Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 342 Venice Film Festival, Traveling with Two Beauties
In late August, on the eve of the Venice International Film Festival in Italy, Link accompanied Monica to Venice to attend the closing ceremony of the film festival.

Monica is a member of the jury of this year's film festival, and Link was invited to be the award presenter.

The Venice Film Festival is one of the three major international film festivals in the world. It is also the world's first international film festival and is known as the 'Father of International Film Festivals'.

The film festival's motto is "film serves the serious art form" and its main purpose is to "improve the level of film art."

Use "artistic quality" as the criterion for judging the quality of a film.

The highest award is the Golden Lion.

At this year's film festival, three films from Guess Guess Pictures are participating, namely "Chinese Box" directed by Wang Ying, "Grey's Analysis" by Steven Soderbergh, and Paul Thomas Anderson's debut "Casino Raiders".

After ten days of exhibition and selection, "China Box" and "Casino" were shortlisted for the main competition unit.

Also nominated are "Days of Love" starring Sophie Marceau, "Sunny Days" directed by Jiang Wen, and "The Stars" directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.

After arriving in Italy, Link was invited by Monica's family to stay at her home for two days, and also bought a mansion in the nearby wealthy area of Florence.

The mansion covers an area of 3.2 hectares and was built in the 18th century. It is beautifully decorated and looks like a palace with many intricately carved carvings and a large gardening area. The interior of the villa adopts a modern decoration style and is comfortable, making it suitable for vacation.

Link gave the villa to Monica to live in.

After returning to Venice, Sophie Marceau also arrived. Link took her to tour the streets and alleys of the water city of Venice under the guidance of tour guide Monica. They slept on the top floor of the most luxurious Aman Grand Canal Hotel at night, listening to the flowing water and watching the stars of Venice all night.

For the first time, Sophie Marceau accepted having another woman in her bed.

Afterwards she said she felt great because Monica spoke French well and the two became good friends after playing together for a few days.

After playing in Venice for two days, Link turned his attention back to work. With the arrangement of his assistant, he met director Jiang Wen who came to visit him in the cafe downstairs of the hotel.

Director Jiang Wen started filming "In the Sun" at the end of last year. Halfway through the filming, the funding chain was cut off. Because he was an acquaintance of Chen Chong, he heard that Chen Chong returned to China to establish the Dongfeng Film Company and invested heavily in many films, appearing to be very generous.

He took the initiative to find Chen Chong and seek cooperation.

With Link's tacit approval, Dongfeng Pictures invested US$50 to help Jiang Wen complete the post-production and production of his debut film "Sunny Days".

In addition, Jiang Wen also played the leading actor Zheng Chenggong in the war history film "Zheng Chenggong" produced by Dongfeng Pictures.

"Zheng Chenggong" was launched in March. Lin Ke was the screenwriter and producer, and co-directed by Feng Xiaoning, Tsui Hark, and Chen Kaige. The main actors include Jiang Wen, Kate Baselkin, Zhang Fengyi, Sammo Hung, Brian Cox, Yasuaki Kurata, Jiang Wu, Chen Hong, and Joan Chen.

The film tells the legendary experience of Catherine van de Velde, a Dutch noble lady in the mid-17th century.

Catherine was born into a prominent Dutch aristocratic family. She was extremely intelligent since childhood, proficient in multiple languages, and full of curiosity about Eastern culture.

As an adult, she followed her father to Malacca, a colony of the Dutch East India Company, where she spent several years.

When she was 20, her father died of a serious illness and she decided to return to the Netherlands.

On the way back home, the merchant ship Catherine was on encountered a sudden storm and her ship was almost capsized. In despair, she met Zheng Chenggong's fleet and was rescued by Zheng Chenggong and his men.

Catherine followed Zheng Chenggong to his base in Kinmen. At first, she did not approve of Zheng Chenggong's career, thinking that he was the leader of local pirates who constantly caused trouble for the Qing Dynasty and the Dutch Navy.

The two argued endlessly on issues such as aggression and anti-aggression, and national identity. However, after witnessing the efforts and sacrifices Zheng Chenggong made to recover the country, Catherine was gradually attracted by his charm, admired his courage, wisdom and mind, and even fell in love with him inadvertently.

However, Zheng Chenggong was deeply in love with his wife Dong, and he always kept a polite distance from his feelings for Catherine.

Finally, Catherine witnessed Zheng Chenggong commanding his fleet to break through the Dutch navy's defenses, and fought bloody battles under the attack of the Dutch and Qing armies, and finally successfully recovered Taiwan. After the war, Catherine returned to the Netherlands by ship.

Before leaving, Zheng Chenggong gave her a jade pendant engraved with the moon as a souvenir.

Catherine wrote this memoir on her voyage back to Europe, recording in detail what she saw and heard in the East, especially the deeds of Zheng Chenggong.

This memoir was later widely circulated in Europe and became an important document for the West to understand the Eastern hero Zheng Chenggong.

The initial budget for "Zheng Chenggong" was 2000 million US dollars, and it is also the most expensive film in China at present.

After half a year of preparation, the crew has completed the construction of several studios, cities, warships, etc., and will begin filming in mid-August.

Link not only serves as the producer, but also as the film editor. He requires that every time the crew finishes shooting a plot, they send the film to him for editing and review. If he thinks it is good, the plot will be passed. If he thinks it is not good, the crew needs to reshoot it until they are satisfied.

His request was that he could spend more money, but the quality of the film must be guaranteed.

Due to his strict requirements, the film is expected to take up to two years to shoot.

“Is there any difficulty in the crew now?”

Link asked.

"There are many. The first is that the cost of the film is too high. The cities, warships, and armor are all built one-to-one. This has never happened before in the domestic film industry. The crew felt a lot of pressure. Everyone was worried about messing up and wasting money."

Jiang Wen said.

"It doesn't matter. Just shoot it seriously. As long as it passes my test, the movie won't be too bad."

Link laughed.

Jiang Wen chuckled, "Link, we all know that you are good at making movies. If you invest so much money, why don't you make it yourself? If you were the director, we would all have confidence in you."

Lin Ke stirred his coffee. "I thought about it at first, but Zheng Chenggong is a war-themed movie, which is not my area of expertise. I also don't have the confidence to make a better film. I left it to Director Feng and a few experienced directors to shoot it. I will be the producer and can also play my role from a bystander's perspective."

Jiang Wen thought about it and nodded in agreement.

After chatting for a while, Monica and Sophie Marceau came down from the hotel.

One was wearing a white sleeveless dress with her long golden hair loose, and the other was wearing a blue fishtail skirt with her long black curly hair draped over her shoulders. When they walked down the corridor, the sunlight shone on them, making their fair skin and beautiful faces glow.

Everyone in the cafe, both men and women, looked over, the men were amazed and the women were envious.

Link stood up and pulled the two men aside, introducing Jiang Wen to them.

Monica and Sophie watched "Sunny Days" in the exhibition hall yesterday and felt it was very good. After meeting Director Jiang, they gave him some sincere praise.

When Jiang Wen saw the two beauties appear, his eyes widened involuntarily. It took him a few seconds to come back to his senses. He secretly gave Link a thumbs up in his heart. This brother is really awesome. He has earned billions of dollars at such a young age, is so good at making movies, and has two world-class beauties on his left and right. It's awesome.

In the afternoon, the four of them went to the Lido Film Palace together to attend the Venice Film Festival awards ceremony.

In the end, the Vietnamese film "Tricycle Man" won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film, "Sunny Days" won the Best Actor Award, the French film "Ceremony" won the Best Actress Award, "Chinese Box" won the Best Photography Award, and "Days in the Clouds" starring Sophie won the International Association of Film Critics Award.

In addition, nine people including director Woody Allen, director Martin Scorsese, and famous Italian soundtrack master Ennio Morricone won the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement.

(End of this chapter)