Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Latest website: This year’s West Berlin Film Festival has many details that are different from previous years.

First of all, the location of the film festival is no longer limited to West Berlin. All films that are screened or competed will have several screenings in East Berlin.

The Berlin Wall had numerous holes punched by people from both sides. But soldiers in East Berlin still guarded these places, but they no longer blocked the movement of people as strongly as before.

Residents of East Berlin can take a small note and go to West Berlin for shopping and entertainment every day, and then come back that evening. As daytime exchanges increase, many soldiers no longer conduct such strict inspections.

Although the staff of Ronald's Daydream asked Columbia's office in Berlin for help and temporarily printed multiple large posters for Director Xie, the film still received a cold reception from the organizing committee. Today's media screening of "Ben Ming Nian" has been scheduled for nine o'clock in the morning.

But for the young people in East Berlin, it was very happy to see the participating films at the film festival, and the endless stream of audiences still filled the venue.

"Hey, I didn't expect this movie to be quite good..." In the box on the second floor, Wen Jiang and Director Xie also had a seat.

This is the first time Wen Jiang has seen the finished film of "Ben Ming Nian". Because the printing quality of the previous movie was not good, this time it was specially sent to Tokyo for printing, so it was the first time for the actor to see the final version.

"How's it going? Not bad, right?" Director Xie was very happy to see that the subtitles were correct. In the past, many Chinese-language films had very poor results when shown at film festivals due to subtitle issues.

"I just go by my feelings. If I can't read the script, I won't read or accept it. If I can't stand the movie, I won't watch it. I can watch this movie... NewBee"

"Hahaha, you kid..." Director Xie patted his thigh happily, "Where's the camera? Take it out and let us take some pictures..."

"Hey, don't mention it. I went to ask for help for our film, and Director Luo agreed to help. I got so excited that I forgot about the camera..."

"You guy..."

…

The two main creators upstairs watched with great interest, and the media personnel in the front row downstairs also watched with great interest. I didn't expect that this little-known young film studio could actually produce such a great movie.

"Ben Ming Nian" tells the story of Li Huiquan, a released prisoner who underwent labor reform. He returned to the alley where he grew up. His mother, who depended on him for life, had passed away. The company where his mother worked was not profitable, so he could not replace him in the factory.

Aunt Luo, an old neighbor, took good care of this young man whose parents died. With the help of film police officer Xiao Liu, Li Huiquan chose to make a living by practicing as a stall owner. During this period, he encountered three religions and nine streams, which made him taste the warmth and coldness of the world. In the karaoke hall, Li Huiquan met the resident singer Zhao Yaqiu, and he became her flower protector. However, after the singer became famous, she rejected his love...

The story of the whole movie is not complicated, but it creates a very lonely feeling. The media that came here are all dedicated to movie news. How could you not tell that this is a Chinese "Taxi Driver"?

The performance of the leading actor Wen Jiang is very restrained, full of details, and makes people feel strong. Media reporters all saw a feeling of Chinese Robert De Niro.

"Beep..."

Twenty minutes into the movie, a large group of spectators from East Berlin suddenly started whistling.

They resonate very much with the protagonist Li Huiquan in the movie. The behavior of sleeping alone in a simple room, hugging the illustrations of beautiful women in movie magazines, has something in common with the young people in East Berlin.

Of course the people in the media understood the plot. They looked at each other and whispered to each other. The films that China sent to West Berlin in the past, even "Red Sorghum" which won the Golden Bear a few years ago, were very reserved in their treatment of matters between men and women.

After the screening, Director Xie and Wen Jiang went to the front desk together to accept interviews from the media. A group of Chinese students also surrounded them and gave them a thumbs up to express their approval of the movie.

Journalists from various countries have many questions to ask about this "Ben Ming Nian". Many of them have nothing to do with the movie itself and are quite strange.

An Italian reporter came to the rescue and turned the topic back to the movie itself:

"Starting from 'Three Monks' in the early 1980s, Red Sorghum, Evening Bell, Chinese movies have brought us something new every year. This year's Ben Ming Nian can actually show the plot of young men looking at magazine illustrations... ?Have you ever been criticized?"

"Where is it? I don't understand what you said?" Director Xie started to pretend to be confused.

The Italian reporter was dissatisfied with Director Xie and asked Wen Jiang:

"Your performance was very touching, but I saw some traces of Hollywood. Are you deeply influenced by Hollywood actors Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro?"

The reporter's feeling is very accurate. Of course, Marlon Brando's scene opposite Ava Marie Saint in "On the Waterfront" and Robert De Niro's secret crush on Sybil Shepard in "Taxi Driver" are all the same as Wen Jiang and Wen Jiang in "Benming Year" There are great similarities between the heroine Cheng Lin's plays.

"No, I haven't watched many of their movies." After Wen Jiang finished listening to the translation, he stiffened his neck and tried to save his face. This is a competing film, and it would be shameful to say that I imitated the performances of Brando and De Niro.

Director Xie smiled next to him. A few years ago, Wen Jiang had borrowed the "Raging Bull" video from himself at the film school. It is understandable that young people are eager to live abroad.

"What about that, journalist friends, can you take a group photo for us?" After the interview, the reporters dispersed. Wen Jiang wanted to ask reporters on the stage to help take a photo, but no one paid him any attention.

Wen Jiang, who was embarrassed at his appearance at the West Berlin Film Festival and did not take a photo with Director Xie, suddenly heard a very beautiful blond woman stop him and say in English:

"Wen Jiang, Ronald asked me to deliver something. He said you forgot it at his place."

"Ah, thank you. Who is this beautiful lady?" Wen Jiang saw that this woman was wearing a beige coat similar to that of the reporter. She looked very beautiful and was very suitable for filming. Respond immediately in English with a Beijing accent.

"Director Luo asked me to bring it to you, take a look to see if it's right..." The beauty seemed to have seen many actors in the film industry and did not show any interest in Wen Jiang. He put the bag filled with things away and turned around to leave.

Wen Jiang opened the bag and found a brand new Nikon SLR camera lying there, along with several rolls of Kodak film.

Director Xie looked over and said, "Hey, has the shotgun been replaced with a cannon?"

"Hi, Director Luo, a Hollywood capitalist from NewBee, my friend..." Wen Jiang was still obsessed with that beauty. I wonder if she is Director Luo's girlfriend?

…

"This movie is just a copycat of Hollywood's 'Taxi Driver' from ten years ago. I don't think there is any breakthrough. The West Berlin Film Festival needs to be more profound about exposing... works, not Hollywood copies."

At the same time, the jury also watched "The Year of Our Lives," and the Soviet Union director Abdrahitov on the jury scorned this kind of movie. His last year's "Servant" won West Berlin's Bauer Special Award.

On the one hand, he is full of hostility to Hollywood's commercial films, and on the other hand, he is dissatisfied with the relatively harmonious relationship between the two of them when the film police helped Li Huiquan obtain an individual license in this year, and he feels that the dark side of society is not enough.

"This is a very good realistic comedy. You don't understand what a movie is at all..." Roberto Benigni liked the implicitness of this movie very much, and its alienated attitude towards life, and the judges from Eastern Europe and the Alliance was very dissatisfied with the criticism and shouted in Italian on the spot.

Fortunately, another judge, Margaret, a Chinese producer, helped him translate, otherwise Ronald could only roughly understand what he meant through Bernini's gestures.

"I think this is a theme that transcends countries and cultures. In which country's young people don't have this kind of depression? Moreover, the special background of the protagonist and the collision of various values ​​caused by the rapid changes in society, I think it is a good movie. masterpiece."

Ronald also spoke in support of "Ben Ming Nian". Movies, in the first place, need to learn from good films in film history. How can any director be able to work behind closed doors and invent his own lens language? For similar scenes, it is inevitable to draw inspiration from the most outstanding films in film history, whichever director.

For example, of all the current courtroom dramas, which one does not reference Billy Wilder’s “Prosecution Witness”? Those judges thought too much about things other than the movie. Based on the movie itself, this "Ben Ming Nian" is a rare masterpiece. Moreover, it tells the current story of China, which makes Ronald like it more than the previous "Red Sorghum".

"I think from the perspective of resistance to the establishment, this movie is very weak, and it is far from Czechoslovakia's 'The Lost Wings'", another Hungarian reviewer began to disparage Ben Ming Nian.

The "Sparrow with Lost Wings" he was talking about was actually filmed by the director in 1968. Because of the special circumstances that year, West Berlin was not allowed to compete again until this year. The judges from Eastern Europe and West Germany wanted this film to be the winner of the Golden Bear, and Ben Ming Nian was a threatening competitor.

"God...oh..." Roberto Bernini was almost driven mad. You said that the technique of "Ben Ming Nian" is too old and that it imitates "Taxi Driver" seriously, and then you backhandedly praise a movie made twenty years ago... Isn't it a bit of a double standard?

Ballhaus, the chairman of the jury, had no choice but to say hello to Ronald. This West Berlin Film Festival happened to encounter the Berlin Wall. The entire organizing committee intends to link the film festival with the most popular news topics.

East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland all have the same historical sentiments. The judges from these countries just want to recommend the banned "The Lost Wings".

And "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Driving Miss Daisy" from Hollywood are both from America. Both the country's two great commanders gave famous speeches under the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

The timing is good this year. The organizing committee has also been under a lot of influence and pressure. It would be best to select a film from America to win the award.

However, most of this year's jury was from Europe. Ronald knew that those two Hollywood movies were essentially commercial films that catered to the popular tastes of the audience. Europe has an inexplicable aversion to the commercial nature of movies, so I'm afraid there will be some twists and turns in the awards process.

The judges started the award process for the sake of fairness. I can no longer communicate with the creators of the participating films.

However, the Europeans do not strictly abide by this rule. Phone calls can still be made, as long as people stay in the hotel arranged by the organizing committee.

Ronald also returned to the hotel, and after a while, there was a knock on the door.

"Hi... beauty..." Ronald opened the door, and sure enough, the expected beauty came to knock on the door.

"Hi, Ronnie..."

Standing outside the door was the one who had just delivered the camera to Wen Jiang. The beautiful woman dressed as a reporter was none other than Helen Slater.

"Well..." Ronald pulled Helen into the room, and the two began to kiss passionately.

Helen Slater's father Gerald, who worked for the PBS station, was coming to Berlin to film a documentary about the Berlin Wall.

It just so happened that Helen had been influenced by her mother, an anti-nuclear war and anti-Cold War lawyer, since she was a child. She was somewhat interested in this kind of thing, and because she missed Ronald, she came to West Berlin to assist the film crew in doing some things.

These days, I come here at night to meet Ronald.

"That movie is really interesting, I quite like it. Will they win an award?" Helen Slater has some favorable impressions of "Ben Ming Nian". Just speak to Ronald.

"It's difficult. In this year's film festival, I look at political factors much more than the film itself..." Ronald said some of the judges' opinions.

"Well, it's actually a very good movie. It would be a pity not to win an award. However, some details in the movie are a bit unrealistic."

Helen Slater talked about seeing a released prisoner who, with a street vendor's license, could pick up a singer as his girlfriend. She felt that the treatment here was too hasty and the symbolic plot made the audience somewhat divorced from reality. How can a street vendor have the ability to support a singer who is singing in a performance venue?

"Hahaha, that's not a street vendor selling hot dogs in Manhattan..."

Ronald recalled the time when the two of them visited the Museum of Modern Art and ate hot dogs at a roadside stall. He smiled and explained to Helen that in the past few years in China, people who set up stalls had made a small fortune.

"Oh..." Helen seemed to understand, turned over, and lay next to Ronald's ear, "Shall we go out to find a roadside stall to eat at night?"

"Okay, let's go!" Ronald also became interested. Helen and Helen sneaked out of the hotel and started shopping along the road.

The Berlin Wall opened, and young people on both sides sang and danced on both sides of the wall all night long, regardless of nationality and background, and regardless of the cold climate. There were also people wearing thin T-shirts dancing to David Hasselhoff songs.

Ronald saw on both sides of the Berlin Wall, many East Berliners came to small shops where they grilled sausages and served them with beer produced in West Berlin. There are also some barbecue stalls opened by Turks in some places.

Ronald and Helen wore warm hats and walked hand in hand in these small shops. They ate a lot of delicious food and felt very comfortable.

"There seems to be a movie over there?"

The two wandered near the Brandenburg Gate, where the two generals gave speeches and where the first checkpoint was sealed when the Berlin Wall was built.

A former East Berlin movie theater is now showing movies.

Ronald looked at the title of the movie, and it was Billy Wilder's "One Two Three." This movie happened to be about a comedy that happened in West Berlin after the Berlin Wall separated East and West Berlin. .

"Shall we go and have a look?" Ronald took Helen to buy a ticket and went in.

"Your Coke..." The conductor gave Helen the ticket and handed over two cans of Coca-Cola.

"What is this?" Helen didn't understand. Is it a gift of Coke for buying a ticket?

"Haha, this is the plot of the beautiful girl's romance. People in East Berlin learned about advertising and marketing very quickly..."