Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 20 [For Director Chen, I will shoulder the heavy burden! ] Please read
The Venice International Film Festival is the world's oldest film festival and also the world's first international film festival. It is known as the "Father of International Film Festivals."

In 1991, the Venice International Film Festival was still very famous and was favored by directors from all over the world. Many directors who wanted to participate in the three major European awards would often come to Venice as their first stop.

The date of the Venice Film Festival has been changed to the end of August to the beginning of September every year since the second session, because this time point happens to be the best season for tourism in Venice.

By the time Li Yishu arrived at the Beijing Film Academy, the Venice Film Festival had already begun to receive film copies mailed from all over the world.

The chairman of the jury of this year's Venice Film Festival is named Gian Luchi Landi, an Italian director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered a very famous director in Italy and also has considerable fame internationally.

He took over the job of chairman of the Venice Film Festival in April, and since then he has been inviting outstanding filmmakers from all over the world to participate in the film festival with their works.

At the same time, Chairman Randy also invited many friends in the circle, such as the great British director John Boorman, the veteran American actor James Belushi...

The jury consists of only nine people. They will watch the works participating in the film festival from all over the world within half a month and select the shortlist.

Brush the film indoors.

"China sent two films this time. One was by Zhang Yimou, who won the Berlin Golden Bear Award. After participating in Berlin and Cannes, he brought his film to Venice."

Chairman Randy smiled and said to the judges around him: "I met Zhang before in Cannes and was deeply impressed by him. This film also has oriental characteristics."

Zhang Yimou became an instant star after winning the Golden Bear Award in Berlin in 1987 for his film Red Sorghum.

His unique Shaanxi-style films have brought a different viewing experience to the international film community, so last year he took "Ju Dou" to the Cannes Film Festival. Although he did not win the Palme d'Or, he successfully won the Louis Brouillard Special Award, which was introduced for the first time at the film festival.

Most of the judges who came to the scene had heard of Zhang Yimou, and when they saw Chairman Randy take the initiative to bring it up, they all nodded to show that they understood what to do.

He is definitely going to be shortlisted. After all, Zhang Yimou's name is very well-known in the three major European cinemas. He has been to Berlin and Cannes twice, and now he has come to Venice with his third work. Naturally, he has attracted much attention.

As for whether it will win the award in the end, we still need to watch the film in detail later.

"The other one is a film jointly recommended by China's Beijing Film Academy and Emei Film Studio. This is the film we will watch first today."

After Chairman Randy finished speaking, he waved to the projectionist behind him, who immediately understood what he meant and ran to the projection room.

The lights in the film-screening room went out, and a ray of light shone on the screen in front.

The movie started playing, all in black, accompanied by incomprehensible Chinese and English letters below, and soon the screen turned to a vast pastoral landscape with Chinese characteristics.

Yanjing.

In the boys' dormitory, Li Yishu, who had just returned from playing basketball outside, returned to the dormitory exhausted. He was too lazy to even take a shower and just lay down on the bed in the dormitory.

too tired!
Li Yishu, who hadn't exercised so hard in a long time, also re-experienced the passion of youth.

However, thinking back to the freshmen he saw on the school playground, with their droopy faces and lifeless looks, Li Yishu found it very funny, because he had come this far that way back then.

The military training for college students these days is not just a formality like it was more than a decade ago. Today's military training is really carried out according to semi-military standards. Every morning, you have to run five kilometers, stand at attention in the morning, and do various physical training in the afternoon...

Moreover, he had heard from some senior students that the military training for their class was relatively simple. Before the college entrance examination reform, the batches of college students in the early 1980s not only underwent militarized military training, but were also taken to military camps to carry out the training.

It is no wonder that the fifth generation of great directors in the 80s were so energetic. It turned out that they had good physiques from military training. Soon, the other people in the dormitory came back one after another. Everyone looked very tired. Like Li Yishu, they fell on the bed and began to rest.

These students in the graduate class of the directing department were the youngest 28 years old and the oldest 34 years old. They had not exercised for many years, and now they were playing a competitive basketball game, so naturally they all had back pain and leg cramps.

There are no freshmen in the undergraduate class of the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy this year. The number of students in the advanced training class is quite large, with 22 people, all of whom have a bachelor's degree or above and come to Beijing Film Academy for systematic learning.

As for this year's graduate class, including Li Yishu, there are only six people in total, and two of them came from Taiwan to study.

dong dong——

Just when Li Yishu was lying there drowsily about to fall asleep, someone knocked on the dormitory door, which woke him up immediately. When he got up, he saw that it was Cai Chongzhe, a graduate student from Taiwan.

"Yishu, your matter seems to be going well..."

Cai Chongzhe was halfway through his words when Li Yishu interrupted him and said, "Brother Cai, let's talk outside."

"Okay, come out and tell me."

Cai Chongzhe turned and walked out the door, followed by Li Yishu.

The two of them came to the corridor outside, and Cai Chongzhe continued, "I just received a call from Hong Kong. Sister Xu said that she had read the script and it was very well written, but she already had a candidate in mind for the director. She also said that she would come to Yanjing in a few days and bring the original author to meet with you in person to see if the script can be further improved."

Hearing this, Li Yishu frowned. He took great pains to rewrite the script of "Farewell My Concubine", but he didn't intend to let Brother Chen Kai continue to make money from the Palme d'Or.

To be honest, Director Chen is definitely talented. Looking at his later films such as The Promise, The Taoist Goes Down the Mountain, and Legend of the Demon Cat...

Although the plot is fragmented, no one has ever denied its ability in this area in terms of visuals and texture.

Moreover, Director Chen's previous works "Yellow Earth" and "The King of Children" are also very good films with very good plots, which shows that he has the ability to make good movies.

Why was the filming so bad later on? Li Yishu felt that the title of being the only domestic Palme d'Or winner hindered Director Chen from displaying his talent.

So Li Yishu came to Beijing Film Academy for graduate studies, and got to know Taiwan graduate students such as Cai Chongzhe. She also learned that an investor had been in contact with Beijing Film Academy, hoping that the school could help persuade director Chen to shoot a novel called "Farewell My Concubine".

In order to make Chen Kaige's directorial career not so short, and also to avoid too much pressure from the Palme d'Or, Li Yishu decided that he should shoulder this heavy responsibility!
That day, I asked someone to get me a copy of the original novel, and then started copying the script.

With the help of Cai Chongzhe's relationship, he sent the script to Xu Suo, the female boss of Tang Chen Film and Television Company, but he didn't expect that it would not be favored in the end.

Come to think of it, he was just a college graduate and a graduate student. Even if the other party approved of the script, they would not let him be the director.

But I still feel so unwilling!

"Li Yishu, good news! Your movie has been shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival!"

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(End of this chapter)