival, no one went out again and had a good rest to catch up on the jet lag.

In the next two days, He Hua took his staff to the film trading market. Although the opening ceremony had not yet started, there were already many films in the entire exhibition area in advance to promote themselves. The exhibition area was also full of people, and various people were interspersed among them. I also met my own people, Li Bingbing and the Baodao team.

"'One Day's Dream' is the main competition, right? It will be shown later and I'll go watch it." Li Bingbing asked.

"Yeah," He Hua nodded: "The 17th, the first day of the opening."

"That's great." Li Bingbing was very envious. She also wanted to have her own work participate, instead of just coming here: "Next time you have such an opportunity, you should really consider me. I haven't been nominated for a long time."

He Hua glanced up and down Li Bingbing: "Forget it, you are too beautiful. The audience will ignore my plot. Besides, you have been to the Oscars and still care about this?"

A smile appeared on Li Bingbing's face, and Bai Jiu raised his neck slightly: "That means I didn't win the award. I don't care when I win the award."

At this year's Oscars, she was invited to attend the red carpet for "Snowflakes and the Secret Fan", and she was a little proud. She felt that this was the beginning of her fame.

The two of them chatted and laughed and walked to the exhibition area of ​​"A Day Trip to Sweet Dreams". Many people were already asking about the movie's release time. The staff who had arrived earlier than He Hua were patiently explaining.

Li Bingbing counted the heads and compared it with the exhibition areas he passed before: "It seems to be quite popular."

He Hua didn't answer, but stepped forward to communicate with the person in charge at the scene.

"Most of them are French, and several French film dealers have already inquired about the price. The highest price has reached 60 euros. The French really like this type of film." Yu Hong told the boss about the situation in the past few days. .

He Hua frowned, this price was not very satisfactory to him.

They also asked someone to do a survey before they came. Generally, movies like "A Day Trip" with an investment of 500 to 1000 million US dollars are generally sold in the market before a million US dollars. Of course, this is not the case in countries with small film markets. In this column, for example, Bangzi Country and Guizi Country will be relatively low, with 80 and 50 possible.

But "Sweet Dreams" is a film that has been shortlisted for the main competition, so its value will probably rise no matter what.

It seems that Chinese-language films have really not been favored in overseas markets in recent years. Of course, this is due to the poor performance of Chinese-language films in overseas markets in recent years. There is also a large number of Chinese-language film producers who often sell films at low prices in order to obtain some profits. This has led to this Prices continue to move lower.

The price of 60 euros in the single market cannot be considered low in recent years.

He Hua had no good way to do this. He could only ask Yu Hong to wait and see, and not to sell in a hurry.

On May 5, at 16:7 pm local time in France, the opening red carpet and opening ceremony were held at the Lumiere Hall of the Palais du Cinema.

He Hua, Liao Fan and others entered in a low-key manner, and the media reporters at the scene did not give them too many shots. There was no way, the new faces were like this.

However, Qi Xi's elegant long skirt and Fan Bingbing's colorful porcelain-like dress are quite eye-catching.

However, He Hua's attention was completely attracted by Fan Bingbing's head shape. After looking at it for a long time, he could only admit that this person is really a 'monster', a coquettish monster. No wonder he can secure a top position just by his beauty.

Fan Yaoyan came to attend the red carpet, while Qi Xi brought her own new literary work, "The Mystery of the Floating City" directed by Lou Ye, in which she co-starred with Hao Lei, Qin Hao and others.

The opening ceremony was hosted by Bérénice Bejo, the heroine of the Oscar-winning film "The Artist". The opening remarks were, as usual, praise for the film. This has never changed in Cannes.

There is also a video paying tribute to Nanni Moretti, the chairman of the competition unit jury. This is something foreign film festivals such as Cannes have done very well. They selected all masters and did not ask laymen who do not know how to pretend to understand to make the decision. .

After the Italian Nanni Moretti appeared on the stage, he also expressed his respect for Cannes in French:

“This is the best film festival in the world and it is an honor to be the president of the jury.”

At the end, all the creators of the opening film "Moonrise Kingdom" came on stage to announce the official opening of this film festival.

These days, the media are constantly sending the latest reports back to China:
"Celebrities gathered together to go to Cannes, He Hua insinuated, 'What are you doing if you don't have any works?'"

"Two single seedlings: "Sweet Dreams" in the main competition section and "Mystery in the Floating City" in the 'Un Certain Regard' section, Chinese films are on the decline."

"Little tricks keep happening, and Yang Mi's path has gone astray."

"Fan Bingbing responded to the question: 'The vase is not important, the contents in the vase are the most important'"

"He Hua, Yan Bingyan, and Liao Fan made a low-key appearance in "One Day Tour". Filmmakers still have to rely on their works to speak for themselves."

He Hua was speechless when chatting on the phone with his girlfriend. He was insisting on using me as a raft to stir up disputes.

However, thanks to these reports, "One Day Tour" has become more and more famous in China.

It has attracted the attention of domestic movie fans because of "Party A and Party B", "Ge You participated in", and "Ge You and Liu Bei collaborated again". Now it has been selected as the most valuable main competition unit in Cannes, and according to He Hua In his previous works, he probably wouldn't have made those obscure literary films, so this makes the audience look forward to it even more.In the current survey of "the most anticipated movies to be released in the summer" conducted by many theater chains, "A Day Trip" and "Painted Skin 2" are far ahead.

Moreover, a small group of people who used to complain about the lack of artistry in He Hua's works have recently shut their mouths, fearing that they would be slapped in the face if "A Day Trip" won the award.

The expectations of domestic movie fans and the praise from the media made He Hua suddenly worried about gains and losses. He has always felt that his talent lies in writing. He was very proud of being admitted to the Department of Theater and Literature of the Chinese Theater Academy simply by relying on his writing skills. But now everyone seems to be paying more attention to it. His identity as a director.

He really just took pictures of the works he liked in the player.

Now everyone thinks that he is a genius director. Who can reason with this? If he really wins the award, will they ask him to follow the requirements of Yimou and Kaige?This is really hard to comment on.

So he simply edited on Weibo:
The recent praises from everyone have made me worry a bit, because I know that I am not a talented player, and I rarely have flashes of inspiration on the set, and some of them are just routine work.

Movies are never the work of one person, especially here. Before we start shooting, we will have a long and extensive discussion about how to make the picture look better, make the lens language clearer, and what to use for the final effect. Various editing methods, presentations, etc. After consensus, various scripts are generated, and then good actors are found to complete them.

Therefore, movies are the product of the wisdom of a team, and this is especially true for "A Day Trip to Dreams."

If the movie really wins, please give applause to every member of our crew. If it doesn’t win, then I must be holding everyone back.

The next day, "Sweet Dreams" premiered in Cannes.

There were many Chinese people at the premiere, all here to support He Hua. Bona bosses Yu Dong, Yang Mi, Zhou Xun, Qin Hao, etc. Basically all the stars from the mainland who came to attend Cannes were here.

It is worth mentioning that He Hua's fellow actor Jia Zhangke also brought actors from his "Destined" crew to support him.

The two had known each other for a long time and had met before at ceremonies and film bureau meetings.

"I heard you want to open a literary cinema?" He Hua and Jia Zhangke chatted briefly after shaking hands.

"Yeah." Jia Zhangke felt that it was too uncomfortable for two men not to talk to each other and smoke: "Many of my friends' films have been made and there is no place to show them, so they thought I would build a theater that specializes in showing literary and artistic films. It's not a big place."

If you only open theaters, you will definitely not make money. For example, the Broadway Cinema Center, which opened in BJ in 2009, is still losing money. If you don't make money, one or two art theaters can't change the current situation of art films at all.

After thinking about it, He Hua still suggested: "You can try to open a small movie theater like the one you mentioned next to a petty bourgeoisie shop like a library, coffee shop, or bar. Literary and artistic young people prefer to gather in such places. It is better to Master the audience.”

Jia Zhangke also knew that He Hua was not only a director, but also a very successful businessman. He must have thought more comprehensively than he did. At least he might be better at business thinking, so he nodded and took his words to heart.

"I'll go back and research what to eat tonight. I know a restaurant with good taste."

Well, Jia Zhangke was very familiar with these film festivals. He Hua smiled and nodded, then went to entertain the others.

The plot of "A Day Trip to Sweet Dreams" has been discussed in detail many times, so I won't go into details here.

The theme of this film is also very obvious, which is to use an absurd and romantic story to reveal the cruelty of love and the complexity of human nature.

The disillusionment hidden behind the filter in the movie is actually asking everyone:

What is love?Why does it arise and why does it cease?

30 years of companionship can be refreshed in a few days;
You can love or not love, you can love you or others, you can write the script yourself;

Falling in love with you all over again might just be out of jealousy;
Another person would still be bored, but the core of the boredom is oneself;

Isn't this how human nature is, and isn't this also how life is? Everything is centered on oneself, and one is always looking for a suitable reason for oneself.

When the movie ended, the screening hall burst into warm applause. Even if the big screen was full of oriental faces, it could not stop the audience from liking the core of the movie.

Many French people at the scene felt that this director was very un-Chinese. His work Mrs. moved them so much that they were as moved as when they saw "Amélie" in 2001. This feeling was not limited to them, but more people later. The media and film critics said so too.

"The film places the banal topic of marriage crisis in a simulated dramatic space that replays real memories, evoking the inexplicable fun of surprises in the play-within-a-drama where it is difficult to distinguish true from false, as well as thoughts on the nature of love and marriage."

——"Daily Screen"

"We always try to find our passion for reality by relying on things that exist in reality. This will eventually be an endless loop. The director smiled and removed the illusion of romantic illusion in the play, revealing the cruel and dazzling reality, and let This movie is not like first meeting, but it is like life.”

——"The Hollywood Reporter" Cannes Program

"The pity of the film is that the narrative structure is closed. The director was too obsessed with combining the commercial and artistic aspects of the film, causing it to lose the agility and elegance it could have had."

——Maren Ader

Well, that last one probably cost the movie points with the jury.

After its premiere, "A Day Trip" was well received, especially by local audiences, and the next five screenings were sold out.

The competition in Cannes this year is still fierce. Austrian director Michael Haneke, who just won the Palme d'Or in 09 with "The White Ribbon", brought his latest masterpiece "Love" this time.

This film that explores love and death received overwhelming applause upon its release. Film critics gave this film the highest score of 3.3 in the film festival program, which is the same as another highly popular Romanian film "Beyond the Mountains". flat.

There are also "Rust and Bone" and "Holy Cars", which are considered to be the favorites to win the award.

Due to its Hollywood-style structure, film critics only gave "Dreams a Day Trip" a score of 2.8, and the media was not very optimistic about it for a while.

(End of this chapter)