Made in Hollywood

Toronto International Film Industry was established in 1976. After two decades of hard work, it has developed into an annual event of 400,000 people.

In recent years, the turnover of the Toronto Film Festival has approached Cannes, and the number of moviegoers is approaching that of the Berlin Film Festival. Especially in the eyes of North American audiences, it is the world's No. 1 international film festival—the Oscars are recognized as a Hollywood event— Everything in Cannes has to be sidelined, and the hot films at the film festival can always attract the attention of the entire North American market.

At the same time, it is recognized as the most useful and active film festival in the industry.

"Useful and active" not only refers to its active market, which is a huge market for scavenging movies, but also its organizational method and positioning - no jury is set up, but all audience fans vote for "audience choice". Grand Prize".

Therefore, the most important part of the Toronto Film Festival is the screening session. In ten days, there will be more than 300 films on display. Just printing out the schedule will have 200 pages. It is catastrophic. Even if you go to bed late and get up early, you can only watch about one-tenth of it. Everyone has to make various plans and choices in the massive movie.

There are two types of screenings at the film festival. One is the media and film malls. You can go in and watch if you have relevant documents. Generally, there will be seats. The purpose is how to sell the copyright of the film. The other is the public venue, where the audience needs to buy tickets. Enter, the media and filmmakers can also enter, but they have to line up like the audience,

Because "Chicago" doesn't sell rights at all, it's only shown in public.

At this festival, it seems that all the films shown are equal opportunities, but in fact it is not.

Since there is no main competition unit, there will be no star-studded red carpet, and the publicity role of the media has also been largely cut off. With so many films participating in the screening, and everyone's energy is relatively limited, why should the audience choose a film?

Therefore, in the long list of screenings, the films of famous directors and stars have become the most attractive places for the audience.

no doubt. Duke and Tom Cruise are two names that are hard not to attract.

The first screening of "Chicago" was held at 7:00 p.m. on the second day of the festival. At around 6:30 p.m., Tom Cruise once specially sent his assistant to the theater to see it. The long queue of 100 people is full of audiences and reporters from all over the world, although these people are waiting anxiously. In the end, he still didn't get in, because the theater was full after six o'clock.

Never doubt the enthusiasm of the festival audience, the impact of Duke and Tom Cruise's first collaboration is enough to achieve sensational effect.

Audiences have a not-so-good habit at the Toronto Film Festival. It is probably because there are a large number of newcomer works and experimental films by some directors in the previous film festivals. No matter what kind of film ends, the audience will often give extremely warm applause if they think it is wonderful or not. It will last for tens of seconds.

So, "Chicago" fell into subtitles. When more than 1,000 people stood up for a standing ovation in Toronto's second-largest theater, Duke and the rest of the crew didn't care too much, even if it was an experimental film from Iran or South Korea. After the screening, there will also be such applause.

Duke also stood up and applauded, and looking back, the movie fans were mainly middle-aged and elderly people.

Why is the Toronto Film Festival's final audience vote for the audience's choice award-winning film, always close to the taste of the Oscars? This may be one of the reasons.

"Chicago" to participate in the Toronto Film Festival is actually very targeted.

In the next interactive session, there was a very interesting scene. Several rows of middle-aged and elderly aunts formed an alliance with a tacit understanding and praised Tom Cruise's performance and singing and dancing in the film. The way was enthusiastic and open. The trend of becoming a middle-aged and elderly idol in advance.

Frankly speaking, Duke believes that Cruise's performance in "Chicago" has indeed improved a lot, and he has left the low-level stage of being cool and handsome. After all, even if he is a pig, it took more than half a year to prepare a movie. After shooting for nearly four months in the torment of repeating NG, there will be breakthroughs.

After the chaotic audience interaction was over, the reporters that Warner Bros. had arranged for a long time also asked Duke and other crew members some questions, which was purely for publicity needs.

"Director Rosenberg, what do you think of this cooperation with Mr. Cruise?"

Standing on the stage in front of the screen, after the reporter's question, the microphone was passed from other people to Duke, and he said, "I want to explain a situation first, Tom has been taking dance lessons for more than half a year for this film. In the vocal class, his efforts are admirable, and the level of performance is obvious to all."

For the sake of need, Duke lied and didn't need a draft at all, "Tom is the actor I want to work with the most. Any director who works with Tom will feel at ease. I don't know why, there have always been voices against Tom from the outside world, but I think this is In making rumors, the Tom I saw was a serious, hard-working, humble, and at the same time extremely talented good actor."

The reporter then asked Cruise again. Even if Liangtang can no longer be a man, he understands what to say now, and he can't help but praise Duke and all the members of the crew.

After routinely asking Zeta Jones and Naomi Watts a few more questions, a reporter from one of Warner's gossip outlets stood up.

"Duke, from the recent news in the media, you and Miss Zeta Jones are very close, are you dating?"

It was a pre-set question, and Panney Kelly had drawn up the answer. Duke turned his head, looked deeply at Zeta Jones, who was looking at him, and said, "Kate is very beautiful and charming in the film. She gave me a lot of help and inspiration during the production process, and it was my luck to meet her, and we are now very good friends."

Without waiting for the reporter to ask questions again, Robin Grande, who hosted the interaction, announced the end, and the crew quickly exited the stage.

The Toronto Film Festival has neither an official opening ceremony nor an official closing ceremony. The participating crews often leave Toronto soon after participating in a screening. The "Chicago" crew will not stay here for long, but they will Staying for another two days, this is now a gathering place for media reporters, whether Duke and Zeta Jones, or Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, can create some topics.

The next day, Duke and Catherine Zeta-Jones took to the streets of Toronto hand in hand. In addition to the reporters from Warner Bros., there were also many other reporters from Europe and the United States, especially the guys from Fleet Street. , seeing the two of them holding hands and walking by the side of the road, they almost rushed to the front and slapped the two of them.

Duke turned a blind eye to these things, just whispered a few words to Zeta Jones from time to time, with a very intimate expression, and then when he turned to a movie theater, he bought two tickets and walked into the movie theater to watch a South Korean show that didn't even have an English translation. After the movie, the reporters basically dispersed after they came out. They just found a cafe on the street and sat together to drink coffee and chat.

In Toronto now, there is almost no other entertainment. Apart from watching movies, the only option is clubbing.

"Do you understand?"

Drinking coffee, Zeta Jones talked about the movie just now, "I don't understand the lines, the content is inexplicable, I really don't understand what the director wants to say."

"I don't get it either." Duke shrugged.

Zeta Jones put down the coffee cup, "It's a bit boring, I should have left the stage early."

Duke smiled and said, "The films we usually see in theaters are almost all commercial films, with the main purpose of entertaining the audience. This is the same anywhere in the world. Including France, which thinks that the film is very artistic, actually The films that go to the top of its box office charts are purely commercial.”

"Films are always diverse," he continued, "always give niche art films and experimental films a certain living space, and film festivals are actually the only place where many films of this type have a sense of existence. These films We may never see it in theaters, only in festivals."

"You always have a point."

There seemed to be a flashlight coming on outside the glass window, Zeta Jones tacitly took Duke's hand, making the two seem extra intimate, and at the same time continued the topic just now, "Actually, I understand that the audience is here to watch the movie, isn't it? There are hundreds of feature films at the Toronto Film Festival, of all types, so you can just pick them up and watch them.”

"So, the only important thing for the audience to come here is to watch the film." Duke scratched Zeta Jones' palm lightly, and when she laughed, he said, "The function of the film festival is not to show the film and watch the film. ?"

Speaking of this, Duke suddenly remembered his experience of participating in film festivals in his previous life. It was the second capital film festival in a certain country. It was held in the famous Prayer Hall Square. It was raining that day and it was very cold. The domestic filmmakers who participated in the film festival were suffering in the cold rain...

They are still good, after all, they can't wait too long, and many viewers and reporters waited for three or four hours in the cold rain, and finally waited for the long-delayed grand opening.

And everyone was exposed to the freezing and raining together, not for the film, not to promote the film festival, nor to show the world a new look, just to wait for a certain leader to speak...

The most ridiculous thing is that there are no toilets for the audience, reporters and filmmakers. Many people are so cold that they want to pee, but once they go out, unless it is a celebrity face known to the public, they will definitely be blocked from the door and will never be able to enter again.

The experience of urinating was unbelievable.

Many people on the other side dream that their own country's films can rush to the world earlier, and beat Hollywood to a screeching halt. orientation problem. (To be continued ~^~)

PS: I have been insisting on the three shifts this month until now, which is very difficult for a part-time party. Although there are not many manuscripts, we will try our best to persist until the end of the month to cheer ourselves on!