1980 My literary era

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 certainly the most influential film festival in the world.

The top three in Europe, Cannes in France, Berlin in Germany, and Venice in Italy, no matter how they are called together, there are still subtle differences in the minds of many filmmakers.

Among the three major film festivals in Europe, the Venice Film Festival in Italy was founded in 1932, the earliest, so it is also known as the "Father of International Film Festivals".

From its inception, 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 change, 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 given people the impression of being old-fashioned and highly political.

Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, Hollywood films aggressively invaded the European film market. In order to create distinctive features, the Berlin Film Festival advocated "anti-Hollywood" films and focused on low-cost art films, especially those from less developed countries and regions.

It was against this background that Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1987.

There is a certain contradiction between paying too much attention to boring literary films and the commercial attributes of the film itself.

Different from the approaches of the Berlin and Venice Film Festivals, although the Cannes Film Festival was founded late and also focuses on literary films, the Cannes Film Festival is obviously more thoughtful.

It was originally held at the same time as the Venice Film Festival, in September every year, but in order to distinguish it from the Venice Film Festival, it took the initiative to change the holding time to May every year.

Not only that, the Cannes Film Festival is also the first and most active among the three major film festivals to embrace business. The film festival organizing committee invites a large number of brand sponsors every year, gradually developing a broader international film trading market 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 they value the trading platform and promotional space it can provide.

Therefore, in terms of positioning and actual operation, Cannes has more topicality than Berlin and Venice.

In addition, another important reason is geographical location.

Venice is a water city, and it is difficult to find a whole piece of land to host 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.

At the opening of every film festival, transportation is a headache for filmmakers from all over the world.

It is also because of this situation that it is difficult for the scale of the Venice Film Festival to be compared to the word "grand".

Although Berlin is the capital of Germany, the Berlin Film Festival is held in February every year. Berlin is at the same latitude as Northeast China and is located in the northern hemisphere. 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 coast of the Mediterranean Sea and has a 5-kilometer-long beach.

"Exquisite, elegant and charming" is the collective evaluation of Cannes by all international filmmakers.

Especially in May, when the Cannes Film Festival is held, it 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 also makes Cannes stand out among the three major film festivals.

Before "Life is Beautiful", China's fifth-generation directors had achieved good results at the Cannes Film Festival.

Zhang Yimou's "To Live" won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor, while Cheng Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or for Best Film.

In the minds of many Chinese and filmmakers, the popularity and influence of the Cannes Film Festival should be second only to the Academy Awards.

Several domestic directors have won awards at Cannes, which has always been a hotly discussed topic.

This time "Life is Beautiful" showed a very dominant performance at the Cannes Film Festival, winning best film, best director, best screenwriter, best actor...

This film almost won all the heavyweight awards at this year's film festival. Looking at the history of world cinema, there are only a handful of films that can achieve this.

The director of this film, Roberto Bernini, is not familiar to the domestic public, but this does not prevent everyone from being happy after hearing the news.

Because this movie is adapted from Lin Weimin's novel "No matter what, life is beautiful".

After "Farewell My Concubine", the film adapted from Lin Weimin's novel once again swept the Cannes Film Festival. This is undoubtedly extremely topical news.

When the news came out, many domestic newspapers and TV stations reported on it. Together with the Pulitzer Prize, which had not yet passed the limelight, the people in China once again drew a steady stream of honorable pride from Lin Weimin.

After the film won the award, Michael Phillips and Roberto Benigni contacted Lin Weimin immediately and told him the news.

On the phone, Michael Phillips secretly asked Lin Weimin to help smooth things over in the country and win the qualification for "Life is Beautiful" to split the accounts.

In 1994, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television issued a document to introduce 10 excellent foreign films every year. These films are different from the previous buyout method of imported films, but can participate in box office sharing.

"Life is Beautiful" is an adaptation of Lin Weimin's work. He himself enjoys a share of the profits. As long as it does not violate his principles and does his best, of course he also hopes to get more profits.

There is no doubt about the quality of the movie, and it has even won awards. If such a movie is not introduced, it will be a disservice to Chinese movie audiences.

Introduction, must be introduced!

This was not said by Lin Weimin, but by Liu Jianzhong, the new director of the Film Bureau.

It didn't take Lin Weimin's initiative to contact the film bureau. Liu Jianzhong learned about the performance of "Life is Beautiful" at the Cannes Film Festival, and hurriedly called Lin Weimin and offered him a spot.

Lin Weimin almost squeezed out Liu Jianzhong's seat back then. It stands to reason that he should not have a good impression of Lin Weimin.

However, Lin Weimin has a high status in the domestic film industry, and it is said that he had a quarrel with Tian Congming, who was then the head of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television. How could Liu Jianzhong miss this opportunity to send a favor?

Liu Jianzhong's initiative saved Lin Weimin some snacks. After expressing his gratitude, he informed Michael Phillips of the news.

Michael Phillips was extremely happy to receive this news.

Although the scale of China's film market is not large now, this industry has always been a winner-take-all business. Just because the plate is not big, it does not mean that everyone cannot eat meat.

When "Farewell My Concubine" was released in China, it grossed nearly 200 million at the box office. Converted to that year's exchange rate, it was more than 30 million U.S. dollars. Michael Phillips will never forget this incident.

It was also adapted from Lin Weimin's film, which also won the Grand Prix at Cannes, and its performance was even more dominant.

"Life is Beautiful" replicates the box office miracle of "Farewell My Concubine", isn't it too much?

Michael Phillips is full of beautiful thoughts. Next, taking advantage of the enthusiasm of having just won the grand prize, he will continue to compete in film festivals with Roberto Benigni and prepare for the release in various countries.

The continuous reports lasted for nearly half a month, and the domestic literary and film circles were filled with all kinds of news about Lin Weimin.

When many people were discussing "Life is Beautiful", they also forgot to mention Cheng Kaige's "Wind and Moon".

Cheng Kaige won the Palme d'Or at Cannes three years ago with his film "Farewell My Concubine," adapted from Lin Weimin's novel of the same name. This year, he competed for the Palme d'Or again with "Feng Yue," which he spent two years carefully polishing.

But the result was that he was completely tortured by "Life is Beautiful", and it didn't matter that he failed to gain anything at the film festival. The most important thing is that everyone heard that "Feng Yue" had a very average reputation at the film festival.

Film festivals are not only a place to compete for awards, but also a place to sell copyrights.

The evaluation and reputation of the audience and the media directly affect the copyright transaction of a film, especially if it does not win an award. For Cheng Kaige, the copyright transaction is a life-saving straw.

Later, Cheng Kaige was known as the "city-building maniac" in the Chinese film industry. After "Farewell My Concubine" became popular, he built a city almost every time he made a movie.

When filming "Feng Yue", in order to restore the style 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 also became the filming location for most domestic film and television dramas telling Shanghai stories, 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 about changing the heroine. The investment in "Feng Yue" was nearly twice as high as that of "Farewell My Concubine".

With such a high production cost, it is unrealistic to rely solely on domestic box office to recover the cost, unless the box office miracle of "Farewell My Concubine" is replicated.

"Feng Yue" failed to make any money at the Cannes Film Festival, and the copyright deal did not sell to a few countries.

When the news spread back to China, many people gloated about Cheng Kaige's failure at Cannes and the failure of "Feng Yue" in private. Rumors spread from word to word.

"In "Farewell My Concubine" Niu Niu Zai Lin Weimin, not Cheng Kaige."

If the crushing defeat of "Life is Beautiful" at the Cannes Film Festival was murderous, then when Cheng Kaige returned to China and heard this rumor, it was heartbreaking.

Where fame and fortune are concerned, it has always been extremely realistic.

The success of "Farewell My Concubine" made Cheng Kaige highly praised back then, but now the failure of "Feng Yue" made him fall down hard.

After returning to China, Cheng Kaige no longer even had the intention to attend other film festivals, let alone prepare for the release of the movie, and locked himself in the house and ignored the world.

This is really hard for Xu Feng. Cheng Kaige, the director, was the pick, but she actually spent real money on the movie!

No matter what, the film is finished and the film festival has been attended. It should be released when it should be released. It is better to recover some of the investment than to get nothing at all.

Director Cheng Kaige can be a hands-off shopkeeper, but Xu Feng can't, it's all her money!

Especially when she thought about how she had signed a five-film contract with Cheng Kaige when she was so confused, Xu Feng had the urge to slap herself in the face.

"Hey, this reporter is really venomous!"

A newspaper published an article analyzing the reasons for the failure of "Feng Yue" at the Cannes Film Festival. The reporter himself participated in this year's Cannes Film Festival and learned about the story of "Feng Yue". In the article, he praised "Feng Yue" and Cheng Kaige. Criticism without mercy.

Especially the last sentence in the article made Feng Xiaogang rub his teeth with joy after reading it.

"The success of "Farewell My Concubine" lies with Lin Weimin, while the failure of "Feng Yue" lies with Cheng Kaige."

Feng Xiaogang took a special look at the signature of the article. This reporter is really a talent!

When Feng Xiaogang met Cheng Kaige at the dinner, he called him "Master Kai" and "Master Kai" in a very affectionate manner, but these were just words for the occasion.

When the Jinghua Museum opened before, Feng Xiaogang caught Cheng Kaige and praised it.

Now that "Feng Yue" has failed, Feng Xiaogang is gloating.

What stands out is a true temperament!

"You're laughing! Do you think you can be any better than him?"

When Feng Xiaogang was happy, Wang Shuo couldn't help but hit him with words.

As soon as these words came out, Feng Xiaogang couldn't laugh anymore.

Cheng Kaige has the burden of "Farewell My Concubine" on his back, and Feng Xiaogang also has the success of "Party A and Party B" ahead of him.

At present, the filming of his new movie "See You or Be Parted" co-operated with Wang Shuo is about to start. When Feng Xiaogang thinks about the unpredictable box office in the future, he is full of anxiety.

He glanced at Wang Shuo and knew why Master Shuo was unhappy with him.

"See You or Be Parted" is still a collaboration between Ge You and Liu Bei, and Master Shuo failed to achieve his goal of stuffing his little girlfriend, so this month has been unpleasant.

Feng Xiaogang felt unhappy when he saw his mournful face.

You just want to fuck your little girlfriend, who doesn’t want to fuck someone else?

I'm also a director, so I don't dare to block people.

If you have the guts to get angry at Teacher Lin, why bother with me?

Will be in trouble!