Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 769: Asian films became the biggest winners of this year’s Cannes Film Festival!

When Fang Minghua received Li Li's call, the filming of "Xiao Wu" was nearing completion and the last scene was being shot today.

In the scene, Xiao Wu, played by Wang Hongwei, was caught for theft. He was walking on the street with an old policeman. The policeman went to do private business and temporarily locked him to the cable that fixed the electric pole.

Xiao Wu squatted on the ground and waited in boredom, while more and more people gathered on the roadside. The onlookers, young and old, pointed and talked, their eyes full of curiosity and contempt, looking at the chained Xiao Wu as if he were a monkey show.

Jia Zhangke's camera kept scanning the crowd, recording it all.

Fang Minghua stood behind Jia Zhangke and watched him filming quietly.

This scene has actually been filmed once before. It goes like this: the old policeman captures Xiao Wu, who is handcuffed and eventually disappears in the crowd.

But Jia Zhangke was somewhat dissatisfied and always felt that something was missing. When he was about to finish work, he suddenly had an idea and decided to reshoot it, changing it to the current set of shots.

It was really shocking.

There is no excessive sensationalism, only a calm narration, but everyone knows:

Xiao Wu is already "dead", completely killed by this set of shots by Jia Zhangke.

At this moment, Fang Minghua's cell phone in the phone case on his waist rang at an inopportune time, and he quickly walked aside to answer it.

"Minghua, this is Lili. I have good news for you." Li Li's sweet voice came from the other end of the receiver.

"What? Xinxin can call me mom now?" Fang Minghua asked with a smile.

"What? The baby is six months old now, it's too early." Li Li said angrily, "Amazon went public, and the closing price was 23.5 US dollars. Your assets have increased by more than million."

"Congratulations." Fang Minghua replied with a smile, and then asked, "Have you told your cousin?"

"Well, I called her first. Guess what my cousin said?"

"How to say?"

"She said that after hearing the news, she suddenly felt so boring."

"Not interesting?"

"Yes, she said that she is busy all day long, and her annual salary, bonuses and other miscellaneous items only add up to 60 yuan, which is not even a fraction of what you earn."

"That's easy, give her a raise!"

"What's the point of raising the salary? My cousin said that even if you gave her the entire Shengshi Film and Television, it would only be worth 10 billion yuan, which is not as much as your assets in Amazon."

"Oh my, did she really say that?"

"Yes, she really said that. She also said she didn't want to do it anymore and just wanted to be a rich wife." Li Li said on the phone.

"Really? That's easy. Just quit your job immediately, go home and find a few nannies and maids to serve you, wear a mink coat, hug a bald bald cat, go to a beauty salon, and play cards. What a wonderful life!" Fang Minghua answered seriously.

"Hehe. I was lying to you, but you really believed me? My cousin doesn't want to live like this."

Fang Minghua also laughed.

If Song Tangtang said that she felt a little emotional about getting rich overnight, he would believe it. But if she said that she quit her job and became a rich wife, he would never believe it even if he was beaten to death.

He knows best what kind of person his daughter-in-law is.

The two chatted for a while before hanging up the phone.

Here, Jia Zhangke has finished his work.

"Have you finished filming?"

"Yes, all the shots have been completed."

"Well, to celebrate the completion of the filming, let's go celebrate tonight. I'll treat everyone and everyone must be drunk." Fang Minghua said loudly.

"Okay" everyone immediately smiled happily.

During the 21 days of filming, Jia Zhangke set a rule that all crew members were not allowed to drink alcohol! Not even beer! How could they not drink some alcohol when they came to the famous Xinghua Village in Shanxi Province?
In the evening, Fang Minghua set up three tables in the hotel. All the crew members, including some temporarily hired handymen, were present, and everyone went home drunk.

"Teacher Minghua, I'm going back to Yanjing to do the post-production of the film." Jia Zhangke said, "Hongwei and I are about to graduate, and we have a lot of things to do at school."

"Okay, you guys go ahead. When the film is reviewed, I'll go to Yanjing with you," Fang Minghua said.

"OK, thanks."

The next morning, the crew disbanded on the spot. Jia Zhangke took his men back to Yanjing by train, while Fang Minghua drove back to Xijing alone.

I stayed in Fenyang for more than twenty days and returned home at the end of May.

When he returned home and saw Song Tangtang, the first thing his wife said to him was: "I have good news for you. Lou Ye's film Bus No. 8 has been nominated for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival."

"Being nominated isn't bad either." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

At the beginning of this year, "Bus No. 100" was released in China, and the box office was indeed terrible, with a total box office of less than 200 million. The cost of this film was million, which is not considered a low-cost movie in this era.

Different from Jia Zhangke and other directors of the sixth generation who like to use non-famous actors or even amateurs as male and female protagonists, Lou Ye's films are never tainted with commercial atmosphere, but he likes to use celebrities very much.

The heroine of the debut film "Dangerous Girl" is Qu Ying, who was a popular actress in that era. "Weekend Lovers" was starred by Wang Zhiwen and Ma Xiaoqing.

The film "Eighth Floor Bus" uses Shao Bing and Gai Lili, both of whom are now well-known in the mainland, especially Gai Lili, who has been nominated for the Best Actress Award at the Hundred Flowers Awards several times and is considered a popular star.

What’s strange is that Lou Ye, who is not well-known, likes popular stars, and these stars are also happy to star in the movies he makes.

This leads to higher filming costs.

"We are also planning to send this film to the Sydney Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada to expand its influence. At the same time, we will sign agreements with film distribution companies in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and other countries, and prepare to release it publicly in these countries first," Song Tangtang added.

"I think there should be no problem in making back my investment, right?" Fang Minghua asked.

"no problem."

"That's good. How were the awards at the Cannes Film Festival this year?" Fang Minghua said with great interest.

"I'll show you the list of winners."

Song Tangtang went upstairs to the study and got the latest issue of "Popular Movies", which clearly listed the winners and candidates of this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Fang Minghua sat on the sofa and looked at it carefully.

Hey, hey.
Asian films became the biggest winners of this year's Cannes Film Festival!

The film "The Eel" directed by the famous Japanese director Shohei Imamura and the Iranian film "Taste of Cherry" both won the "Palme d'Or"!
Hong Kong's King of Sunglasses won the Best Director Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for directing the film "Happy Together"!

In addition, James Summers, who served as the screenwriter for "The Ice Storm" directed by Ang Lee, won the Best Screenplay Award!

Relatively speaking, mainland movies are a bit inferior.

Fortunately, Lou Ye's "Bus No. 8" was nominated for the Palme d'Or, which is a kind of consolation.

"If Zhang Yimou doesn't make art films, there will be no competent directors in China now." Song Tangtang sighed.

"Who said that? Wasn't Chen Kaige nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year for his movie 'Feng Yue'?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Chen Kaige? That's true, but I heard that he also wants to switch to making commercial films." Song Tangtang nodded, "Let's not talk about them, how is the filming of "Xiao Wu" going?" Song Tangtang asked again.

"It's already finished, Jia Zhangke is taking it back to Yanjing for post-production. I'll go there when it's submitted for review."

"These young directors nowadays are more daring than each other." Song Tangtang couldn't help but shook his head when thinking about this.

"This is normal. Didn't Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige risk having their films banned by making one film after another? Now it's the turn of Jia Zhangke and Wang Xiaoshuai. They will eventually break through certain institutional taboos and come out from underground."

Fang Minghua said: "In fact, the biggest "enemy" of this generation of directors is not some leaders of the so-called Film Bureau, but the market. Even if the ban is lifted, what will happen? No one will watch it!"

Song Tangtang fell silent.

(End of this chapter)