Chapter 395 "Lover" won the award

The next day, Lin Weimin was eating breakfast while flipping through the latest issue of "Variety", a long-established entertainment magazine in the United States.

Lin Weimin found news about this year's Cannes Film Festival on it. According to the time, the Cannes Film Festival should be closing by now.

Variety magazine did publish the news about the closing of the Cannes film industry, and also published the list of award-winning films and reviews of this year.

This year, the Palme d'Or went to Roland Joffe's film "Preaching", the Special Jury Prize went to Andrei Tarkovsky's "The Sacrifice", and the Best Director went to Martin Scorsese...

Lin Weimin looked at the awards one by one, and after careful searching, he found the word "lover" among a pile of award lists. The movie "Lover" won a total of two awards: Best Photography and Best Screenplay.

It is not the biggest winner, but among all the award-winning films, except for the three or four films that won heavyweight awards, this result achieved by "The Lover" is already very good.

At least before "The Lover", no Chinese-language film had ever achieved such results at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the works of Li Hanxiang, King Hu and others also won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, but they were all insignificant technical awards with little value.

After finishing his breakfast happily, Lin Weimin was about to start writing the script when the phone in the apartment rang.

I picked up the phone and it was Yang Meng's voice.

"Mr. Lin, I'm so sorry. I've been so busy lately that I even forgot to call you to tell you the good news."

Yang Meng explained this to Lin Weimin.

The trip of "The Lover" to the Cannes Film Festival was extremely hasty.

After the film festival closed and the award results were announced, "The Lover" became one of the focuses of major distributors attending the Cannes Film Festival. She has been busy with this matter in the past few days, and the distribution countries that have been confirmed include the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and more than a dozen other countries.

But they are all art films, so the copyright fees are not high, and their advantage is that they are sold in many countries.

There is also the matter of the release in Hong Kong. "The Lover" was originally screened after completing post-production at the fastest speed. Now that it has returned with great success, the release in Hong Kong must naturally be promoted well.

"I understand! Congratulations to Ms. Yang!"

"It should be a mutual celebration. Mr. Lin, please give me your address and I will mail the award certificate to you later, along with a red envelope."

"No need for a red envelope." Lin Weimin declined.

Yang Meng insisted: "Of course, the Best Screenplay Award is all thanks to you."

On the phone, Yang Meng also invited Lin Weimin to visit Hong Kong again when he has time after returning to China, but Lin Weimin could only politely decline.

He only comes out for two months at a time, and it is impossible for him to go out again this year.

"The Lover" won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Although they are not big awards, it can be said that the film's participation in the film festival was not in vain and it has proven its worth.

From Yang Meng's tone, I could tell that the movie must be selling very well, but I don't know how much profit it can make.

After a pleasant chat, Lin Weimin hung up the phone.

I was busy investing in "The Phantom of the Opera" a few days ago, and the progress of the script writing was delayed a lot.

Lin Weimin decided not to go out for the next few days and to stay in the apartment typing.

A week passed like this, and it was already early June, and Lin Weimin finally completed the script of "The Kite Runner".

When he handed the completed script to Arthur Miller, the old man was overjoyed, "Lin, your efficiency is really high!"

Is it high?

It has been almost a month and Teacher Lin has only just finished writing a script. For some reason, he actually felt a little ashamed.

With Lin Weimin's script, preparations for the play "The Kite Runner" could be started, and Arthur Miller became busy.

He also did not forget the young men from Lalin Weimin, and discussed script issues with him almost every day.

However, Lin Weimin was still idle most of the day. Occasionally, he would take a bus to travel around various districts in New York. When he was free, he thought of Mark Meng and called him.

After receiving Lin Weimin's call, Mark Meng shouted excitedly, "Lin, I didn't expect you to come to the United States. Where are you now? I can't wait to see you."

“I’m in New York now.”

"I'll come find you!"

"I'd better let me come find you. I have nothing to do in New York."

"No, no, I haven't really been to New York yet. This is a good time to go and have some fun."

Mark Meng insisted on driving to New York. He is now a teacher at the University of Kansas, which is equivalent to running from the central United States to the east coast of the United States.

For Lao Mi, driving across the entire United States is a common thing, let alone crossing half of the country.

After waiting for two days in New York, Lin Weimin finally met Mark Meng whom he had not seen for a long time.

"Lin, my friend!" As soon as they met, Mark Meng couldn't help but give Lin Weimin a big hug.

Lin Weimin was also a little excited, "Old Ma, long time no see!"

"Yeah, I haven't seen you for almost three years!"

After the hug, Mark Meng was still a little excited. He looked at Lin Weimin carefully and said, "You don't seem to have changed much."

Lin Weimin joked: "You have matured a lot. Why do you grow a beard?"

"Don't you think this is cool?"

Dude, do you have any misunderstanding about "cool"?

The two chatted for a while, and Lin Weimin said, "Let's go, arrange a place to stay first, and then I'll treat you to a meal."

Mark Meng laughed and said, "Hey man, this is the United States, I should be the one treating you to a meal."

He pulled Lin Weimin to get into his Buick, and Huang Guangsheng quickly got out of the Mercedes-Benz waiting nearby, "Mr. Lin!"

Lin Weimin waved his hand and said, "Jack, drive the car back to the apartment first, you can have a day off for the next two days!"

Huang Guangsheng nodded, got in the car and left.

After Lin Weimin got in the car, Mark Meng asked in surprise, "Lin, what's going on?"

"A friend arranged the car for me. As the old Chinese saying goes, it's easier to get things done when you have more friends."

When old friends reunited, Lin Weimin returned to his cocky nature.

After Mark Meng drove the car to the downstairs of Dakota Apartment according to Lin Weimin's instructions, looking at the apartment standing in front of him, Mark Meng asked: "You won't tell me this is where you live?"

Lin Weimin patted him on the shoulder and said, "This is not only where I live, but also where you live."

After saying that, he got out of the car, and Mark Meng also got out quickly and followed Lin Weimin into the apartment. Mark Meng looked around all the way.

Even after entering the apartment, he still couldn't believe it and asked, "Lin, how did you do it?"

"You mean the apartment and the car?"

"certainly."

Lin Weimin did not keep the secret and told Mark Meng about his partnership with Arthur Miller.

Mark Meng was confused after hearing this. He left Yenching in 1983, and that year happened to be the year Arthur Miller visited Yenching. He did hear Lin Weimin mention hosting Arthur Miller, but he didn't expect that there would be any follow-up to the relationship between Lin Weimin and Arthur Miller.

He could not have imagined that Lin Weimin's play had been performed on the Broadway stage.

"Oh my god! If I had known your play was on Broadway, I should have come here sooner!"

"Haha, it's not too late now. Let's go eat later, and I'll take you to see my play in the evening."

Sardis on West 44th Street is one of the restaurants frequented by Broadway theater workers. Like the Green Lounge, it has witnessed the premiere celebrations of countless Broadway shows.

In 1946, after the death of actress Antoinette Perry, her good friend, theater producer and director Brooke Penn Burton, came up with the idea of ​​establishing a drama award in memory of Antoinette while having lunch in Sardis, and thus the "Tony Award" was born.

For many years, Sardis has been the place where Tony Award nominees are announced, making the restaurant a household name on Broadway.

While eating, Lin Weimin introduced the stories about Sardis to Mark Meng, which made Mark Meng sigh.

"I am an American, but you are the master in New York!"

Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Who gave me the time?"

Lin Weimin is right. For many people living in big cities, life there is only work and sleep. And the enthusiasm of those cities is only open to those who have time and money.

"The Big Apple is like a bitch!" Mark Meng sighed and cursed.

After they finished their meal, they came out of Sardis and it was already dark outside.

This is when Broadway truly wakes up. The darkness illuminates all the details of Broadway, the neon lights of the theater, the posters under the spotlights, and the audience waiting to enter.

Mark Meng is an American, but this is his first time in New York and his first time in Broadway. He actually feels like a country boy coming to the city.

"Lin, I suddenly realized that I have to thank you."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because of me, I discovered that there is this side of New York!"

After Mark Meng finished speaking, the two looked at each other and laughed.

The two came to the Barrymore Theater, bought tickets and entered the theater.

"The Intouchables", which has been running for more than a year, is very popular on Broadway. This may be related to the theater industry's blind pursuit of war reflection in the past few years.

The background of the American version of "The Intouchables" is the Vietnam War. From the local war in 1965 to the withdrawal in 1975, the ten-year Vietnam War brought excruciating pain to the United States.

More than 58,000 U.S. soldiers died, and various investments totaling $445 billion were lost. The Johnson and Nixon administrations were dragged into the quagmire and stepped down in disgrace.

The divisions in American society and the conflicts of opinion among the people caused by this war far exceeded any subsequent war.

Against this background, a large number of news, biographies and literary works emerged in the American cultural circle, describing the cruelty of war, reflecting on the gains and losses of the Vietnam War, and analyzing the causes and impacts of the Vietnam War.

The most representative of these is David Leiber and his "Vietnam War Trilogy".

"Pavlo Hummel's Basic Training", "Ribbons" and "Sticks and Bones" were three plays that won numerous awards in the United States in the 1970s.

But it may also be that years of reflection, contradiction and confrontation have made Americans tired of this way of thinking.

At this time, also with the background of the Vietnam War, "The Intouchables" appeared in front of American audiences in a light-hearted, humorous and warm style, sweeping away the heaviness, grief and melancholy that everyone had seen in the "Vietnam War Trilogy", allowing many people to feel the pain that the war brought to the people in another light-hearted way, and bringing countless audiences a touching feeling of laughter and tears, which was very impressive.

Mark Meng walked out of the theater and exclaimed again: "Lin, this version of The Intouchables is really well adapted! No wonder it is so popular!"

There is no need to read media reviews. Just from the audience's reaction in the theater, Mark Meng knows how popular "The Intouchables" is on Broadway.

"Mr. Arthur Miller contributed a lot to this work."

Lin Weimin is not being polite. If it weren't for Arthur Miller, the localization of "The Intouchables" would not have been such a great success.

Mark Meng nodded and said, "You are such a lucky guy!"

Lin Weimin smiled and said, "You can't envy this kind of luck!"

(End of this chapter)