1980 My literary era

The first Shanghai International Film Festival has come to a successful conclusion. As China's first international film festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival is an unprecedented success.

167 films were registered, 24 films were selected for the main competition, and 4 award-winning films came from different countries and regions around the world, fully reflecting the internationality, inclusiveness and diversity of the Shanghai International Film Festival.

During the film festival, nearly a thousand domestic and foreign filmmakers attended the event, including international movie stars such as Sophia Loren, Roberto Benigni, Deborah Raffin, and Gong Li.

During the 8-day film festival, 8 film screening venues including Shanghai Cinemas, Grand Guangming Cinema, and Hengshan Cinema presented 574 movie screenings to the people of Shanghai, attracting more than 220,000 moviegoers.

In terms of the most critical film festival copyright signing amount, the Shanghai International Film Festival has broken the barriers of new film festivals. A number of international production companies have contributed a total of 140 million yuan in signing amount to the film festival.

In the days before and after the end of the film festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival has been the focus of domestic media, especially the media around Shanghai.

The Shanghai International Film Festival reported was full of flowers, harmonious, victorious and grand.

But there is an unknown side of the film festival that few people know. After the Shanghai International Film Festival, Lin Weimin's "notoriety" once again spread throughout the Chinese film industry.

It is said that because people advised him to give the award to foreigners, he pointed at the noses of the leading cadres of the organizing committee at the meeting and scolded them for "comprador thinking" and "seeking glory from foreigners". Each label was more important than the other. .

This kind of gossip spreads the fastest. After the news spread, many people in the cultural circle were full of contempt for Lin Weimin's vulgar and narrow values.

How can such a narrow-minded writer with no international vision deserve his international reputation?

It's a good thing he wasn't made the director of the film bureau, otherwise he wouldn't be able to make a bunch of model films in the future?

But more people had a positive attitude towards Lin Weimin after hearing these gossips. Someone who was interested took out the film festival's award-winning list and studied it, and easily matched the rumors.

"Sunny Days" should be the movie that Lin Weimin supported, right?

Good guy, if it weren't for Lin Weimin's support, I wouldn't have won a single award at the film festival held in China.

If the quality of this movie is too low, no one can fault it. After all, we can’t do things that make people poke their spines.

But "Sunny Days" just won the Silver Bear Award at the Venice Film Festival. Although your Shanghai International Film Festival also has the word "international" on it, there is always a gap between the standards and others, right?

Give "It's Always Sunny" a Best Picture award and no one can fault it.

After understanding the twists and turns of the film festival, many people lamented that internationalism and artistic exchange are all nonsense. If a film festival is held on their own territory, their own people will not even win an award. How is that different from a colony?

Thanks to Lin Weimin!

After returning to Yanjing, Lin Weimin ignored the news and public opinion from the outside world.

The vacation only lasted for three months. He went to Yangcheng for a month and Shanghai for half a month. Half of the vacation was gone, but he hadn't even finished half of the novel.

During the week when he returned to Yanjing from Shanghai, Lin Weimin kept writing in seclusion, not letting anyone disturb him.

Unfortunately, sometimes things tend to backfire.

The more he wanted to write quietly, the more things came to him.

At the end of the month, a phone call from the United States brought Lin Weimin out of his study.

The caller was Roger Strauss from FSG Publishing.

After Richard Yates passed away last year, Lin Weimin once talked with Roger Strauss about publishing a collection of essays for Richard Yates.

Richard Yates's works have always been unpopular in the American book market, and publishing a collection of essays would most likely result in loss of money. However, Lin Weimin asked, and Roger Strauss agreed.

He first contacted the daughters of Richard Yates to obtain their authorization. After more than half a year of editing and review, and nearly a year of preparation, "The Collected Works of Richard Yates" was finally about to be released.

Roger Strauss set the release date of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates" on November 7 this year, which happens to be the first anniversary of Richard Yates's death.

The collection of essays was released on this day, naturally for publicity.

Including making this call to Lin Weimin, when Roger Strauss was communicating with Lin Weimin about the promotion strategy of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates", he mentioned that he hoped to play the "emotional card".

Now, Roger Strauss has completed the collected works as promised, and all he needs is Lin Weimin's cooperation.

Roger Strauss' publication of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates" can be regarded as a request for help from Lin Weimin. Now that it's time to promote it, it would really be unreasonable for him not to go.

In addition to cooperating with the promotion of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates", another thing Roger Strauss invited Lin Weimin to the United States this time was to hold a book signing.

"Spirited Away" has been published in the United States for nearly a year. In the first three or four months of its release, sales and influence have been tepid, with sales of 20,000 to 30,000 copies per month.

Until May, the sales of novels increased month by month, reaching 50,000 copies, 100,000 copies, 200,000 copies, 300,000 copies...

As of October, the monthly sales of "Spirited Away" have reached nearly 400,000 copies, and the cumulative sales have exceeded 1.6 million copies.

It took nearly a year to reach sales of 1.6 million copies, making it a solid bestseller in the American book market.

But what's even more frightening is the potential shown by "Spirited Away". Since May, its sales have maintained rapid growth, and they are rising month-on-month. At least for now, it has no stopping momentum.

If this momentum can continue for a year, Roger Strauss even thinks that "Spirited Away" may be the first to achieve the feat of selling tens of millions of copies in the United States before "Farewell My Concubine".

In the past, he had always envied Random House for getting "Farewell My Concubine", the most profitable among Lin Weimin's works. Now with "Spirited Away", he no longer has to envy Random House.

Roger Strauss was extremely lucky that he was able to pull Lin Weimin away from Random House. He founded FSG Publishing House for more than 40 years. "Spirited Away" is FSG's first book and is expected to sell more than 10 million copies. of books.

This is definitely a milestone good news for FSG Publishing House.

Not only that, "Spirited Away" will also bring strong cash flow to FSG Publishing House and himself.

In particular, children's literature still has the characteristic of everlasting prosperity. Roger Strauss sometimes even imagined that decades later, even if he passed away, "Spirited Away" would still be published by FSG Publishing House. Bring a steady stream of profits.

He knew that these were not his delusions, but facts that were very likely to come true.

But the fact that this is possible is based on one premise, which is to maintain a good relationship with Lin Weimin.

Roger Strauss already had some ideas on how to maintain a good relationship with Lin Weimin.

"Are you going out again?"

Before going to bed at night, Tao Huimin heard Lin Weimin say that he might go to the United States soon, and she was a little resistant.

"There's nothing I can do. It's all a promise to a good person."

"There are only three months of vacation in total, one month in Yangcheng and half a month in Shanghai. Now I have to go to the United States. You haven't stayed at home for a few days in total!"

After Lin Weimin hugged her and coaxed her for a few words, Tao Huimin's expression cleared.

"By the way, aren't you running out of vacations?" Tao Huimin suddenly asked.

"It's definitely not enough. Richard's collection release is scheduled for November 7th, and we have to promote it after that."

"What should we do?"

"Please take a day off!"

"Please?"

"I took a vacation passively before, but this time I took the vacation actively. It's different." Lin Weimin said with a guilty conscience.

The next day, Lin Weimin held up the phone receiver, and Lao Cheng's roar came from inside.

"How many months has it been? How many months have it been? Are you still asking for leave?"

"If I stop, I'll stop for three months. Do you know how I spent these three months?"

"Are you going to the United States? Do you know that you are suspended from work now? Why don't you go to heaven?"

"Yangcheng is not enough for you to run, and Shanghai is not enough for you to run, so you still want to go to the United States? You have been suspended from work for three months. You have not gone for so much time, but you are about to go to work, so you want to go to the United States?

What do you mean? Ah, what do you mean? "

…

President Cheng chattered endlessly on the phone, fully expressing his support and affirmation of Chief Editor Lin's request for leave. Chief Editor Lin also verbally expressed his understanding and gratitude to President Cheng, and the call was hung up in a harmonious and pleasant exchange.

Lin Weimin shook his head, why don't he just ask for leave? He was so unrelenting and made it seem like I had done something outrageous.

A few days after leaving the United States, Lin Weimin simply put aside the novel and spent two days playing with his wife and children, and then got together with friends.

In early November, he boarded a plane to the United States.

This is Lin Weimin's third visit to New York City. Roger Strauss personally picked up Lin Weimin at the airport.

This time, because he was invited by Roger Strauss, Lin Weimin did not have the treatment of the Dakota Apartment, but was arranged by Roger Strauss to stay at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the Upper West Side.

After resting for a night, Roger Strauss and his men communicated with Lin Weimin the next day about his itinerary in the United States during the next period.

Lin Weimin has two tasks in the United States this time. One is to support the press conference of "The Collected Works of Richard Yates", and the other is for the book signing of "Spirited Away".

His first trip in the United States was to accept an exclusive interview with the New York Times.

The last interview Lin Weimin gave to the New York Times was arranged by Random House. This time it was arranged by FSG Publishing House. The focus of the two interviews was also different.

Last time, the focus of publicity was on himself, but this time, it was to highlight the friendship between Lin Weimin and Richard Yates, two Chinese and American writers.