Huayu: Enjoy Yourself

Chapter 24: A packed screening room!

Amidst the enthusiastic applause, Chen An heard Gong Li say beside him, "You really should have come to me; you'd even be willing to lower your fee!"

This was also the first time she had seen this movie. Its structure was absolutely innovative, featuring a female lead who acted as the main character. She couldn't help but like it.

Chen An happily replied, "Then I'll contact you about that movie I told you about. You can't refuse."

"No problem, I'll wait for you to come find me."

Gong Li nodded in agreement; she really wanted to work with this young director.

After the conversation ended and the applause subsided, Chen An went on stage to prepare for an interview, unlike in Venice where he planned to leave after the broadcast.

Once on stage, the reporters below rushed to ask questions.

Chen An could only deal with them one by one, starting with a domestic reporter who was one of his own.

The reporter stood up and asked, "Director Chen, you're still a sophomore at the Beijing Film Academy, right? And you're majoring in cinematography. This screening was a great success. How did you come up with the theme and structure of this story?"

"That was because I had an idea while playing video games, wondering if I could make a movie similar to the protagonist of a game, and that's how 'Run Lola Run' came about."

The reporter who heard Chen An's answer sat down, and a professional translator was also present to translate Chen An's answer.

Everyone present also took out notebooks and wrote down their answers.

Then a European film critic stood up and asked, "I've seen your short film, it's excellent. Now I'd like to know if this film was influenced by the French New Wave, a completely new story structure created to resist the Hollywood industrial system?"

"Thank you for liking my short film. This is my first time directing a feature film. I am a new type of director in every sense of the word, including in terms of age. I have no other intentions but to shoot a fantasy story that suddenly popped into my head, which has nothing to do with the French New Wave or Hollywood."

After the translator's translation, Chen An understood the film critic's question, answered him in Chinese, and handed it to the translator to translate.

I'm just a nobody, so naturally I can't give him a definitive answer on this kind of issue. These two factions are fighting tooth and nail, so I'd better not get involved.

Next, a female reporter stood up and asked, "Director, is 'Run Lola Run' a portrayal of modern women and an expression of the future?"

Upon hearing this question, Chen An immediately knew that the European feminists had arrived. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "I am a gender equality advocate. What I express is reflected in my films. Women can also save the people they love and don't have to rely entirely on men."

Whether she understood it or not was up to the translator, but judging from her sitting down happily, she must have understood.

There were still many questions, and Chen An could only answer them one by one, which made his throat dry from talking on stage, but he was still very happy.

This also shows that the movie is very popular.

After that, every screening of "Run Lola Run" was sold out.

The questions from previous interviews have been turned into reports and published.

The first one to come to mind is "Run Lola Run, a Movie Every Woman Should See!"

Chen An immediately recognized the newspaper article as written by the female reporter on the other end. After briefly mentioning the film's story and structure, she abruptly shifted the focus to everything related to women's rights.

The film's premiere was a great success, and countless reports about it were published, mostly praising it.

The most influential of these was the French film publication.

The article directly states, "A young director from China brings a groundbreaking 'Run Lola Run'!"

The most anticipated film at the 49th Cannes Film Festival was undoubtedly *Run Lola Run*, directed by the young Chinese director who won the Golden Lion for Best Short Film at last year's Venice Film Festival. This film is a powerful critique of traditional Hollywood narrative structures, employing an unprecedented three-part narrative structure with three parallel storylines, three different narratives, and three different outcomes.

What followed was a long analysis of the story structure and editing, and of course, a critique of the Hollywood industrial system.

Of course, Chen An wouldn't admit it anyway. People could say whatever they wanted. He'd accept the praise, but he wouldn't answer anything else.

Chen An also enjoyed reading these things, so he asked the translator to translate them for him, and he was all smiles after hearing the praise.

New 69 Bookstore →

During the interview, some domestic reporters were filming, and Han Sanping thought of joining them, so he called Chen An over as well.

The two film crews took a group photo, and then pulled Chen An, Gong Li, and Leslie Cheung together for another photo.

Gong Li, wearing black pants and a white shirt, stood between the two men, with Chen An and Leslie Cheung acting as her protectors on either side, surrounding her as they took the photo.

After filming, Han Sanping took everyone to a restaurant for a meal together.

Although the impact of "Temptress Moon" did not meet expectations, he was particularly happy about the unexpected success of "Run Lola Run". He had originally signed the contract personally because of a favor, but he did not expect it to be so successful.

"Brother Chen, the newspaper ratings are coming out soon, and they're sure to be high, hahaha!"

In the restaurant, Han Sanping put her arm around Chen An's shoulder and chatted happily.

Chen An didn't want the score to be too high, since many films with high scores won't win anything, and major film festivals love to do that.

"Brother Han, this score is too high, which isn't good either. After all, the judges ultimately decide the awards, and if it's too high, they won't be happy and they can't do anything about it if they don't give it to you."

"That's true, but your 'Run Lola Run' is a huge hit. No matter the outcome, the copyright deal will definitely go through. Let's have some fun first!"

Han Sanping said happily, not caring about any of this.

Chen An didn't say much about the halfway point champagne-opening behavior, since the final result wouldn't be up to him anyway.

The works brought this time are also impressive. In addition to two major Chinese directors, the Coen brothers also brought their film "Fargo". These brothers were the ones who won both Best Film and Best Director at Cannes for "Barton Fink".

It's rare for someone to win both Best Picture and Best Director, two such prestigious awards, but these two brothers did.

It's quite common for the Oscars to award both Best Director and Best Picture to the same film.

the next day.

The ratings for "Run Lola Run" are out: 3.2!

That's definitely a high score, considering the total score is only 4 points.

He couldn't understand it. It wasn't this tall in Venice in his previous life. What went wrong?

Chen An had no choice but to accept it. He couldn't very well go and ask someone to change his score, or else they'd smash his melon.

The actors in the crew were very happy, because in their eyes, the higher the better.

Duan Long even came over and specifically asked, "High score! Director Chen, why do you look so unhappy?"

With "Run Lola Run" leading in the score, he didn't quite understand Chen An's feelings, wondering why he looked so unhappy.

Chen An turned his head and grinned, revealing an awkward smile: "Am I unhappy?"

After saying that, he left and walked alone towards the hotel. In the middle of the road, he saw one or two tourists waving to him.

They talked to me for a long time, but I couldn't understand much of what they were saying. However, I could hear them talking about "Lola" all the time, so they must have been saying that they liked my movie.

Chen An also expressed his gratitude to the audience who liked his movies, saying "thank you, thank you" in English.

Chen An has been quite happy along the way. Although he may not win an award, there are still many viewers who like his work.

On second thought, I realized that my initial goal was simply to make it into the main competition category.

The movie isn't even over yet, and people are already thinking about this and that.

Not long after returning to his hotel room, Lin Dajiang came over, saying that someone had discussed purchasing the copyright with him, and he was unsure about it.

So I came to ask about Chen An's situation.

Chen An immediately refused: "Brother Jiang, trust me. Let's wait until after the awards ceremony. Nothing is certain right now. I'll go with you then."

This time is different from the last time. This time, I own 15%, so I can't just let Lin Dajiang sell it off on his own. If he loses money, I'll lose money too.

Lin Dajiang nodded upon hearing Chen An's answer, choosing to believe Chen An and going to refuse the copyright holders.

Seeking everything

(End of this chapter)