Back to 80: My Literary Life

But now these young directors are asking me, and since he admires Jia Zhangke more, he still has to give him face.

"Okay, where is the location?"

"Are you staying at the Kunlun Hotel? Then I plan to book at the Kunlun Hotel. I will send you a text message when the reservation is made."

"OK."

Fang Minghua thought for a while and left the room. Instead of going to his daughter's room next door, he went to find Liu Xiaoli.

Knocking on the other party's door, I found that Liu Xiaoli and her daughter were fully dressed. Liu Xiaoli also put on makeup and looked like she was about to go out.

"You want to go out?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Yeah, going to visit friends."

"Are you free tonight?"

"I guess I want to have dinner with my friends?"

"Oh, there's another dinner party."

Fang Minghua briefly explained Jia Zhangke's invitation and finally said.

"I originally wanted to go with you, Sissi, if you have something to do."

Liu Xiaoli looked at Fang Minghua after listening.

"You asked me to go, do you want me to help you drink?"

Fang Minghua was a little embarrassed.

It does have this meaning.

If you bring a beautiful woman who can drink to the wine table, it can help solve a lot of things. Besides, Liu Xiaoli behaves generously, so it is really good to bring her out.

"Okay, I'll go. How can I not go as you arranged?" Liu Xiaoli laughed: "I'll push my friends over. Besides, Sissi and I also want to meet these new domestic directors."

"Then it's settled."

Fang Minghua is looking for Liu Xiaoli, and Jia Zhangke is also notifying his friends.

This time the call was to Zhang Yuan.

"Zhang Yuan, the location is in Private Room 6 of the restaurant on the 29th floor of Kunlun Hotel. Go on time."

On the other side of the phone, Zhang Yuan was silent and spoke after a while. "I won't go."

"What's going on? We agreed to invite Teacher Fang, and I contacted him, but you said you won't come?"

"Oh, I feel like I'm embarrassed to see people."

"Why are you thinking so much? Isn't it just that the movie is losing money? Among us who make movies, which one doesn't lose money in China? Okay, don't mention it. You must come tonight. I'm hanging up." Before Zhang Yuan could wait, After replying, Jia Zhangke hung up the phone.

Shake his head and light a cigarette.

Jia Zhangke knew why Zhang Yuan was worried.

In 1997, after Fang Minghua helped him win the film award for "Xiao Wu", Jia Zhangke specially invited Fang Minghua to Yanjing. At the same time, Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye, Zhang Yuan, Guan Hu, and Senior Lu came to accompany him.

During the banquet, a group of people complained that the film authorities were too lax and restrictive, and their films could not be released in China.

As a result, Fang Minghua said: "Even if you lift the ban and film production will change from underground to above ground, I dare to say that you will soon become an underground film in the market economy!"

"You have the right to shoot, but others have no obligation to watch!"

Zhang Yuanting was very unconvinced and immediately said that if he was lifted from the ban, he would immediately plan to make a new film, and asked Fang Minghua if he dared to invest.

Fang Minghua agreed happily.

The next year, Zhang Yuan was released from the ban and immediately filmed his new film "Going Home for the New Year." Shengshi Film and Television promised to invest 2 million.

Zhang Yuan was ambitious and prepared to do something big, but the result was a disastrous box office of 500,000.

The compensation was a mess.

Zhang Yuan was so shocked that he did not dare to make feature films in recent years and instead made documentaries.

Fortunately, I don't have such a high profile, so I can just make films honestly.

At 6:30 in the evening, Liu Xiaoli and Liu Yifei rushed back to the hotel on time, and went to the private room with Fang Minghua.

It's still the same group of young directors we had dinner with in the summer of 1997.

After everyone sat down, Fang Minghua still introduced his daughter and Liu Xiaoli's mother and daughter to everyone. Compared with the enthusiasm for Liu Yifei's mother and daughter at last night's dinner, today was relatively less intense. Everyone basically talked about movies, and the atmosphere was relatively harmonious. .

During the dinner, Zhang Yuan, who was very high-profile last time, seemed extremely low-key today, even a little depressed.

When everyone took turns toasting to Fang Minghua, he finally stood up and held the wine glass and said: "Teacher Fang, to be honest, I didn't want to come at first. It was Zhang Ke who forced me to come. Alas."

Fang Minghua laughed and said, "What's wrong? Isn't it just a loss in filming? Which one of you has never had a loss at the box office?"

"Come on, let's sum up our experience and lessons, and shoot well next time." Fang Minghua said, took the initiative to touch Zhang Yuan, then took a sip, and said: "I haven't been in good health recently, so I asked Xiaoli to give me some Let’s pour a round of wine, it’s New Year’s Day soon, I wish you all a good movie in the new year!”

Liu Xiaoli immediately picked up her wine glass and walked around with a smile.

"Teacher Fang, the media said that Shengshi Film and Television is planning to establish its own cinema chain. How many cinemas will there be?" The speaker was Lou Ye.

"I don't know the specifics." Fang Minghua replied: "However, according to the plan, its theater chains will cover provincial capitals and some important cities across the country."

so much? !

Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, surprised.

Guan Hu immediately picked up the wine glass and said:

"Zhang Ke, Xiaoshuai, congratulations to both of you. Once the theater chain of Shengshi Film and Television is established, your film schedule will be guaranteed."

"What's there to congratulate?" Wang Xiaoshuai said with a wry smile: "Mr. Song also said that the film scheduling rate does not depend on who the investor is. If no one watches the movie and the vacancy rate is too high, your film scheduling will still be reduced, even if It doesn’t matter if you are invested by Shengshi Film and Television!”

Ah, this?

If Shengshi Film and Television doesn't even take care of his own son, how about other theaters?

At this time, Jia Zhangke spoke. He looked at Fang Minghua: "Teacher Fang, I have a question. Now the country is promoting the reform of the cinema chain. If the box office is the only standard, then the film market will not be dominated by commercial films? What about some art films and niche films?"

As soon as Jia Zhangke said this, it immediately resonated.

The reform of the cinema chain system is the spring of commercial blockbusters, but it is the winter of art films!

Fang Minghua did not answer immediately. After everyone finished complaining, he said: "You have to admit a harsh reality: with the deepening of the market economy, in the eyes of these cinema managers in the mainland, the box office can almost be the only standard for them to evaluate the quality of a movie and whether it can be scheduled."

"What should we do?" Zhang Yuan, who had been silent for a long time, couldn't hold it back anymore. He stood up and said loudly: "We also know that combining business and art can make art films that are both popular and well-received. But is that easy? For example, some experimental and avant-garde films, how many ordinary audiences can understand? Then we won't shoot them?!"

"Isn't there an A-G art cinema?" Fang Minghua asked.

"I heard it's going to close soon." Jia Zhangke said.

Everyone was silent again.

At the beginning of this year (2001), the Yanjing Forbidden City Sanlian Film and Television Distribution Company launched A-G Cultural Film, announcing the establishment of an art theater chain, which specializes in showing some niche art films.

A-G is the abbreviation of the English phrase AVANT GARDE, which comes from French and means avant-garde, pioneer, pioneer, and individuality. It also refers to innovation, modern fashion, cultural taste, and deep connotation.

There are two A-G cultural theaters in the Yanjing area, namely Dahua Cinema and Xindong'an Cinema. It is said that they were very vigorous when they were first established, but I didn't expect that they would go bankrupt in less than a year!