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Chapter 383 Premiere
Early the next morning, Huang Ze and his crew members rushed to the exhibition hall assigned to them in Cannes.

After all, he is a director who has won the Palme d'Or. Although he is not a direct descendant of Cannes because he won the Venice Golden Lion first, he is still one of them. The exhibition hall allocated to him is the largest one, which can accommodate more than a thousand viewers to watch movies.

In fact, this is not enough.

As a director who has won box office awards, good reputation and many fans, Huang Ze's new film is quite attractive.

Even though the largest exhibition hall was used, all the movie tickets were sold out. As the premiere time got closer, the entire theater was filled with film critics, film distributors, reporters, and movie lovers.

Most of them were looking forward to watching the screen.

Huang Ze started out with art films, but after shooting two commercial films in succession, "Speed" and "Rush Hour", he hasn't made an art film in nearly three years.

Everyone is curious about what kind of answer Huang Ze will give.

Everyone present were industry insiders, and those senior movie fans could be considered semi-industry insiders. Huang Ze did not say much nonsense. He just stood on the stage and said briefly before the time was up, welcoming everyone, and then walked off the stage.

Wait for a few seconds, turn off the lights, and the screen lights up.

In a dim corridor, two figures, one tall and one thin, slowly walked towards the camera.

After a long follow-up shot ends, the movement of the character on the screen stops abruptly. The camera first pulls away, then moves forward, and then pulls away again. The shot that is sometimes far and sometimes near gives the audience a feeling that it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Under the spotlight, the two stood, as if a play was about to begin.

The music became more and more urgent, like a painting of Farewell My Concubine. The King was standing while Concubine Yu drew her sword and committed suicide.

Then the overall tone turned grayish white, as if to say that this was a thing of the past.

In 1924, after the white subtitles from the Beiyang government period, the streets of the capital appeared on the screen, bustling with people.

Everyone gathered around the troupe on the street, cheering from time to time.

Xiao Douzi joined the opera troupe and trained hard during the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer.

People sitting in the audience may not like to listen to Peking Opera, but many of them have heard of drama.

More importantly, art has commonalities. Everyone can see the efforts these actors make in their performances, even though these efforts are somewhat forced.

But no matter what, as someone who is involved in the literary and artistic circles, I can still understand that kind of emotion.

Especially the judges, almost all of whom are practitioners, all nodded secretly at the moment.

"Huang's choice of subject matter is very good! Even if the people involved are not film practitioners, they can be considered as working in the same industry."

Watching the kids practicing hard in the film, the judges almost all thought of their own hard work to achieve this point. Looking at those little actors, it was as if they were seeing their younger selves.

The film continues to play, and Cheng Dieyi's entire life appears before the audience, accompanying the changes of the times, spanning half a century.

After more than two hours, the film came to an end.

Continuing with the opening scene, Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou once again sang their classic opera "Farewell My Concubine". Although there was no audience, they still sang with deep emotion.

At the end of the song, Yu Ji, played by Cheng Dieyi, pulled out the sword from Duan Xiaolou's waist and committed suicide.

Yu Ji is dead.

Cheng Dieyi also died.

Play is like life, life is like play.

Cheng Dieyi has the same ending as Yu Ji. The film officially ends.

In just less than three hours, one person watched others grow from a child to middle-aged and dead.

Some viewers felt a sense of loss.

After taking a deep breath and sighing, everyone heard someone applauding and realized that they were watching a movie in Cannes. They raised their hands and started applauding.

The applause became louder and louder. Huang Ze stood up and began to answer questions from reporters and film critics.

"Huang, I don't understand Chinese characters very well. Who is the cinematographer of this film? I think the cinematography of this film is very good."

"It's Gu." Huang Ze said, "In the Mood for Love, Taste of Cherry, and he was my cinematographer in many of my films."

"Huang, I saw a specific timeline in it. Is this based on real events?" a reporter asked.

“This is a novel I adapted.”

"Huang, why did Li Cheng commit suicide at the end of the film?"

A film critic asked this question, which made Huang Ze confused. He looked at the film critic and said, "After watching it, I think you should have the answer."

"I have several answers," said the film critic. "There is the disillusionment of his artistic ideals, his despair about reality, which is the torrent, and the collapse of his self-identity. He has always had problems with his gender identity."

"My question is also derived from this incident. I want to ask you, are Cheng Dieyi and Duan Xiaolou gay?"

"You've summarized it very well." Huang Ze nodded slightly, "Then you should have the answer. Cheng Dieyi does have feelings for Duan Xiaolou, but I want to emphasize that this is not homosexuality in that sense. Duan Xiaolou doesn't have any romantic feelings for him. He is more of a good friend or a younger brother."

"As for Cheng Dieyi's so-called homosexuality, it was actually due to a mistake in his gender identity acquired later in life. Whether it was the fact that his fingers were forcibly cut off when he was a child, or that he was beaten by his master for saying that he was a man, as well as his immersion in drama, all contributed to this result."

"And when his gender identity was finally restored, he naturally found it hard to accept it, so he had no choice but to disappear."

Huang Ze answered questions one by one.

After dealing with these reporters and film critics, he began to say goodbye to the directors who came to support him one by one.

Regardless of whether the other party was sincere or just being polite, Huang Ze heard a lot of compliments, which gave him more expectations for the award ceremony in a few days.

After seeing off the first batch of audiences, Huang Ze's days became much more monotonous.

Either they are supporting other movies, or they are watching movies with other audiences in the exhibition hall.

A few days passed in a flash, and as expected, Huang Ze received a call from the organizer the day before the award ceremony.

……

5 month 23 day.

The entire crew wore formal attire and walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.

Huang Ze has walked the red carpet countless times and is almost immune to it, so he doesn't feel excited at all.

But it would not be appropriate to just walk like a normal person, as that would seem unformal, so he had to pose mechanically, then quickened his pace slightly, walked into the auditorium, found his seat and sat down, waiting for the award ceremony to begin.

At this moment, Huang Ze was somewhat excited.

I'm not excited about attending Cannes, but I'm looking forward to the results of tonight.

(End of this chapter)