Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 309 Chapter 320 [Is there a male lead now? "Chicago" starts filming]

"Okay! Then we have a deal. If you become the chairman of the film festival jury, you must choose our Venice Film Festival!"

As the youngest director in the world to have won three major awards, once it is announced that Lee Yi-su will serve as the chairman of the jury of the Venice International Film Festival, the media publicity effect it brings will explode instantly, and the Chinese market will also focus more on Venice.

After the mainland publicly announced the introduction of Hollywood films, European filmmakers have begun to notice a subtle change.

"no problem!"

Li Yishu smiled brightly.

After chatting for a few more words, he asked someone to take Abraham into the exhibition hall.

Looking back, I saw Wang Jiawei coming with Zhang Guorong, Liang Chaowei and Liu Jialing.

Wang Jiawei's "Ashes of Time" also participated in this year's Venice Film Festival. Li Yishu only found out about it later when she saw the shortlist.

"Director Wang, long time no see!" Li Yishu walked over with a smile.

"Yes, Director Li, long time no see."

Wang Jiawei said this and then asked curiously, "Why didn't Miss Qingxia come?"

During his conversation with Sylvia Chang just now, he learned that Brigitte Lin did not come to Cannes with the crew of "The Reader".

You should know that in "Ashes of Time", Qingxia played the leading female role Murong Yan, but this was a group drama, so after learning that "The Reader" co-starred by Li Yishu and Qingxia was also shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival, Wang Jiawei just called Qingxia and politely invited her, but after being rejected, he gave up.

It just so happened that Liang Jiahui was filming a movie and couldn't come to Venice, and the second female lead Zhang Manyu didn't have time to go. Liang Chaowei's girlfriend Liu Jialing was one of the actors, so Wang Jiawei brought her along.

It's the Venice Film Festival after all, it's not good for not even one actress to come, right?

I just didn't expect that even a movie with an absolute female theme like "The Reader" would not even feature Qingxia. Does this mean she has no confidence in the Best Actress Award in Venice?

"I invited Sister Qingxia, but she seemed to have really retired and even apologized to me." Li Yishu shrugged his shoulders. He would never say that Qingxia cheered him on before he left the United States.

"Well, it looks like Miss Qingxia really doesn't want to participate."

Wang Jiawei sighed, he didn't expect Qingxia to retire from the entertainment industry so decisively without even a formal announcement. Moreover, for example, at this Venice Film Festival, two of her films were nominated, an honor that no other actresses from Hong Kong and Taiwan have ever had.

"At a certain point in life, everyone will have different ideas."

Li Yishu smiled and did not talk too much about Qingxia. Instead, she looked at Zhang Guorong and said, "Brother Guorong, I heard that the Japanese Film Critics Awards also awarded you the Best Foreign Language Film Actor Award."

"Haha, this is all thanks to Director Li. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have won the Best Actor in a Foreign Language Film award."

Zhang Guorong smiled happily. Even though this was the Japan Film Critics Award and there was no award ceremony, and the selection was decided internally and then announced in a weekly magazine, it was still an honor to win an award in an overseas country.

"This is not my credit, it's because Brother Guorong has great acting skills. I heard from Sister Ai Jia before that the movie "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves" you filmed won the box office championship in Hong Kong's summer vacation. Brother Guorong is really popular this year."

"No, no, no matter how famous I am, I can never be more famous than Director Li. He has won three European gold medals and the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival. I think Director Li will definitely be the Best Director at this year's Venice Film Festival!"

“Don’t count on it this year.”

Li Yishu shook her head.

Zhang Guorong asked in surprise: "Why?"

Wang Jiawei, Liang Chaowei and Liu Jialing all looked curious.

"When the water is full, it will overflow. This year, I am too popular!"

Li Yishu said helplessly: "So no matter how well you shoot, you may not win an award. After all, the Venice Film Festival is organized by foreigners."

"That's true." Wang Jiawei nodded. He could understand what Li Yishu said. No matter how well the film was shot, this film festival was organized by foreigners, and the final decision would still depend on the foreign judges.

Next, Li Yishu greeted Liang Chaowei and Liu Jialing.

Liu Jialing was okay. Because of Zhang Guorong, she had met him privately a few times before. She was much better than what was said online later. It might also be because of the difference in status. Anyway, Li Yishu seemed pretty good.

But the same cannot be said for Liang Chaowei. Li Yishu used to like him very much, but a series of events later made Li Yishu understand what kind of person he was, and naturally she was very disappointed.

Even though many things haven't happened yet, you can tell with your butt that there must have been signs of this.

He has been making movies for so many years and has no shortage of money. His reputation is very high in China and even in East Asian countries, but he still happened to do those things. It can only be said that it is ingrained in his bones.

It is no wonder that the five tigers of TVB chose to stab Andy in the back.

If we talk about the impact of the environment, there is some impact but it is not absolute. There are still many patriotic artists in Hong Kong. Zhou Xingchi once lost his temper on a foreign program, and Le Ge Chen Baixiang even publicly criticized those rubbish...

"Sister Aijia, take Director Wang and the others inside and find a place to rest."

Li Yishu suddenly caught a glimpse of a group of people walking over not far away, led by Jiang Wen. He also asked Zhang Aijia to bring Wang Jiawei and others in.

Seeing Li Yishu standing at the door, Jiang Wen hesitated for a few seconds, then walked over with a laugh: "Director Li, long time no see!"

"Yeah, it's been a long time. Now I should call you Director Jiang."

Li Yishu smiled and shook hands with the other party. He and Jiang Wen didn't have much conflict, but they had some awkwardness because of Zhang Guorong.

Now that the other party has shown the intention to make peace, Li Yishu is not the kind of person who will not give in even if she is right.

Jiang Wen said with a smile: "I don't dare to be Director Jiang. Director Li is a recognized great director when it comes to making movies. I brought my crew here to learn from him."

"Haha, Director Jiang is so polite. Your first film was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival. Why would you need to ask me for advice?"

Li Yishu waved her hand and said that the movies made by Jiang Wen are quite interesting, such as "Sunny Days", "The Sun Also Rises", "The Devils on the Doorstep", "Let the Bullets Fly", etc. From the perspective of viewing movies, they are all very good.

Especially the movie "Let the Bullets Fly", which is indeed a classic. Li Yishu has watched it many times. Later, the "Let the Bullets Fly" school was born on the Internet, which supported a large number of "Let the Bullets Fly disciples".

Hearing this, Jiang Wen was quite proud. His first film was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival and even competed for the Golden Lion Award. He was somewhat proud of it.

Just think about it, wasn't Lee Yi-su nominated for her first film and won an award? In just four years, she won the European three gold medals.

There is no other person in the world who can match his achievement like this. Jiang Wen has nothing to be proud of and for a moment he feels a little lonely.

Ning Jing, who was standing next to him, greeted him enthusiastically: "Hello, Director Li. I'm Ning Jing. Nice to meet you."

Li Yishu smiled and stretched out her hand: "I have seen "I am Ugly, but I am Gentle" directed by Zhuang Hongsheng. You acted very well in the movie."

"Director Li, have you seen this movie?" Ning Jing was very surprised. She didn't expect that Li Yishu had seen the movie and even knew her.

“Yes, it’s an interesting movie.”

Li Yishu couldn't help laughing out loud when she thought of the plot.

This movie is one of Ning Jing's early comedy films.

Wei Zongwan, the actor who played Sima Yi in the 94 version, played the male lead, and Ning Jing played the female lead.

Just by listening to the name, you can probably tell what kind of movie it is.

I didn’t think much of him before, but after he was reborn and looked at it again, I realized that this is just a typical story of “the beautiful heroine takes care of a baby, and the poor and ugly hero is happy to take over.”

In other words, the values ​​of domestic screenwriters are quite positive nowadays, and they gave a happy ending. Regardless of whether the ugly man took over or not, at least the ugly man married a beautiful woman, even if the other party had a baby.

If this happened thirty years later, it would probably be "You are not worthy of raising his child." Ning Jing seemed very interested in Li Yishu and kept actively looking for topics to talk about. Jiang Wen was a little unhappy that his heroine went to chat with Li Yishu so happily.

He quickly pulled Xia Yu, who was standing behind him, to the front and said, "Director Li, this is Xia Yu, the leading actor of our movie."

"Hello, Director Li. I'm Xia Yu."

Xia Yu is only 18 years old this year. He is said to be an adult, but because of his small face, he still looks like a minor. In addition, when facing a big director like Lee Ye-su, he even stuttered when speaking.

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Hello Xia Yu, you didn't say anything just now, so I thought you were Director Jiang's son. I was wondering when Director Jiang had such a big son."

"Haha, I don't have a son that old!"

Jiang Wen laughed: "But you know what, when my mother saw Xia Yu, she thought this boy was exactly like me when I was a child."

Xia Yu smiled shyly. He looked very similar to Jiang Wen when he was a child. It was precisely because of this resemblance that he was chosen to play the leading actor.

The group laughed and joked for a while, and Li Yishu got to know Wen Jun and others again, then asked the staff to take them in.

At this time, Sylvia Chang also came out. Her phone just rang. It was a call from the crew of "Vive L'Amour", which was also shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival. She came out to pick them up.

Their director Tsai Ming-liang knows Sylvia Chang, and was also invited to attend the premiere of "The Reader" this time.

ten minutes later.

Li Yishu led people back to the exhibition hall, and the movie "The Reader" was officially screened.

The plot is quite simple, it's about the love, hate and vengeance of a couple in a relationship of different ages against the backdrop of a great era.

"Director Li is quite skilled."

Ning Jing stared at the ambiguous scenes between Li Yishu and Qingxia on the screen with burning eyes, her eyes almost boring into them.

Although there are no large-scale shots, the feeling of being wrapped in a sheet still makes people's hormones surge.

Jiang Wen pondered for a moment without saying anything. He found that Li Yishu’s acting this time was much better than in her previous performance in “That Mountain, That Man, That Dog”.

He is just a director, why has his acting improved so quickly?

Fortunately, they all have the same type of acting skills, and a young and immature man can be said to be playing himself.

An hour and a half passed.

When the subtitles of the movie appeared, there was applause from the audience.

"Lee, your movie reminded me of a lot of things in the past."

Abraham sighed.

The liquidation of the heroine in the movie also happened in Italy at that time.

Although Italy finally succeeded in changing sides during World War II and transformed itself from a defeated country into a victorious country, internal cleansing was still necessary.

Lee Ye-su said: “The charm of film as the seventh art is that it can resonate with people from different countries, races and languages.”

“Yes, this is the charm of film art.”

Abraham patted Li Yishu's arm and gave her a thumbs up, saying, "You made a film full of artistic colors. It successfully resonated with me, an Italian!"

"Thank you. If you can relate to this, I think this is my original intention for making this movie."

Li Yishu smiled slightly.

After talking with Abraham, Lee Yi-su walked onto the stage, picked up the microphone, and began to thank the journalists, film critics, and filmmakers present.

At the same time, he also talked about the original intention of making this movie, as well as the efforts made by the female lead to make this movie.

When people learned that the heroine of the movie was indeed a person with "reading cognitive impairment", they were all exclaimed in surprise. They never expected that such a disease actually existed in reality.

After Li Yishu finished talking about her normal mental journey, she began to see off the guests one after another.

Next, the exhibition hall will continue to screen "The Reader" to provide movie viewing services for tourists and movie fans from all over the world.

Before leaving, Jiang Wen extended an invitation: "Director Li, our movie will premiere the day after tomorrow, you must come and watch it then."

"The day after tomorrow... OK!"

Li Yishu actually didn't want to go because he was going back to the United States tomorrow to start filming "Chicago". He just thought that since the other party came to attend his premiere, it would not be good if he didn't go.

In addition to Jiang Wen, there is also Wang Jiawei's "Ashes of Time" and Tsai Mingliang, the director of "Vive L'Amour".

They all came to the premiere, and Lee Ye-seo had to go.

If it was a foreign director, Li Yishu would directly let Monica, Zhang Aijia and others to represent her.

"Looks like I'm late!"

Just as Li Yishu was about to make a cross-border call to Amy to tell her that the crew would delay filming for a few days, Harvey appeared out of nowhere.

Seeing Harvey suddenly appear, Li Yishu was very surprised: "Harvey, why are you here? Didn't you go to England?"

Harvey laughed and said, "That's right, Lee. I did just come from England. I learned that your movie premiered today, so I rushed over immediately. But I didn't expect to be late."

"It's okay. The show will continue later."

Li Yishu nodded and asked, "When will you return to the United States?"

"I'm afraid we have to wait until the Venice Film Festival is over. As for you, I heard from the company that the crew is ready."

"I'll probably need a few nights too."

"Well, it looks like we're both pretty busy."

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Harvey, Li Yishu asked someone to clean up the exhibition hall and prepare for the second screening.

In the next few days, Li Yishu attended the film premieres of Jiang Wen, Wang Jiawei and Tsai Mingliang. As soon as they ended, he flew back to the United States on the same day.

new York.

Tom's Theater.

The crew of "Chicago".

Assistant Director Mars ran over and said, "Director, the actors are ready."

He has starred in several musicals and was specially invited by Li Yishu.

"Then start."

Li Yishu gave an order.

The stagehand ran to the camera and clapped the cue: "Scene 1, Scene 1, Action!"

(End of this chapter)