Chapter 390 That Award
After taking a deep breath, Su Yun opened one of the letters in the pile that he wanted to read but also didn't want to read.
Fortunately, this letter was sent by Zhang Querong. Although the wording he used in the letter was obviously more relaxed due to the unique privacy of the letter, at least he knew the limits and catered to Su Yun's preferences. After simply expressing his personal longing for her in a few sentences, he quickly got straight to the point.
In the letter, Zhang Querong said that the filming of "Ladder of Love" was basically smooth, but because most of the crew members were going to the central region of China for the first time, they inevitably had some problems with acclimatization both psychologically and physically.
Fortunately, the crew is full of hard-working people. After overcoming the initial discomfort, the subsequent filming went more and more smoothly, and they also developed a good friendship with the local villagers. Moreover, it was because of the simple and honest feelings from the villagers that many people who had been exhausted by Hong Kong's pursuit of rapid development in recent years without caring about the pressure on people felt peace of mind.
With the support of local authorities and the general public, they will probably be able to return to Hong Kong before the Lunar New Year, and then add some details based on the situation, and the film can basically move on to the next step of production.
Comparing the contents of these reports with the contents of director Xu Anxia's letters, it is not difficult to see that his perspective on the acting career has begun to shift from a one-sided perspective of an actor to a comprehensive perspective of a director.
In this circle, it is not uncommon for a good actor to become a director. On the contrary, many people have made the transition that way.
Su Yun, who believes that there is never too much talent, is very happy to see this happen.
However, in response to the questions raised by Zhang Querong and Xu Anxia in their letters regarding the release date of the film, Su Yun had other plans.
The film "Ladder of Love" was decided to be used for awards before filming began, and after careful consideration, Su Yun chose the Cannes Film Festival as her target.
Taking into account that the film had to be shot in the mainland and the actors' schedules, in order to avoid certain twists and turns, Su Yun tried her best to shoot on schedule, but she would not rush to make it to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
The reasons are quite simple. One is to reserve enough time for post-production and public relations promotion for the film. The other is to avoid the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, a "big year" with many strong competitors.
With capital as a backing, Su Yun's sights are no longer on small-time newcomer awards or supporting actor awards.
If you want to win an award, then just go for Best Picture, or Best Actor or Best Actress.
In view of the focus of "Ladder of Love", Su Yun set his sights on the "Best Picture" or "Best Actor" award, and was more confident about his chances of winning the Best Actor award: Although the European film industry pays great attention to artistry, just like other awards such as the Oscars, there is overt and covert discrimination against Chinese and Chinese Americans and even those with oriental faces.
It is basically impossible to win the Best Director award, and it is also reluctant to give the Best Picture award to a certain extent. So the remaining awards are the Best Actor and Best Actress, which are both important enough but will not have much impact on the world film industry.
In addition, Su Yun had already won the first Chinese Cannes Best Actress award 10 years ago, so adding another Chinese Cannes Best Actor award 10 years later would not seem to make some people who claim to respect art on the surface but are actually greedy and greedy feel too uncomfortable...
Moreover, a few years later, the Chinese-language film "Farewell My Concubine" swept the Cannes Film Festival with its powerful strength, but in the end, due to an invisible key problem in the distribution of awards, it could only win the Palme d'Or for Best Picture. Such an ending made many people feel sorry for Zhang Querong, who made a lot of efforts and sacrifices to play this film well.
It is true that in that era, Chinese people still held the mentality that good wine needs no bush, but foreigners who were already very good at public relations and fighting for favors did not care about these trivial matters. In addition, the judges basically believed that all the nominated films were good films, so they wanted to give these good films they selected more exposure... The poor public relations and the judges' mentality of dividing the bastards led to a regrettable ending.
It's not that he was not good enough, but he lost due to the unspoken rule of "resource allocation": breaking the limit for a Chinese-language film to win the Palme d'Or was the first exception, so it would be difficult to get the jury to make another exception and allow a Chinese-language film to win the two heavyweight awards of Best Picture and Best Actor at the same time.
Another point is that the award for the best actor or actress is given to an actor whose biological gender is "male" or an actress whose biological gender is "female" outside the play. No matter what gender or gender concept he or she plays in the play, it is not the basis for judging the award.
As for the rumor that a certain judge felt that her performance in Farewell My Concubine deserved her the Best Actress award, if you think about it carefully, you will know that this is impossible.
However, this does not mean that Zhang Querong did not suffer any loss in the selection process of "Farewell My Concubine" - the loss he suffered was much greater than the problem of "gender judgment standards". It was the "rule discrimination" at the overall level that is difficult to shake with personal strength.
Back to the question of whether they would choose the 39th Cannes International Film Festival in 1986 or the 40th Cannes International Film Festival in 1987: through the channels of System Gold Finger and Zha Lan, Su Yun roughly figured out the distribution of opponents in these two film festivals.
At the 39th International Film Festival in 1987, the Best Film category included Roland Joffe, a British-born director of French-Italian descent, nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, winner of the Academy Awards for Best Director, the Golden Globe Awards for Best Director, the British Academy of Film Awards for Best Director, etc., and "Life in Arms" starring Robert De Niro - this is not only a big-name director, but also a drama adapted from real events about fighting against colonial power. Su Yun would be stupid to use her literary and artistic romance film to collide with such a big group.
As for the Best Actor, it is Michel Blanc from France. He is said to be the new favorite of the French film industry in the past two years. The only thing missing is a prestigious award... Well, there is basically no chance for him.
However, at the 40th Cannes Film Festival in 1987, the Best Film award for "Under the Sun of Satan" was won amid intense controversy, and this award has an extraordinary and special significance for the French film industry: the last time a French film won an award at the Cannes Film Festival was in 1966, a full 21 years ago in 1987.
The next time a French film won an award was 21 years later in 2008.
The time intervals were exactly the same, a coincidence that made people wonder if they ignored the controversy and gave the award at the 40th Film Festival in 1987 just to promote their own people.
As for the Best Actor winner in 1987, he was a veteran Italian actor who had won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. However, he had become somewhat out of fashion due to multiple box office failures and extramarital affair scandals. Moreover, the film he nominated for the award was also submitted for an Oscar.
Very good, the Best Picture is highly controversial, and the strongest candidate for Best Actor is a non-local who has already won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and wants to compete for an Oscar with the same film...
In this way, as long as Su Yun works hard to address these points, perhaps the jury of this year will sacrifice these non-members in order to quell public grievances and set up a more attractive target to divert attention - such as the title of "the first Chinese Cannes Film Emperor", which is bound to cause a bloody storm.
There is no way. Even Su Yun, who is not superstitious, has to admit that Zhang Querong's luck in awards is really not that good. His luck is basically given to the actors and actresses who worked with him in the same play. Not to mention that he gave away one Best Actor and Best Actress award after another, he himself was very calm and helpless, sitting in the audience seats at the award ceremony based on his own strength...
Su Yun herself got her start in public relations and won various awards, so she will naturally not let her own people suffer the consequences of poor public relations. On the contrary, she will steadily innovate based on previous successful examples and continue to fight to the death with those "artist judges" who can lose their conscience for the ridiculous reason of skin color.
Although she does not think awards represent anything, in the eyes of many people, awards still represent an artist's career evaluation - so, those awards that fight to maintain their own advantages versus artists who fight hard to win an international award, it is undoubtedly a silent struggle that will never stop.
Local films have local advantages and private preferences. This is an unspoken rule in any award selection. Su Yun sighed secretly, and then wrote something in her notebook to remind herself to work harder to enhance the value of the Hong Kong Film Awards.
After all, from the moment she decided to go against her own will and choose a path that would blend in with the world's perspective as much as possible, she was destined to have to work hard to make money in Hong Kong and strengthen her hard power while also trying her best to develop the soft power of her cultural career.
An international award of sufficient weight always drives many film professionals crazy - but Asia has yet to produce an international award of sufficient weight.
Su Yun decided to use "Ladder of Love" to help Zhang Querong win the Best Actor Award among Chinese Films. In addition to enhancing the "strength assessment" of his own people, it was also to fulfill his and many others' regretful dream in the most likely scenario.
After all, the two brightest points of the movie "Ladder of Love" are fundamentally: the poignant and moving story and the hero's struggle, hard work, and deep love. The latter is the main reason why this story is so poignant and moving.
When all the glory is concentrated on one point, and the right time, place and people are met, it is possible to break through those so-called rules that should not exist.
And once these rising stars have emerged, with sufficient economic and cultural strength and political support, the weight of the Academy Awards will gradually increase, and her desired goal will eventually be achieved.