Full-time actor

Chapter 525 [90] The Venice organizers’ retention!

《The 62nd Venice International Film Festival opened yesterday! 》

"Chen Yu and his girlfriend Liu Yifei made their first public appearance in couple outfits, causing a sensation on the Venice red carpet!"

"Venice opens with Chinese films taking the lead, three films shortlisted for the main competition, seven films screened, and the best in other categories!"

"Seven Swords" opens in Venice and is well received. Foreigners don't understand it but applaud! "

"George Clooney's new film Good Night and Good Luck premiered, received rave reviews from the media, and the jury stood up and applauded!"

"Chen Yu's new film "Departures" premiered, facing the topic of death directly, and was praised for his natural and delicate acting skills, conquering the audience!"

"Li An's Brokeback Mountain premieres today, three Chinese films are competing for the Golden Lion Award!"

……

After only one day, not only several major domestic portals, but even Hollywood and European venues reported the grand opening of Venice yesterday.

Sina, NetEase and other media even launched a special topic on the front page, broadcasting various highlights and news of the Venice Film Festival every day.

Although there were many stars at the red carpet ceremony in Venice this year, the starlight was actually a bit dim, and there were not many movie stars from Hollywood. On the contrary, from Asia, in addition to China, many stars from Japan and South Korea also came. The competition between Europe and Hollywood has been very obvious in recent years.

But it is a good thing for Asia, as it will make the awards more favorable to European and Asian countries.

Although not many people came to Hollywood, the traffic in Venice was quite large.

In particular, Chen Yu and Liu Yifei's first public red carpet show and the premieres of three films dominated the headlines of entertainment sections in various countries.

Even Hollywood is no exception.

Domestic media reporters were speechless after watching "Seven Swords", while "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Departures" received unanimous praise from everyone; among them, Europe and the United States tend to prefer the former, while "Departures" was more popular among the Asian group.

The famous Venice Film Festival Organizing Committee's publication "CIAK IN MOSTRA" has listed the scores given to the two films by the media and film critics yesterday.

At present, "Departures" is clearly in the leading position and has the highest score.

5星制，9个评分人中1个打了5星、3个打了4星半、3個打了4星，还有2个则是3星半，平均分4.17；相较而言《晚安好运》的评分则是有着剧烈偏差，收获2个5星、3个4星、1个3星半和3个3星，评分为3.83！

The rating of "Departures" did not fluctuate much, but the rating of "Good Night and Good Luck" was polarized between 5 stars and 3 stars.

Of course this is just a reference, after all, only two shortlisted films were premiered.

Although both are favorites to win awards, Venice often fails to win. The ratings in the exhibition publication often do not mean awards, but the ratings are real. In terms of word of mouth, "Departures" has already won.

Just like the ratings for the Best Actor, after the two movies came out, Chen Yu led "Good Night, Good Luck"'s David Strathairn and George Clooney with an absolute advantage of 2 points!
The Chinese media has even put forward the slogan of "striving for the Grand Slam".

As we all know, Chen Yu is only one Best Actor award away from winning the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor award to complete the Grand Slam of Best Actor awards at the three major film festivals.

The current Venice Film Festival Best Actor award is clearly still a little short of that.

Asia was deifying itself, while Europe and the United States were dividing, which gave Chen Yu a good opportunity.

Especially after yesterday's premiere of "Departures", every judge was amazed by Chen Yu's performance, something that, apart from the techniques and performance traces, is hard to associate with Chen Yu's age.

The performance was too natural and delicate.

Everyone felt Chen Yu's many detailed interpretations of this role through this film.

For example, the contradiction between ideals, artistic pursuits and reality.

Husband, the helplessness of supporting the family.

The son's guilt over his mother's death, and his confusion and understanding after losing his father's love.

Of course, there is also the process of the undertaker's profession from shallow to deep, from self-loathing to spiritual satisfaction; the protagonist completes his own spiritual redemption, and uses real skills to let all the audience see the greatness of this profession in one shot.

The emotions are neither excessive nor too repressed, but rather a relatively balanced middle state. It is warm, funny, and touching. The film does not have much staying power, but it gives a deep enough understanding of the profession of undertaker.

This is probably the meaning of the film.

It exceeds the value of the film's plot itself, and is also an important scoring basis for many award-winning films.

But in fact, this kind of performance is very difficult. The director's ability is to make a good movie, while the actor has to make the viewing experience of the movie just right.

One point more would make it seem heavy and the movie would become depressing, and no one likes to watch a movie that is too depressing.

If one point is less, it would seem that you don’t respect the profession enough.

It is this kind of perfect touch that highlights an actor's control over the plot.

In all, Chen Yu was like a real undertaker, interpreting to everyone the social complexities encountered in this profession.

Chen Yu's performance gave this masterpiece a higher possibility.

In fact, Chen Yu didn't say much after the premiere.

The death of Yang Baoxin is the key to the sublimation of his performance. This sincerity runs through both reality and the film. However, he does not want the public to discuss this matter too much. The old man gave him such a great help, and it would be a bit unkind to talk about it again.

Let this story end in Chen Yu's heart. Chen Yu also specifically told Takita Yojiro and others that no one should tell this to anyone.

So does the media.

Chen Yu didn't want anyone to disturb the old man's pure land.

So after the premiere, many people praised Chen Yu's performance, but Chen Yu just smiled and didn't say much.

They just thought that Chen Yu was immersed in the plot after watching the movie; but only Liu Yifei and others understood that he was immersed in the thoughts of Yang Baoxin. If he were alive, he would be very happy to see this movie!

The old man will watch the profession of undertaker being known, understood, respected and loved by more people.

Sadly, he never saw it again.

This night was very peaceful.

Chen Yu had a dream. In the dream, the old man came to see him, smiled at him, and touched his head for the first time ever.

"Master Bao——"

Chen Yu opened his eyes, but saw Liu Yifei, with her big, bright eyes, looking at him very closely. Her bare face, yet still beautiful, was so close to him.

"Are you having a nightmare?"

Liu Yifei rested her chin on Chen Yu's chest, and Chen Yu shook his head: "No, it was a good dream!"

"I heard you calling Grandpa Bao's name all the time, and I thought you had a bad dream!"

"Master Bao, I think you saw the movie I acted in!"

Chen Yu looked at a treasure box in the hotel, which was the undertaker's tools that Yang Baoxin had given him.

The box is there, the person is there.

At yesterday's premiere, the toolbox was placed at Chen Yu's feet.

"I read in a book that if something follows its owner for a long time, it will be imbued with the owner's scent. I think Mr. Bao must have watched the movie yesterday!"

Liu Yifei was there comforting Chen Yu, and Chen Yu nodded: "Yeah, I think so too!"

"Get up, you have to go to the premiere of Brokeback Mountain today!" Once you become famous, many things are inevitable; just like when someone invites you to attend a certain occasion, if it were Chen Yu before, even if he won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actor Award, Li An might not necessarily invite him.

But now, all the 20 shortlisted films have sent him viewing letters.

This is a symbol of status in the circle.

The double award for Best Actor and his huge popularity in Asia are enough to make Chen Yu one of the big names in this year's Venice Film Festival.

Chen Yu was not dressed very formally, but rather casually, and so was Liu Yifei next to him. The two of them walked towards the Cinema Palace like an ordinary couple.

These days, in addition to attending the premieres of various movies, Chen Yu also had to accept exclusive interviews from several domestic and foreign media.

Sina Night has also sent out invitations a long time ago.

Chen Yu and Liu Yifei must attend the event on the evening of the 7th. The chairman of the jury will also be there. Asian filmmakers, as well as several famous Hollywood and European figures, will also be present.

威尼斯电影节基本上分为两个部分，以9月7日为界，前半部分是8月31日到9月6日，为开幕式、各大导演和作品的亮相、“华夏电影百年”的威尼斯活动。

The second half of the film festival, from September 9 to 7, apart from the closing ceremony where the Golden Lion and Silver Lion awards are announced, is the selection of several categories and voting, speculation and external discussion on the final grand prize.

Chen Yu had actually watched "Brokeback Mountain" in his previous life!
This film has received high praise both at home and abroad, but Chen Yu personally doesn't like it very much, especially the part about the gay man's wife.

He does not reject homosexuality, it is everyone's freedom; but you can't get married and then find out that the person you love is a man, isn't that ridiculous?

The key wife is still Anne Hathaway...

……

"Chen Yu, are you here?"

Li An rubbed his hands and greeted Chen Yu and Liu Yifei very stiffly; he looked a little socially anxious, but in fact it was due to his personality. Li An was thin-skinned and was not good at dealing with people.

But as a director, he had to do this kind of thing, so he could only use some small actions to ease his anxiety.

In his previous life, Chen Yu had read his autobiography and knew his life very well.

"Director Li!"

Chen Yu and Li An smiled at each other, and the two had already decided on a collaboration plan for their next work.

It’s “Bruce Lee”!
Zou Wenhuai has persuaded him to give up "Lust, Caution" and shoot this work instead. In fact, Li An himself is also very interested in it. In his previous life, "Bruce Lee", which he launched in 2022, starred his son.

The specific start of filming of this life should be in the first half of next year at the earliest.

Li An is famous for his extremely slow preparation before filming. He will not start shooting until everything is fully prepared; and he has extremely high requirements for the script.

The script for the previous life of "Bruce Lee" took a year to prepare and was nearly 350 pages long. According to the Hollywood script rule of one page per minute, if the film was shot according to the original script, the film would be 350 minutes long, nearly 6 hours!
Zou Wenhuai has already hired someone to write the script for this life. At the same time, Li An's long-time Hollywood partner James Schamus and Wang Huiling, the screenwriter of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Eat Drink Man Woman" and "Lust, Caution", have also participated in the creation of the script.

The two people and Bruce Lee's family were responsible for Bruce Lee's American plot, while Zou Wenhuai was in charge of the Hong Kong part.

It can be seen that both parties have great ambitions for this film.

What Chen Yu has to do, of course, is to give the final review of the script.

After sitting down in the second row with Liu Yifei, Chen Yu discovered that there was a famous director sitting next to him - Wu Yusen. This time he brought his new film "The Forgotten Child" to promote the film.

Chen Yu had actually never heard of this movie, but it was co-produced with the great director Emir Kusturica.

Emir Kusturica is a director of the Cannes Double Gold Club, with two of his works winning the Palme d'Or. He has also been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Venice and Berlin Awards. He is a favorite at major film festivals and one of the very few contemporary film masters to have completed the "Grand Slam" of the three major film festivals.

He is just not very famous because he is a Yugoslav director.

If he were a director from Britain, France, China or North America, his current achievements and fame would definitely be more than this.

This is the tragedy of small countries and some non-existent big countries.

Chen Yu's current status is inseparable from his Chinese nationality; this identity is actually a strong help.

This is an implicit background, which many actors and directors often ignore spontaneously.

But without this nationality, you won’t be able to get such good resources, and it will be impossible for you to become the protagonist of Venice.

The market is everything.

clap clap clap!
Amidst the applause of the crowd, "Brokeback Mountain" had its global premiere.

The plot was not much different from the previous life, and Heath Ledger's acting in the movie was indeed worthy of praise; more than 2 hours later, there was loud cheers from the audience.

Another masterpiece is born. This year's Venice is really full of surprises.

The shortlisted films have already premiered three times, but in the eyes of many viewers and film critics, all of them have the potential to win the final grand prize.

"A gay movie should have a high chance of winning an award, right?"

Liu Yifei clapped her hands and whispered in Chen Yu's ear.

Although it is not yet politically correct, homosexuality has always been a taboo. Even in the United States, people dare not discuss it openly. Some states even strongly resist it. When Brokeback Mountain was released, some conservatives almost beat Li An to death.

Unlike later, the world is completely insane.

Even bad movies made by transgender directors can win awards.

"It's hard to say. It depends on the judges' preferences. Some judges like artistry, some like politics..."

“The jury president, Dante Ferretti, is a famous Hollywood art director and should like artistic films!”

In its previous life, "Departures" did not participate in the Venice Film Festival, while "Brokeback Mountain" won the Golden Lion Award, but it did not win in terms of art, but in terms of its homosexual subject matter; in this life, "Departures" competes with "Brokeback Mountain", and the key to the final victory actually lies in Dante Ferretti's preferences.

Whether it is to follow his own artistic concept or to praise the openness of same-sex themes, Chen Yu does not know.

He could only hope that the judges had their own artistic aesthetic.

In Chen Yu's opinion, "Departures" is a film with strong artistic value, whether it is the dubbing, the true meaning of death, etc.

After a week, the event came to an end with the premiere of these 20 shortlisted films.

Just as Chen Yu was on his way to attend Sina Night, he received a call from Yojiro Takita.

"The organizer just informed me that we have to stay until the awards ceremony is over!"

Yojiro Takita couldn't contain his excitement and spoke to Chen Yu.

"..."

Chen Yu was stunned for a moment, glanced at Liu Yifei beside him, and smiled slightly: "Okay!"

That means, "Departures" will win at least one award at the awards ceremony.

But Venice didn't say what it was specifically, and if the director couldn't ask, the suspense would have to wait until the day of the awards ceremony.

"what happened?"

Liu Yifei looked at Chen Yu who was somewhat happy. Chen Yu shook his head and said, "Nothing. Funeral Director... may win an award!"

(End of this chapter)