Chapter 815 Kaizi's Mentality Collapses
The Cannes Film Festival was founded during World War II and now has a history of nearly half a century. Although it is not the oldest film festival in the world, it is definitely the most influential film festival in the world.
The three major European film festivals, Cannes in France, Berlin in Germany, and Venice in Italy, are often mentioned together, but in the minds of many filmmakers there are still subtle differences between them.
Among the three major film festivals in Europe, the Venice Film Festival in Italy was founded in 1932. It is the earliest one, so it is also known as the "Father of International Film Festivals."
At the beginning, the purpose of the Venice Film Festival was political propaganda. It was not until after World War II that the Venice Film Festival began to transform itself, paying more attention to the artistic characteristics of the film itself, and has been striving to follow strict artistic traditions.
The Berlin Film Festival has always been known for its old-fashioned and politically charged image.
Since the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood films have invaded the European film market in a big way. In order to stand out, the Berlin Film Festival advocates "anti-Hollywood" films and focuses on low-cost art films, especially those from underdeveloped countries and regions.
It was against this background that Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival.
Paying too much attention to boring art films is in conflict with the commercial attributes of the films themselves.
Unlike the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals, the Cannes Film Festival was founded later and also focuses on art films, but it is obviously more thoughtful.
Its original time was the same as the Venice Film Festival, which was September every year, but in order to distinguish it from the Venice Film Festival, the time was changed to May every year.
Not only that, the Cannes Film Festival is also the first and most active of the three major film festivals to embrace business. The organizing committee of the film festival invites a large number of brand sponsors every year, and has gradually developed an international film trading market that is broader than the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals.
Film producers and artists come to Cannes not only because it can bring them honor and attention, but also because it can provide a trading platform and publicity space, which they also value.
Therefore, in terms of positioning and actual operation, Cannes has become more talked-about than Berlin and Venice.
In addition, another important reason is the geographical location.
Venice is a water city, and it is difficult to find a whole piece of land to hold a large-scale film festival. The Lido Island where the film festival is held is the only island in Venice where cars can be driven.
Every time a film festival opens, transportation becomes a headache for filmmakers from all over the world.
Because of this situation, the scale of the Venice Film Festival can hardly be described as grand.
Although Berlin is the capital of Germany, the Berlin Film Festival is held in February every year. Berlin's latitude is the same as that of Northeast China. It is located in the northern hemisphere, and February is the coldest time of the year.
The temperature alone is the biggest inherent shortcoming of the film festival.
Cannes in France is located on the Mediterranean coast and has a 5-kilometer-long sandy beach.
"Exquisite, elegant and charming" is the collective evaluation of all international filmmakers on Cannes.
Especially May, when the Cannes Film Festival is held, is the most beautiful season of the year in Cannes.
Therefore, whether it is the positioning of the film festival or the natural geographical conditions, this has made Cannes stand out among the three major film festivals.
Before "Life is Beautiful", China's fifth-generation directors had achieved remarkable results at the Cannes Film Festival.
Zhang Yimou's "To Live" won the Jury Grand Prix, Best Actor and other awards, and Cheng Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or for Best Film.
In the minds of many Chinese people and filmmakers, the popularity and influence of the Cannes Film Festival is second only to the Academy Awards.
Several domestic directors won major awards in Cannes, which has always been a hot topic.
This time, "Life is Beautiful" showed a very dominant performance at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor...
This film won almost all the major awards at this year's film festival. Looking at the history of world cinema, there are only a handful of films that can do this.
The director of this film, Roberto Benigni, is not familiar to the people in the country, but this does not prevent everyone from being happy when they hear the news.
Because this movie is adapted from Lin Weimin's novel "Life is Beautiful Anyway".
Following "Farewell My Concubine", movies adapted from Lin Weimin's novels once again swept the Cannes Film Festival, which is undoubtedly a very topical news.
When the news came, many domestic newspapers and TV stations reported it. Combined with the Pulitzer Prize, which was still in its heyday, the domestic people once again drew a constant sense of pride from Lin Weimin.
After the film won the award, Michael Phillips and Roberto Benigni contacted Lin Weimin immediately to tell him the news.
During the phone call, Michael Phillips secretly asked Lin Weimin to help smooth things over in China so that "Life is Beautiful" could qualify for a share of the profits.
In 1994, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a document to introduce 10 excellent foreign films every year. Unlike the previous import method of buying out films, these films can participate in the box office sharing.
"Life is Beautiful" is adapted from Lin Weimin's work, and he enjoys a share of the profits. As long as it does not violate principles and is within his means, he certainly hopes to get more profits.
The quality of the film is beyond doubt, and it even won a major award. It would be a shame not to introduce such a film to Chinese moviegoers.
Introduce, must introduce!
These words were not said by Lin Weimin, but by the new director of the Film Bureau, Liu Jianzhong.
Lin Weimin didn't take the initiative to contact the Film Bureau. When Liu Jianzhong learned about the performance of "Life is Beautiful" at the Cannes Film Festival, he immediately called Lin Weimin and offered him a spot.
Lin Weimin almost replaced Liu Jianzhong's position back then. Logically, he should not have a good impression of Lin Weimin.
But Lin Weimin has a high status in the domestic film industry, and it is rumored that he has a close relationship with Tian Congming, who was the head of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television at the time. How could Liu Jianzhong miss this opportunity to do him a favor?
Liu Jianzhong's initiative saved Lin Weimin a lot of trouble. After expressing his gratitude, he informed Michael Phillips of the news.
Michael Phillips was delighted to receive the news.
Although the scale of China's film market is not very large nowadays, this industry has always been a winner-takes-all industry. A small pie does not mean that everyone cannot get a piece of the pie.
When "Farewell My Concubine" was released in China, it raked in nearly 200 million yuan at the box office, which was more than 30 million US dollars based on the exchange rate of that year. Michael Phillips will never forget this event.
It was also adapted from Lin Weimin’s film, and it also won a major award at Cannes, and its performance was even more dominant.
It’s not too much to say that “Life is Beautiful” replicates the box office miracle of “Farewell My Concubine”, right?
Michael Phillips' mind is full of beautiful fantasies. Next, taking advantage of the heat of having just won the big award, he will continue to fight at film festivals with Roberto Benigni and prepare for the release of his film in various countries.
The continuous reports lasted for nearly half a month, and the domestic literary and film circles were filled with various news about Lin Weimin.
When many people discussed "Life is Beautiful", they also mentioned Cheng Kaige's "Feng Yue".
Three years ago, Cheng Kaige won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with the film "Farewell My Concubine", which was adapted from Lin Weimin's novel of the same name. This year, he is competing for the Palme d'Or again with "Feng Yue", which he spent two years carefully polishing.
But the result was that it was badly beaten by "Life is Beautiful". It was bad enough that it didn't win any prize at the film festival. The most important thing was that everyone heard that "Feng Yue" had a very average reputation at the film festival.
Film festivals are not only places to compete for awards, but also places to sell copyrights.
The evaluation and reputation of the audience and the media directly affect the copyright transaction of a film, especially when it has not won any awards. For Cheng Kaige, copyright transaction is even more of a life-saving straw.
In later generations, Cheng Kaige was known as the "city-building maniac" in the Chinese film industry. After "Farewell My Concubine" became a hit, he built a city for almost every movie he filmed.
When filming "Feng Yue", in order to restore the appearance of Shanghai at that time, he cooperated with Shanghai to build the Chedun Film and Television Base, which cost a lot of money.
Later, this film and television base became the filming location for most of the domestic film and television dramas telling stories about Shanghai, and became one of the top ten film and television bases in China.
In addition, after the filming of "Feng Yue" started, there was a controversy over replacing the female lead. The investment in the movie "Feng Yue" was nearly twice as high as that of "Farewell My Concubine".
With such high production costs, it is unrealistic to make a profit solely from domestic box office, unless the box office miracle of "Farewell My Concubine" is replicated.
"Feng Yue" did not win any prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, and the copyright was not sold to many countries.
When the news reached back to China, many people gloated and privately discussed Cheng Kaige's failure in Cannes and "Feng Yue". As the news spread, a rumor spread.
"The Niu Niu in Farewell My Concubine is Lin Weimin, not Cheng Kaige."
If the disastrous defeat to "Life is Beautiful" at the Cannes Film Festival was a murder, then when Cheng Kaige returned to China and heard this rumor, it was a heart-breaking blow.
Places related to fame and fortune have always been extremely realistic.
Just as Cheng Kaige was highly praised for his success in "Farewell My Concubine", he has been hit hard by the failure of "Feng Yue".
After returning to China, Cheng Kaige no longer had the heart to attend other film festivals, let alone prepare for the release of his film. He locked himself in the house and ignored worldly affairs.
This is a tough time for Xu Feng. Director Cheng Kaige has quit, but she spent real money to invest in this movie!
No matter what, the movie has been made and has participated in the film festival, so it has to be released. It is better to recoup some investment than to get nothing at all.
Director Cheng Kaige can be a hands-off boss, but Xu Feng can’t, because that’s all her money!
Especially when she thought about how she was so stupid as to sign five film contracts with Cheng Kaige, Xu Feng had an urge to slap herself a few times.
"Hey, this reporter has a really vicious tongue!"
An article analyzing the reasons why "Feng Yue" failed to enter the Cannes Film Festival was published in the newspaper. The reporter himself attended this year's Cannes Film Festival and learned the story of "Feng Yue". In the article, he criticized "Feng Yue" and Cheng Kaige harshly.
Especially the last sentence in the article, which made Feng Xiaogang laugh so hard that he rubbed his teeth.
“The success of Farewell My Concubine lies in Lin Weimin, while the failure of Temptress Moon lies in Cheng Kaige.”
Feng Xiaogang took a special look at the signature of the article. This reporter is truly a talent!
When he met Cheng Kaige at the dinner party, Feng Xiaogang called him "Uncle Kai" and "Uncle Kai" in a very affectionate manner, but those were just polite words.
When the Jinghua Museum opened, Feng Xiaogang took the opportunity to promote Cheng Kaige.
Now that "Feng Yue" has failed, Feng Xiaogang is gloating.
What stands out is the true character!
"What the hell! Do you think you can be better than him?"
When Feng Xiaogang was feeling happy, Wang Shuo couldn't help but say something to criticize him.
After these words were spoken, Feng Xiaogang really could no longer laugh.
Cheng Kaige has the burden of "Farewell My Concubine" on his shoulders, and Feng Xiaogang also has the success of "Party A/Party B" in front of him.
Now that his new movie "See You Tomorrow" co-produced with Wang Shuo is about to start shooting, Feng Xiaogang is filled with anxiety when he thinks of the unpredictable box office in the future.
He glanced at Wang Shuo and knew why Master Shuo was unhappy with him.
In "See You Tomorrow", Ge You and Liu Bei are still the partners. Shuo Ye's goal of getting a girlfriend has not been achieved, and he has not been happy this month.
Feng Xiaogang felt unhappy when he saw his sad face.
You're the only one who wants to get a girlfriend, who doesn't want to get someone in?
I'm the director, so I don't dare to force people into the role.
If you have the guts, go get angry at Teacher Lin, why are you coming against me?
He will be a bully at home!
(End of this chapter)
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