Huayu: Director started with art films

"Angry Youth"!
Li Yishu was not unfamiliar with this movie. He had seen it in his previous life. The story of the movie was actually very simple. It was about what happened to three young men in Paris, France in one day.

A day is short, but it is very long in the movie. And unlike an ordinary day for many people, the day in the life of the three male protagonists in the movie is full of tension, excitement, violence and shootings.

What he really cares about is the 24-hour record of anger!
Did it really take 24 hours to shoot?

Considering the differences between the screening version, the director's cut version, and even the competition version, Li Yishu still took Zhang Aijia and Liu Ruoying with her.

After asking the staff at the door who was checking the badge credentials and confirming that the movie would be shown for a very long time, Li Yishu and the other two finally went in.

After reading it, I realized that I was deceived. It was just a subtitle!

However, the Cannes version is indeed longer than the resource that Li Yishu watched online in her previous life, and it has more violent scenes.

Although I went in halfway, I still spent a full hour and a half watching it.

I think the original film should be more than two hours long.

The story is not complicated. It tells that the streets of Paris are full of violence and evil, and the boy Abed was seriously injured by the police and was admitted to the hospital.

Sayid went to his good friend Vinz's house to find Vinz. After the two talked about the riots on the street for a while, they went to find another good friend Herbert. The three of them then went to the rooftop of a house to meet their boss.

Vinz took Sayid and Herbert to a secret place and showed them a real gun. After that, the three went to the hospital to visit Abed but were turned away by the police. Vinz was angry and could not control his emotions. He argued with the police because he had a gun, and Sayid was taken away by the police.

Afterwards, Sayyid was released on bail, and the three of them started playing on the streets. The two young men carrying guns clashed with the police. The three of them and other street thugs stepped forward to argue with the police. When the situation was getting out of control, a large number of police arrived, and the three of them followed the others and dispersed.

Vinz pulled out his pistol and tried to shoot a policeman chasing them, but Herbert stopped him in time...

At the end of the story, Herbert witnessed a policeman accidentally shooting and killing Vinz. He pointed the gun in his hand at the head of the policeman who shot and killed Vinz, and the policeman also pointed his gun at Herbert's head with trembling hands.

The whole movie is filled with descriptions of the unrest in French society, depicting a lot of street chaos, the indiscriminate use of guns, and the youth of young people seems to be filled with anger. The ending of the movie is also full of violence.

Perhaps the director wanted to highlight the theme of the movie "Angry Youth" so he shot the entire film in black and white.

"Director Li, this movie is full of despair and violence. Is France really like this? I've been to France and it doesn't seem to be like this."

Leaving the screening room, Sylvia Chang frowned. She had not seen this movie. On the one hand, she was not interested in it, and on the other hand, she came here mainly to sell the copyright.

But after watching "Young Angry Boy" which was shortlisted for Cannes today, Sylvia Chang was surprised to find that this movie was too violent and desperate.

The whole film seems to revolve around the life of three young people in Paris, France, but this life is full of violence. At the beginning, good friends are beaten and imprisoned, in the middle, street thugs clash with the police, and at the end, one of the male protagonists, Vinz, is shot dead by the police...

"You are not French, so you don't know their situation."

Li Yishu thought for a moment and said, "Maybe the director also took part in some of the colors of the May Storm period?"

From the 60s to the 90s, France was still full of various unrests, student and worker riots, demonstrations, conflicts, anarchism, radicalism...

The old revolutionary area is no joke.

Li Yishu didn't know much about French history, but he had seen many movies of the same period in his previous life, among which "The Dreamers" briefly depicted that turbulent period.

So the plot of "Young Angry Girl" is understandable. Looking back on the relaxation during the Paris Olympics and comparing it with the current movie, it is still quite funny.

"It seems that if I have the chance, I will have to attend more film festivals and watch these excellent films."

Sylvia Chang seemed to be deep in thought. This movie had a great impact on her, and she felt like she was watching "To the Wrath of the Sea" back then.

Liu Ruoying behind her nodded in agreement. She had never seen this kind of foreign film before. Most of them were Hollywood commercial films. She had never seen many films like this one that depicted realistic social themes.

Li Yishu agrees with Zhang Aijia's words: "Attending more film festivals and broadening your horizons will be of great help to your future career as a director."

Even directors these days don't watch that many films, mainly because the channels are inconvenient. Even if there are videotapes, there will be no future movie websites to categorize them. It is still very difficult to find gold in the shit.

Zhang Aijia said: "This movie reminds me of "Sunny Days" directed by Jiang Wen, which is about a group of young people and full of violence and social problems..."

“They are very similar, but the biggest difference between the two films is that the young man in Angry Youth falls in radicalism, while Ma Xiaojun rises in negativity.”

Although he didn't have a very good impression of Jiang Wen, after the last incident, both sides had stopped fighting and made peace.

To be fair, "Sunny Days" is indeed very well filmed.

Although Ma Xiaojun's life is different from that of most young people of his generation, everyone's youth is different, and they can always find common ground.

After Li Yishu and Sylvia Chang finished their discussion, they went to the exhibition hall of "Grandma Bridge". Behind them, Rene Liu followed the two directors like a follower.

Having already watched "Grandma's Bridge" once, Li Yishu naturally had no interest in watching it a second time.

Sylvia Chang had gone to see the film with Rene Liu when Zhang Yimou's crew came.

So after a few people found Zhang Yimou, they started chatting.

Just then, Li Yishu's cell phone rang. This was the SIM card he used in France, and not many people knew this number. After answering the call in confusion, he found out that it was a call from the Cannes organizer. After the other party learned that Li Yishu had come to Cannes, they invited him to be the award presenter at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow.

"OK, no problem."

Li Yishu thought about it and readily agreed: "I am honored to be the award presenter..."

After chatting for a while, when Li Yishu hung up the phone, Gong Li asked, "Yishu, Cannes invited you to be the award presenter?"

"Yeah, maybe it's because I didn't participate in the work today and I came to Cannes, so they invited me temporarily?"

Li Yishu is not surprised by Cannes' choice. If he were the organizer, he would also find a way to invite such a "triple gold" director to present the awards.

Among the three major festivals, the Cannes Film Festival is the one that understands marketing and fishing the best.

Starting with "Ju Dou" in 1990, Zhang Yimou attempted to enter the Cannes Film Festival three times, but ultimately failed to win the Palme d'Or.

At the Venice Film Festival, Zhang Yimou won the Golden Lion Award twice and the Golden Bear Award in Berlin.

All I can say is that what you can’t get will always cause you unrest.

I just hope that after this year, Zhang Yimou will give up the idea of ​​winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

But think about it, it seems that Zhang Yimou really stopped trying to enter Cannes. His works in the following years, "Not One Less" participated in Venice and won the Golden Lion, and "My Father and Mother" participated in Berlin and won the Silver Bear.

Gong Li smiled and said, "If you were the award presenter, would they let you present the award to Director Zhang?"

"That's possible." Li Yishu glanced at Zhang Yimou and said with a smile, "Director Zhang, let's agree on a statement in advance. If you win the award, I will say congratulations in Chinese in advance."

"Ha ha……"

Zhang Yimou showed his simple smile: "There's not even any notification. Let's wait for the call in the evening."

"There will definitely be a call, Director Zhang, don't worry about that." "Okay, then I'll trouble Director Li."

Li Yishu was still very confident that Zhang Yimou would receive the call.

Sure enough, that night.

Zhang Yimou received a call from the Cannes organizers, inviting him and the crew to attend the closing ceremony of the Cannes International Film Festival tomorrow night.

Although Sylvia Chang looks calm and as if she doesn't care, she is actually still hoping for the best. Maybe, just maybe, the Cannes jury will see her work and give her a small prize.

But unfortunately, by ten o'clock, no call came.

But even though there was no call, Sylvia Chang still decided to attend the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow, just because it would give her more exposure, and then after the film festival is over, she could officially start selling the copyright of "The Girl from Hunan".

the next day.

Around three o'clock in the afternoon.

In Gong Li's room, Li Yishu was still wearing the same Piero suit, but Gong Li's look today was a little different.

The cheongsam is indeed a cheongsam, but this cheongsam is pure white.

Fortunately, Gong Li is fair enough now, otherwise this pure white cheongsam would make her look very dark.

Gong Li turned around and asked, "How is it? I asked a cheongsam master to make this for me."

Li Yishu agreed, "It's pretty. Although the color is monotonous, it looks plump and charming with your face."

Gong Li's figure is really good. Although she is prone to obesity and has relatively large bones, if she eats a little more and gains weight, she will give people the illusion of having a broad back and broad waist. But now she exercises regularly, so her figure is still plump but not fat.

The protruding front and curved back show the beauty of cheongsam to the fullest.

"There are fewer and fewer cheongsam styles available now."

Gong Li sighed: "I don't know if there will be another cheongsam I like in the future."

In recent years, she has worn dozens of cheongsams, if not hundreds.

I have worn almost all styles and colors, from red, black, white, to florals.

Hearing this, Li Yishu suddenly remembered Fan Bing's cheongsams.

A dress that resembles a dragon robe, and a porcelain doll cheongsam.

Although the dragon robe is a formal dress, it can be made into a cheongsam style with slight modifications.

The porcelain doll cheongsam is not suitable for Gong Li.

"Sister Gong Li, I have a new idea for cheongsam!"

"What new idea?"

"How about you change the dragon robe into a cheongsam?"

"Dragon robe?"

Gong Li was stunned. She had seen what a dragon robe looked like, of course. Could it be turned into a cheongsam?

But come to think of it, it seems pretty good. She has never worn the bright yellow cheongsam, not to mention that it was transformed from a dragon robe.

She was a little moved and asked, "Can it be done?"

"Of course, who are you? You are Emperor Gong!"

Li Yishu half-jokingly said, "It may be difficult for you, the Emperor Gong, to ascend the throne, but it shouldn't be too much to wear a bright yellow cheongsam with dragon patterns and walk on the red carpet, right?"

Gong Li hesitated and said, "Then I'll find someone to design it?"

“Design, design!”

Li Yishu smiled and said, "ATV plans to launch the Asian Film Awards next year. You can wear a dragon robe and bring "Empress Dowager Liao" to participate. I will definitely give you the Best Actress Award!"

"forget it!"

Gong Li shook her head: "You'd better not do anything rash. I don't want to be accused of using a backdoor!"

Although she didn't know what was going on with the Asian Film Awards, Gong Li knew that ATV now belonged to Lee Yi-su and didn't want her to abuse her power for personal gain.

"Just kidding, but you can take this movie to participate in the Asian Film Awards. I plan to make it the top film award in Asia..."

Li Yishu knows quite a lot about future local film festivals and film awards in Asia.

Whether it is the newly launched Shanghai International Film Festival or the Tokyo International Film Festival, the influence of these two film festivals is very low.

And because it is aimed at the international stage, there is little opportunity to take care of local films. After all, we must maintain the principle of "fairness" and take care of international friends.

This can be seen from the fact that the Tokyo International Film Festival awarded Lee Ye-su the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor awards.

In fact, European film festivals are similar in nature. For the sake of "fairness", they often give priority to overseas films.

There are not so many concerns about the Asian Film Awards. As long as it is successful, Lee Yi-su can become a true godfather of Asian films in the next thirty years.

The two chatted until half past four.

Only then did he set off and follow the crew to the Cannes Film Festival.

However, the two walked separately. Sylvia Chang had never participated in the Cannes red carpet and was a little nervous, so Li Yishu took her and Rene Liu to walk the red carpet.

"Lee! Lee! Look here Lee!"

"Chinese Lee!"

"..."

When Lee Yi-su and the other two walked onto the red carpet, reporters on both sides immediately started shouting. Many loyal fans of the Cannes Film Festival also recognized this triple-Award winning director and called out his name.

It was Liu Ruoying's first time here, and it was also her first time seeing Li Yishu's influence in Cannes. People on both sides were cheering his name, and she couldn't help but exclaimed in amazement: "Sister Aijia, Director Li is so famous in Cannes."

"Of course. Director Li is the fourth-ranked director in the world and the first in Asia to win three Golden Globes!"

Zhang Aijia had accompanied me to the Venice Film Festival once before (for The Reader), so she was very clear about how much influence Li Yishu had in Europe. Although Venice and Cannes are different, they are both in Europe. (End of this chapter)