Chapter 813 The Real Soul Figure
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has a very high status in the American literary world. If ranked by influence, among the three major mainstream literary awards, the National Book Award should be the most authoritative, followed by the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and then the National Book Critics Circle Award.
The main difference between the three is that the National Book Award is backed by American publishers, and the Pulitzer Award is backed by News Corporation. Compared with the former two, the influence of the National Book Critics Circle seems a little weak, and influence has a lot to do with financial resources and power.
However, because of this, the National Book Critics Circle Award appears to be more pure, and within the American literary community, the results of this award are more recognized by professionals in the American literary community.
But this does not hinder the influence of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
The authority and influence of the National Book Award lies in the powerful publishing and distribution capabilities behind it. Winning this award is equivalent to being recognized and welcomed by the vast majority of booksellers in the United States, which is crucial for a writer.
The authority and influence of the Pulitzer Prize lies in the fact that the United States' global influence has soared dramatically since World War II. Its journalism industry has become a benchmark for international public opinion, and the Pulitzer Prize has also taken advantage of this opportunity to become a world-renowned award.
For many years, the fiction award has seemed a bit dull compared to the journalism award, but that is when compared with the journalism award. In fact, because of the public's attention to the journalism award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction gets a lot of exposure each year, on the contrary.
This year's award ceremony is over, and the news media and the public's attention to the Pulitzer Prize is the same as in previous years, with the focus initially on the journalism awards.
But many people also paid attention to the special features of the creative awards. "God Bless America" won two major awards for fiction writing and history writing, which has never happened in the history of the Pulitzer Prize.
Especially since the winner Lin Weimin is a Chinese writer. Although Lin Weimin's reputation in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, such obvious preference for a foreign writer still caused the public to discuss the decision of the Pulitzer Prize jury.
Especially since last year, the relationship between the two countries has been tense, and until last month, this tension reached a peak. Under such circumstances, Lin Weimin's winning of the award seems somewhat unusual.
This can also be seen from the number of news reports.
According to the rules of previous years, the Pulitzer Prize is the main content of the report, and the content of the novel will only be mentioned in passing at the end of a report.
But this year, after reports about the Pulitzer Prize appeared, those who pay attention will find that many media reports focused on Lin Weimin, who won two awards.
It is true that "God Bless America" is extremely popular in the United States now, but as a writer, it is really outrageous that it stole the limelight from the Pulitzer Prize.
Of course, this is the view of industry insiders.
For ordinary readers, they only know that Lin Weimin, a foreign writer, won another award in the United States and broke the Pulitzer Prize record.
As the news continued to spread and ferment, Lin Weimin's reputation in the United States became more famous, which also boosted the sales of his novels in the country.
Not only that, the international influence of the Pulitzer Prize has also, to a certain extent, expanded Lin Weimin's popularity in countries around the world, especially in Western countries.
Accepting awards, giving interviews, attending events, Lin Weimin has already adapted to this rhythm over the years. After being busy for four or five days, Roger Strauss even planned to organize a book signing event for him, but Lin Weimin decisively rejected his proposal.
It has taken more than a week to go back and forth, and he has to go back to Yanjing to wait to inherit the throne!
Well, actually it was mainly because he was too busy with work. Organizing a book signing event for all fans would take at least half a month, and he couldn't afford that.
The day after Lin Weimin arrived in the United States, which was also the day he received the Pulitzer Prize, the 49th Cannes Film Festival was held as scheduled in Cannes, France.
A total of 23 films from various countries around the world were shortlisted for this year's Cannes Film Festival, including many great directors. For example, Bertolucci, an old acquaintance of Lin Weimin, was shortlisted for the film festival this year with his new work "Stealing Beauty"; Cheng Kaige was also shortlisted for this year's film festival with "Feng Yue", which he had been honing for two years.
Other famous directors include Mike Leigh, Hou Hsiao-hsien, David Cronenberg, Robert Altman and others.
Among the great directors whose masterpieces are world-renowned, Roberto Benigni, who participated in the competition with "Life is Beautiful", seemed mediocre.
This comedy star from Italy is very famous in Italy. He moved to Hollywood in the past few years and achieved some success, but he did not attract much attention at the Cannes Film Festival, which is attended by many famous directors and superstars.
What attracted the most attention of the jury and the news media was his film "Life is Beautiful" because it was adapted from Lin Weimin's work.
Not only are there acquaintances of Lin Weimin among the participating directors, but there are also acquaintances of his on the judging panel.
Francis Ford Coppola is the chairman of the jury of this year's Cannes Film Festival.
After the opening of the film festival, the participating films will be screened in rotation every day.
The works of many famous directors who attended the film festival became the focus of audiences and received warm welcome.
Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty", David Cronenberg's "Train Named Desire", Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Goodbye South, Goodbye South", Robert Altman's "Kansas City", Cheng Kaige's "Temptation Moon"...
Tickets for the screenings of these works are hard to get, and the reviews after the screenings are mixed.
A week into the festival, all the competing films had already had their public screenings.
Among them, Mike Leigh's "Secrets and Lies", Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves", and the Coen brothers' "Fargo" have won unanimous praise from audiences and the media, becoming the strongest contenders for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
The reputations of works such as "Stealing Beauty", "Kansas Love and Vengeance" and "Feng Yue" that were highly anticipated before and after the opening of the film festival have almost all failed.
Cheng Kaige, who came to the Cannes Film Festival with "Feng Yue" this time, was full of confidence. He thought that the film that took him more time, more energy and more money to create could continue the glory of three years ago and bring his film career to a new peak.
But he never expected that after the screening of "Feng Yue", the reviews were almost unanimously negative, whether it was the audience, judges or the media.
After a few days of bad reviews, Cheng Kaige's ambitions were crushed by reality, and he was no longer as complacent as before.
He just couldn't understand why this was the result when he had put so much effort into making this film, all the designs were more ingenious than "Farewell My Concubine", and the pictures and shots were more exquisite.
Although the film festival has not yet closed and the results of the awards have not been announced, Cheng Kaige has already been told by reason that he has no chance of winning the Palme d'Or this year.
In the last few days of the film festival, Cheng Kaige's spirit and energy were completely different from that at the opening, and he had completely lost his confidence and fighting spirit.
Xu Feng, who accompanied Cheng Kaige to Cannes, looked at his condition and felt depressed and helpless at the same time.
Xu Feng first spotted Cheng Kaige at the Cannes Film Festival because of his talent. For Cheng Kaige, she went to lobby Lin Weimin and obtained the adaptation rights for "Farewell My Concubine".
After obtaining the adaptation rights, Xu Feng invested a huge amount of money in the film. 4 million US dollars was definitely a huge investment for filmmakers from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macao in the early 1990s. This fully demonstrated Xu Feng's appreciation and trust in Cheng Kaige.
While filming Farewell My Concubine, Xu Feng felt that her collaboration with Cheng Kaige was quite harmonious. Cheng Kaige had his own artistic pursuits, but at least he was willing to listen to other people's opinions.
But after "Farewell My Concubine" achieved unprecedented success nationwide, Xu Feng found that Cheng Kaige seemed like a different person.
During the filming of "Feng Yue", Cheng Kaige hardly listened to any of her opinions and suggestions. Even though Xu Feng tried to persuade him earnestly, he still insisted on his own opinion.
The success of "Farewell My Concubine" certainly gave Cheng Kaige confidence, but this does not mean that he can completely ignore other people's opinions, especially since Xu Feng is the investor and producer of this film.
In recent days, when Cheng Kaige saw Xu Feng, his eyes were wandering and he seemed a little guilty.
That afternoon, Xu Feng forced him to watch a movie, which was also a participating film and was adapted from Lin Weimin's work, "Life is Beautiful".
After coming out of the cinema, Cheng Kaige was in an extremely low mood.
Xu Feng looked at his performance and suddenly felt happy.
"What do you think of this movie?" Xu Feng asked without hesitation.
Cheng Kaige was born with an imposing manner and he always held his head high and chest out in front of others, but today, it seemed that he couldn't straighten his waist.
He did not answer Xu Feng's question immediately. He pondered for a long time, opened and closed his lips several times, and finally uttered two words weakly: "Very good!"
"How do you think it compares to Farewell My Concubine?"
These words deeply hurt Cheng Kaige. A hint of anger flashed in his eyes, but he still remained restrained.
"I don't know." He said dully.
Xu Feng said: "I am not asking you this to mock you. Have you ever thought that if you had continued to cooperate with Mr. Lin, this play would be your work now."
Cheng Kaige stammered, hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said, "Even if I could get the adaptation rights for this work, it might not turn out like this."
Seeing that he was still a little stubborn, Xu Feng said ruthlessly: "For any director, filming Mr. Lin's work should be something they would love to do."
Hearing this, Cheng Kaige's face stiffened.
What Xu Feng said was just short of pointing at his nose and saying, "The success of Farewell My Concubine has little to do with you as a director."
How could a man with such self-respect and arrogance as Cheng Kaige tolerate such an insult?
He looked at Xu Feng sternly and walked away without saying a word.
Xu Feng looked at his back and shook his head helplessly.
After separating from Cheng Kaige, Xu Feng did not leave the cinema entrance. She waited here for about half an hour, and then saw a group of reporters walking out of the cinema entrance.
The reporters surrounded the few people in the middle. Their microphones followed the people wherever they went, and they kept asking questions. It seemed that the people being surrounded must be big stars or heavyweight filmmakers.
Xu Feng looked at the scene at the entrance of the cinema, and couldn't help but reveal a bit of envy in his eyes.
The person surrounded by reporters was none other than Roberto Benigni, the screenwriter, director and leading actor of "Life is Beautiful".
Standing with him is his wife, Nicoletta Braschi, who is also the heroine of the film.
There was another person next to her whom Xu Feng also knew, Michael Phillips, one of the investors and producers of "Farewell My Concubine". He was also an investor and producer of "Life is Beautiful".
"Life is Beautiful" is the biggest dark horse at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Since the film was screened, it has received warm praise and crazy pursuit from the media, film critics and audiences.
This is in stark contrast to the negative reviews of "Feng Yue".
That kind of scene is not unfamiliar to veterans who have been immersed in film festivals.
They saw the birth of a classic from the strong feedback from the outside world on "Life is Beautiful".
Many filmmakers attending the film festival were privately discussing that this year's Palme d'Or would probably go to "Life is Beautiful".
This movie perfectly restores the black humor in the novel, presenting a tragic story in a comedic way. It is completely different from any previous World War II-themed film, reflecting the history of World War II from a fresh perspective that goes beyond the norm.
The film is full of creativity and imagination, turning a subject that has almost been filmed to pieces into something new. Many film critics even praised Roberto Benigni's performance in the film as being no less than that of Chaplin.
This is undoubtedly extremely high praise, but Roberto Benigni's performance also deserves such an evaluation.
He wrote, directed and acted in the film himself. No one can deny his role as the soul of the film.
If there is anyone whose contribution can be compared with his, it is probably Lin Weimin, who created the original novel of this film.
"Life is Beautiful" is the work of Lin Weimin. Xu Feng also knew that Lin Weimin had entrusted the adaptation of this novel to Italian actor Roberto Benigni, and also brought in Michael Phillips to invest in the film.
She believed that if she had taken the initiative to contact Lin Weimin and Michael Phillips at that time, it would not be difficult for her to get a part of the investment share based on the tacit understanding developed during the investment process of "Farewell My Concubine".
But there is no if in everything. At that time, she put all her energy into Cheng Kaige and "Feng Yue" and had no time to care about anything else.
As it turned out, she made a wrong bet.
The real soul of "Farewell My Concubine" is not Cheng Kaige, but Lin Weimin.
This rule still applies to "Life is Beautiful".
well!
Xu Feng sighed inwardly.
The thought in his mind lasted only a moment. Seeing the team of Roberto Benigni and others moving towards him, Xu Feng waved to Michael Phillips.
“Mike!”
(End of this chapter)
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