The literary era since 1979

The opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival was held as scheduled. Compared with the Cannes Film Festival, it was slightly inferior in terms of both scale and popularity.

However, fortunately, it is still a major event in the global film industry.

Gong Xing is wearing a blue and white cheongsam, which makes her look gentle and elegant, with a hint of the misty Jiangnan charm, as if she had walked out of a painting.

Zhu Lin beside her was wearing an emerald green cheongsam, just like the willows by the lake, light and flowing, soft and graceful, which was a feast to the eyes.

The two women who travelled hand in hand were escorted by Fang Yan, Zhang Guorong, Wang Jiawei and others, attracting countless eyes along the way.

After all, they are considered the biggest names among all the guests attending the entire Venice Film Festival.

They are not proud to attend the Venice Film Festival, but the Venice Film Festival is proud of their arrival.

It is for this reason that when the news spread that Fang Yan and Gong Xing would bring "In the Mood for Love", entertainment reporters from all over the world flocked to the scene.

"Kakakaka."

All the cameras were aimed at Gong Xing, Zhu Lin and others who were posing, and the sound of shutter clicks kept ringing.

Fangyan gave everyone a look, and the others understood and walked towards the theater specially prepared by the organizing committee for "In the Mood for Love".

Just like the one prepared by the Cannes Film Festival Organizing Committee for "Farewell My Concubine", it is also a super large cinema that can accommodate 10,000 people.

There is a poster on each side of the gate. On the left is a poster of "Zhou Moyun" played by Zhang Guorong, looking melancholy and smoking.

On the right is a photo of Zhu Lin, who plays "Su Lizhen", wearing a cheongsam and standing melancholy in a dark street under dim lights.

Fang Yan, Gong Xing, Zhang Guorong, Wang Jiawei and others were waiting at the door, personally entertaining the crew, guests and judges who came to support the show.

After a while, several people with Chinese faces appeared in their sight.

"Mr. Fang, Director Gong, I have heard of you for a long time. I am Hou Hsiao-hsien from Taiwan."

"Nice to meet you."

Fangyan glanced around and noticed two familiar faces in the crowd. One was the male lead of "A City of Sadness", Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and the other was Chan Song-yung, the father-in-law in the movie "Fong Sai-yuk" who kept shouting "Win people over with virtue", Lei Lao Hu.

"Director Hou, it's nice to meet you."

Gong Xingke said politely: "I thought In the Mood for Love was fighting alone this time, but when I heard that a film from Taiwan was also participating on behalf of Chinese films, my husband and I were really overjoyed."

When these words were spoken, Liang Chaowei, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Guorong and others looked at each other and smiled, expressing their agreement.

"If Mr. Fang and Director Gong don't mind, I wonder if you could come and watch the screening of A City of Sadness?"

Hou Hsiao-hsien requested sincerely.

Fangyan readily agreed and welcomed them into the theater, just like he would any other visiting guests.

The Venice Film Festival jury was present with the organizing committee chairman Biraghi and was seated near the front of the audience.

"Clap clap clap."

Accompanied by applause, the screening of "In the Mood for Love" was about to begin, but before that, there was a short interview and Q&A session.

The reporter from The Hollywood Reporter asked the first question, which was a fairly standard one, asking about the inspiration for In the Mood for Love.

The dialect said bluntly: "At first, I read a work by Hong Kong writer Liu Yichang, called "Opposite", which tells the story of two neighbors who have an extramarital affair and often meet in the stairwell of their apartment. I think it was the collision of these two inspirations that eventually gave birth to "In the Mood for Love." When they heard the word "extramarital affair", the whole audience was suddenly in an uproar, and discussions broke out one after another.

The media in the audience became even more excited, and the reporter from ICS immediately asked the second question:

"In other words, In the Mood for Love is a movie that deals with extramarital affairs and explores ethics and morality?"

"The extramarital affair is only the surface of the story. The core of the film is not an incident that happened in Hong Kong in the 60s."

Fang Dialect said slowly: "It's about something more fundamental - how we connect with each other, how we harness desire and restraint, how we construct narratives to understand our lives... These questions will never become obsolete, and every generation must answer them for themselves."

"So, this movie is different from other stories about extramarital affairs. It is not unrestrained, indulgent, or passionate."

Gong Xing said seriously: "On the contrary, it is to be restrained, restrained, and even suppress the love in your heart."

Everyone was surprised and whispered to each other.

“So in order to achieve this effect, we also did as much subtraction as possible during editing, deleting all unnecessary lines, actions and shots, and putting the really important things outside the camera. Through the prompts of the camera language, we left it to the audience’s imagination, so that the audience knew everything but could not see any explicit instructions. Infinite imagination was born in the blank space, and the tension between the visible and the invisible surged.”

Gong Xing talked incessantly.

Wang Jiawei then added that, in short, everything is implied, and what is filmed is not the spoken lines, but the emotional undercurrents beneath the camera.

These words completely moved the audience, judges and media, and made them more interested in In the Mood for Love.

After answering several questions in succession, Fangyan saw that he had successfully whetted the audience's appetite, so he took the opportunity to end the interview and quickly walked off the stage.

Gong Xing exhaled, "The next step is to wait for the test results to come out."

Zhu Lin comforted her by saying that she would definitely get good grades, after all, "In the Mood for Love" had the best timing, location and people this time.

Fang Yan said: "In terms of location, the Cannes Film Festival is actually better than the Venice Film Festival."

"why?"

Gong Xing and Zhu Lin said in unison.

"Because extramarital affairs are a speciality in France."

Fangyan showed a playful smile. In the 13th century, the culture of extramarital affairs, that is, the culture of mistresses, gradually became popular in France and was deeply rooted in its history. Whether it was high-ranking officials, writers, or ordinary people, there was an extremely strong and hot "lust".

It was not until the 18th century in France, when salon culture became popular, that the relationship between men and women became more complex and subtle.

Driven by literati and noble ladies, interactions between men and women gradually lost their reserve and became more explicit.

For example, the Marquise de Pompadour, who was known as the "Queen of the Salon" at the time, not only ran the most prestigious art salon in France with her exquisite artistic taste and profound cultural heritage, but also used this platform to meet the young King Louis XV and eventually became his "mistress".

"There is such a thing!"

This was the first time Gong Xing had heard of such things, and he was shocked.

"I just wonder if Italy has a unique cultural tradition like France, and what the attitude towards extramarital affairs is like?"

Fangyan said this while sitting in his seat, staring at the giant screen that was gradually glowing. (End of this chapter)