Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Exploitation of Hollywood 1980 Chapter 4 Full Marketing and Public Relations

"Hello, Cher, I'm glad you can accept our interview."

The host of the morning news program "Good Day GDday!" of the ABC TV network in Boston, Miss America 1966, Irene Pross, is interviewing Cher in New York via a communication satellite.

This program is the ace program of the Boston ABC station and is broadcast on satellite syndicated throughout the United States.

The marketing budget invested by the producers MGM and Ronald is not very high, so they did not strive for the broadcast opportunity of the highest-rated "Good Morning America", but found the second most popular morning news program and gave Cher a public relations interview to promote the movie and her acting skills.

"Nice to meet you, Irene." Cher started a satellite connection with her in the New York studio.

"Moonlight Temptation has not yet been released in Boston, and I heard that this day will come soon. "Host Erin hasn't seen the movie yet, but the PR company came to her and the producer told her to do so, so she had to follow the usual movie interview style and ask questions to the air:

"Can you step back now and look at the role of the heroine Loretta in the movie objectively? Treat her as someone completely different from you."

Erin's basic skills as a host are very good, and she asked this difficult question fluently. Obviously, the purpose of this question is to bring up the topic of Cher's acting skills.

"Oh, of course. I made this movie a long time ago, and time has given me a new perspective. I have watched this movie several times recently, and I can look at the heroine Loretta from an objective perspective."

Cher squinted her eyes, trying to see the teleprompter behind the camera clearly, but squinting would make her wrinkles more obvious, so Cher gave up immediately. The teleprompter was shrouded in the glaring light behind the camera, and Cher still couldn't see the answer on it clearly, so she had to try to adjust her sitting posture.

"Do you like her? "Host Erin asked.

"Oh... yes, I like the role of Loretta very much. It's very interesting. I can't see my own shadow in this role... um... but... well, she is a very good role."

Cher adjusted for a long time but couldn't find an angle without reflection to see the answer clearly, so she had to play freely.

"I haven't seen the movie yet, but I think after it is released in Boston, I must go and see how different that character is from you, hahaha..."

Erin saw that there was something wrong with the New York studio. Cher's answer was hesitant. She gave full play to her skills as a senior host and began to make up stories out of nothing. "So how did you do research for the role of Loretta before you acted in this movie?"

"Ah... well... of course I did research..." Cher has seen countless big scenes. Even if she forgot the lyrics at the concert, she could make excuses. This kind of interview where she couldn't see the answer clearly was not difficult for her.

"But this kind of research is not like that of doctors and professors... um, you know... I have to go to the crew in advance and try to integrate with other actors... um... over time, it is equivalent to doing research. ”

“Puchi…ha…hmm”

The two beauties chatted awkwardly for five minutes on the morning news talk show. The cameraman next to them felt it was a bit funny, but it was not easy to laugh during the live broadcast, so he had to hold it in.

“What does your mother think of your cooperation with Olympia Dukakis in the movie? What does she think of the mother-daughter relationship between you and Dukakis on the screen?”

“Ah, that is my mother’s favorite movie of mine. Of course, she didn’t say anything special about the scenes between me and Olympia. She liked the whole movie very much.”

“Did you have a good cooperation with Dukakis? You know, in Boston, in Massachusetts, Dukakis is a topic of conversation here. We are particularly fond of her as a fellow countryman.”

“Ah, yes, very good. When she first came to the crew, Director Ronald specially introduced that she and I looked a bit like each other, so it was very suitable to play mother and daughter. I got along very well with her on the set, she is an actress with a very good personality..."

"Cher's acting is pretty good, she had a big fight with Dukakis on the set." Ronald was watching the live broadcast in his apartment, the two of them were chatting awkwardly, but the audience didn't feel anything strange, he said to Diane beside him with a smile.

Diane hugged Ronald's arm, he was going to fly to New York tomorrow to prepare for another premiere there, it was sweet for her to stick to him and stay together for a while longer, Diane looked up and asked, "Why did they quarrel? ”

“Whether she should respect my guidance on her acting skills as a director, hahahaha…” Ronald recalled the conflict between Cher and Dukakis. Dukakis and other Broadway actors respected their directorial positions very much and tried their best to act in the direction Ronald directed.

And Cher was a star. If she felt that Ronald’s direction was wrong, she would point it out on the spot and then express her opinion. In the final breakfast round table scene, the two of them really got angry and blamed each other.

However, this unexpectedly triggered an emotional state similar to that of the actors themselves and the plot outside the play. After Ronald discovered it, he immediately rushed to shoot, and successfully shot the most difficult table scene in one fell swoop.

"You mentioned director Ronald, would he be directing your acting? We all know you have a reputation for being tough, like past Hollywood star Bette Davis, do you think you could listen to Ronald's acting skills? Guidance?" The host Eileen felt bored and improvised after hearing Xueer's answer.

Bette Davis was a famously troubled star who often had conflicts with directors on set.

"Did she listen to you on the set?" Diane became interested and poked Ronald's waist.

"Depending on what she said, I actually don't direct the actors very much on the set," Ronald laughed. This kind of interview was just a gimmick, and it was impossible for Cher to talk in depth.

His own directing style is to respect the actors and provide guidance in the general direction. For specific performances, he still allows the actors to devote themselves fully to their own performances. Ronald is not like Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick. , stipulating specific acting methods for actors.

Ronald's directing style was deeply influenced by Roger Corman, and later he was deeply influenced by Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese and others who came from the same school. The approach is to let the actors take the initiative.

"Well, it depends on your definition of director. If you ask Ronald or other directors I have worked with, they all like to work with me...but..." Cher did not expect this host People face new problems and start thinking about them while talking.

"But I have my own way of acting... I don't like others telling me how to act, but I like to talk about acting with others..."

"Hehehe, it seems she doesn't quite listen to you." Diane continued to tickle Ronald's waist.

"Hahaha, you don't understand. The best directors have to be like this. They have to make the actors feel that they made their own decisions." Ronald began to boast proudly. In fact, there are not many directors in Hollywood who can give Cher a high-level performance.

"Um...well..."

It was rare for him and Diane to have some free time alone, and Ronald didn't want to waste it.

Soon, their hands were held together, and their moist lips came close and touched each other. The moist feeling made both of them start to close their eyes...

…

"An actor like Cher can control herself and then let her perform according to the framework. She can perform unexpectedly in the final table scene. I didn't expect that Ronald's ability to control stars has already been So outstanding.”

Goldberg, the president of 20th Century Fox, also arrived at the office early and was also watching the live broadcast of "Good Days". This Q\u0026A with Cher about Ronald's directorial skills impressed Goldberg.

As a CEO who has been in the film and television industry for many years and has worked his way up from the grassroots level, he is very clear about how difficult it is to deal with top stars.

Ronald's ability to control Cher's performance, no matter what means he uses to do it, is a clear sign that the director's level has begun to reach a high level.

"Linda, bring me all the movie reviews about 'Moonlight' that I asked you to collect," Goldberg called his secretary Linda.

"These are film reviews from two newspapers in Chicago. I put them at the top. The videotape is yesterday's TV show where Albert and Cisco reviewed this week's new movies." Linda moved a large frame of newspapers and several videotapes. Come in and take them gently.

Goldberg first picked up the Chicago Sun-Times and flipped to the film reviews page.

When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie that's love.

Dean Martin

Roger Ebert began his review of "Moonlight" with lyrics from the interlude sung by Dean Martin at the film's opening:

The most captivating quality of "Moonlight" is also the hardest to describe, and that's the film's tone.

Reviews of this film tend to make it sound like a wild comedy about a people, which it is. But there's something more here, a certain bittersweet longing, an ineffable romance at play, and a certain magical quality reflected in the film's title.

The film stars Cher as an Italian-American widow in her 30s, but she's not the only one in the film to be stirred up by the moonlight to lust and love.

For example, one moonlit night when her clever, cynical mother Olympia Dukakis goes out to dinner alone, she encounters John Mahoney, a middle-aged college professor who specializes in seducing his young students, but he There is something undeniably attractive that is found in this mature woman.

Cher's father, Vincent Gardenia, has been carrying on a secret but sweet extramarital affair for years with the mature, disillusioned Anita Gillette.

At the center of the story, Cher surprisingly discovers that in middle age she is still capable of love.

As the film opens, she is engaged to Danny Aiello, Mr. Johnny Camarelli, more out of boredom with widowhood than out of love.

But after he flew to Sicily to be with his dying mother, she went to her fiancé's estranged brother, Ronnie Nicolas Cage, and asked him to attend their wedding. She was startled when they were almost immediately drawn together in each other's thoughts.

"Moonlight" was directed by Ronald Lee and written by John Patrick Shanley, and one of their achievements was to make the film resonate with all Americans.

It's an ensemble comedy, and many of the laughs come from the feeling of an immigrant family created by Ronald and Shanley.

There are some small, hilarious moments, such as Dukakis's exasperation with her ancient father-in-law, Fedor Chaliapin, who lives upstairs with his dog. During the family dinner, she got mad at her father-in-law and said, old man, if you feed your dog one more bite of my food, I will kick you to death!

When Cher's absent fiancé lingers at his mother's hospital bed, Cher and Cage become more desperate and passionate, and Cher learns the secret of the hatred between the two brothers. One day Johnny caused Ronnie to look in the wrong direction at the wrong time and his hand was cut off by the toaster. Now, he wears a prosthetic hand and harbors an unforgivable resentment.

Resentment, old wounds, and resentment toward family members are everywhere in this film.

For example, a mother knows that her husband is having an affair. She asked from the bottom of her heart why this happened, and a friend replied: "Because he is afraid of death."

She understood this immediately. But does that make her sympathize with her husband? Hard to say. One night, he went home. She asked him where he had been. He responded, "I'm not going anywhere." She told him she wanted him to know one thing: "No matter where you go or what you do, you will die."

Some of these moments are so intense that they remind us of the wonderful opening scene of Saturday Night Fever, and Julie Boisseau, who played the mother in that film, appears here as the aunt.

But all passion is drained away by the influence of the moon, which fascinates these people and protects them from the weaknesses of their character.

Ronald is striking, and he seems to capture some of the same qualities of Ingmar Bergman's "A Smile on a Summer Night," in which the moon itself conspires with people to bring them happiness.

The movie is packed with great performances; Cher's performance has never been more entertaining; Dukakis plays her mother, and their love runs as deep as their rage. In the warmth and charm of family, love, and roundness, and in its laughter, we find the best comedy to come out in a long time.

Strongly recommend four stars!

…

Goldberg dropped the review, and Ebert was so effusive in his praise of the film that it didn't seem like the kind of perfunctory post that was just about taking advantage of it.

Maybe he really liked the movie, so he started to drop his book bag and write down the names of Ronald and Ingmar Bergman, the famous Swedish director and the favorite director of film critics, in the review.

Goldberg loaded the tape into the machine, and Abbott and Sisko's weekly movie review recommendations began to appear on the television screen.

“Our movie recommendation this week is ‘Moonstruck,’ which is being marketed as a romance film, but is actually one of the funniest movies to come out in quite some time.

Cher is the titular star of this film, a wonderful ensemble piece about a group of tough Italians living in New York. How tough? Fuck you is said more often than hello.

Cher plays a widow who immediately falls in love with the brother of the man she just agreed to marry. Meanwhile, her mother was wondering why her own husband and almost every other man she knew kept having affairs.

You won't easily forget this movie from writer John Patrick Shanley and directed by Ronald Lee, which is R-rated but incredibly family-friendly.

Both of us give it a thumbs up recommendation…

South'……"

…

"Is it really that good?" Goldberg looked at the movie review and fell into deep thought.

For a president who is in charge of seven major studios, he undoubtedly knows that film critics are actually his own people in the industry. They are paid to do things and have become part of the film industry. Their standards of speech fluctuate greatly, and good and bad reviews may not necessarily reflect the true status of the movie...

But this situation where all the film critics say good things is indeed not the public relations effect that Ronald's medium-cost film, which MGM did not spend heavily on marketing, can achieve.

If what Cher said on TV about Ronald's directorial skills and the praise for Ronald and screenwriter Shanley in the film reviews are true, or 80% true, then her new film, You can definitely give him the script to read...

Anyway, director Mike Nichols has too many ideas now. He is not satisfied with the male lead candidate proposed by Fox. When the two sides are in a stalemate, Nichols suspended the negotiations on the pretext of preparing for his own wedding.

Inviting Ronald here might actually be a good move.

"Linda, please book a ticket for me. I'm going to watch the movie Moonlight." Goldberg informed his secretary on the phone again.

"Also, prepare yourself and send a copy of the script to Director Ronald, along with a letter saying that I asked him to read it..."