The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 948 Turning stone into gold
"Gus Van Sant wins the Palme d'Or for the first time in his career."

"'Elephant' wins the Palme d'Or! After a lapse of ten years, an American film once again won the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, following 'Pulp Fiction'."

"A controversy, an accident, a chaos, but the Cannes Film Festival still handed in a perfect answer in the end: 'Elephant'."

"Cannes ends - it's 'Elephant'!"

“Putting cinema back in cinema — ‘Elephant’ wins Palme d’Or, Anson Wood wins Cannes.”

"From controversy to controversy, 'Elephant' stood out amid the chaos and won the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival."

"With the Palme d'Or and Best Director, 'Elephant' became the biggest winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival."

"Not only the Palme d'Or, but Gus Van Sant also won the Best Director Award. 'Elephant' is attracting much attention."

Loud, noisy, full-blown blowout.

The media joined hands to celebrate, and the news of "The Elephant" winning the Palme d'Or covered the front pages of mainstream media and became an absolute hit without a doubt.

Looking at the front page of the New York Times, one can deeply feel the waves created by the closing ceremony and award ceremony——

"'Elephant', Palme d'Or."

Simple and straightforward.

There is nothing fancy or gimmicky. It goes straight to the point without even an exclamation mark, but it demonstrates the power of words.

In this article written by Nicholas Flynn himself, all the praise and affirmation are given to the "elephant" in plain language.

On the one hand, Nicolas started from the Cannes Film Festival and took a panoramic view of this year's works, not only the last four award-winning works, but also other main competition and non-main competition works. At the end of the summary, he ended with "Elephant", showing the courage and determination of the jury.

On the other hand, Nicholas starts with the "elephant", not only analyzing this work that focuses on school violence, but also combing through the daily life of teenagers in today's society through the pseudo-documentary form of the film, and finally showing the thoughts and aftertaste left by Gus Van Sant in this work.

Expand in all directions.

"…Whether 'Elephant' can become the most important work of the first decade of the millennium remains to be seen; but there is no doubt that 'Elephant' will become one of the most important works of the year, especially for the United States. We should wake up and pay attention to the elephant in the room.

The future is happening now.”

The New York Times is worthy of being a leader in the industry. It produced a special issue with comprehensive and in-depth reporting, firmly grasped the opportunity of "Elephant" to win the Palme d'Or, once again demonstrated the social responsibility of the news media, and made its own voice heard in the frenzy of public opinion with a profound and comprehensive excellent report.

And, that's still not all.

Everything is just as Nicholas expected: a storm is brewing, from Europe to Hollywood.

"Who is Anson Wood? From Spider-Man, which almost broke the film history, to Elephant, which won the Palme d'Or, he made a triple jump in just one year."

"'Ansonmania' continues - how did 'Elephant' win the Palme d'Or?"

“Turning stones into gold! Anson Wood once again proves his unique vision.”

Originally, Hollywood was waiting to see the joke. Stories of vases trying to transform themselves happened every day, but there were only a handful of actors who could actually succeed.

So far, the most famous story is probably the legendary story of "Playboy" girl Kim-Basinger who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1997 for "L.A. Confidential". However, such fairy tales are rare in the "dream factory" of Hollywood. More often, vases can never get rid of the label of vases and are eventually eliminated and forgotten in Hollywood, which is fond of new things and dislikes old things. From all aspects, Anson should be just one of the countless waves.

But unexpectedly, a miracle happened.

Miracles are called miracles because they are difficult, grand and rare. Once they happen, they can create huge waves.

It's the same thing in front of me.

The entire Hollywood, inside and out, was shocked and stunned. They did not expect "The Elephant" to win the Palme d'Or, and they did not expect that Anson's acceptance speech at the awards ceremony would cause such a huge wave, sweeping across Europe and the entire North American continent.

can not stop!

Of course, he can still insist that the Palme d'Or belongs to Gus Van Sant, not Anson; in "Elephant", the role played by Anson is insignificant, the vase is still a vase, and Anson still cannot get rid of the vase label because he has not proved his acting talent.

But truly smart people know that these excuses are meaningless.

The importance of the Palme d'Or is something the industry cares about, and that's enough.

Production companies, producers, investors, these bigwigs who control the economic lifeline, they know the significance of the Palme d'Or, and that is the key point.

There is no doubt that Gus' future film projects should receive more attention, but there is a problem here. Gus has no shortage of project investment. But unless Gus is willing to shoot a work like "Good Will Hunting", his works will neither enter the awards season nor attract more box office in independent theaters, and investors will think twice before acting.

The same is true for the "elephant" this time.

The Palme d'Or is glorious, but the box office prospects of the film are still worrying. Just look at HBO's reaction. This TV station is simply an award-winning machine with countless Emmy trophies. There is nothing special about adding another Palme d'Or now. In the end, it still needs to be converted into profits.

HBO remained exceptionally calm and carried out the usual operations.

In contrast, Anson stood out.

Perhaps, the Palme d'Or honors directors rather than actors, but it is a fact that the works selected by Anson won the Palme d'Or.

Starting from "The Princess Diaries", then "Spider-Man", "Catch Me If You Can", and then to the current "Elephant", Anson's four works so far have all been great successes, and he has established his position step by step. If you say it's luck, I'm afraid no one in Hollywood is willing to believe it.

Turning stone into gold?

A guess spread rapidly like wildfire in the blink of an eye.

How did Tom Cruise and Will Smith become superstars back then?
The answer lies in the fact that five consecutive works have exceeded $100 million in North American box office.

Now, Anson has achieved such heights with three consecutive works; and two of the works in which he starred have exceeded 300 million US dollars in North America, and then added a Palme d'Or, it really couldn't be more perfect.

Whether Gus's next work can break the barriers of independent films and bring awards or box office is still unpredictable, and it is worth a try; but there is no doubt that Anson's next work is 100% the focus -

Let's assume that if Anson really has a unique vision and can turn stones into gold, then the production company only needs to keep an eye on Anson and follow Anson to select works, wouldn't they be able to sit back and count money easily?

A thought just popped up and in the blink of an eye it grew wildly like weeds in the wild.

Many eyes gradually focused on it: Wait, when was "The Butterfly Effect" released? Can this work also continue Anson's box office legend? And it is Anson's first work as a producer, isn't this a ready-made test?
The Cannes Film Festival has come to an end, but the aftermath is just beginning.

(End of this chapter)