Millennium director

The urgent change of the schedule of "Cai Wenji" undoubtedly forced Liu Yifei to devote herself to work, even though she is now pregnant.

After all, this movie is very important to both her and Zhang Yimou.

If it was at this time in the original time and space, Zhang Yimou would actually have no interest in rushing for awards.

Because his road to European awards had actually ended before "Hero".

As early as the 1990s, Zhang Yimou had made a lot of headlines in Europe with many literary and artistic films, and won many heavyweight awards.

So the European Film Festival, whether it is the Palme d'Or or the Golden Bear, is not something out of reach for Zhang Yimou. Even after winning it once, it actually feels like that.

After entering the field of commercial films, he hopes to achieve success in North America, that is, Hollywood and the Oscars.

This is also the reason why in the original time and space, Zhang Yimou tried to impact the Oscars several times after entering the 21st century and tried to cooperate with Hollywood film companies.

At this stage, fame and fortune are no longer the primary pursuit. Only honor is worth pursuing. Zhang Yimou, who has won honors in China and Europe, naturally hopes to succeed in North America.

But the reality is very bleak. Hollywood is different from Europe. You can't win awards just because your movie is good. There are too many capital games and political issues involved. It is impossible for Zhang Yimou, a foreign director, to succeed there.

In fact, since the birth of Hollywood, all Chinese who have been able to achieve success and honor there are Chinese, except for Cheng Long and Ang Lee.

And their success is also due to the fact that they are not from the mainland, and they have been in Hollywood in the 1990s when the mainland Chinese film market was deserted, so they could get opportunities.

After all, no one in Hollywood cared about the threat of Chinese films at that time.

It can only be said that Zhang Yimou was late in his impact on the Oscars. If he could develop in Hollywood in the 1990s, he might have achieved the same achievements as Ang Lee, or even higher than Ang Lee.

Anyway, Wu Yuan has always believed that Ang Lee's directing skills are really not as high as Zhang Yimou's. Whether from an artistic or commercial perspective, Zhang Yimou is more than one level better than Ang Lee, but he just lacks opportunities.

In this time and space, because Wu Yuan decisively lured Zhang Yimou to join the Light and Shadow Era when the two Zhangs broke up, his development in this life is undoubtedly smoother.

Not only did no one affect his film creation, but he also gave money and people to him. Wu Yuan also lent Zhang Yimou a lot of connections in Hollywood.

For example, "The Great Wall" not only had a higher box office in the mainland in this time and space, but also won a high Asian box office through the channels of Light and Shadow Era. It was well-known in the entire Greater China cultural circle. Later, it was also operated to be released in North America, and it also took more than 10 million US dollars in North America.

The only pity is that Zhang Yimou's impact on the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in this time and space still failed, but that was the failure of several martial arts films in his early years, and it had nothing to do with Light and Shadow Era.

Under the operation of Light and Shadow Times, "The Great Wall" was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars that year, but it just didn't win.

This also rekindled Zhang Yimou's idea of ​​​​attacking the Oscars, and if he wants to attack the Oscars, he undoubtedly needs Wu Yuan's full support.

So there was the movie "Cai Wenji".

This movie was actually created by Wu Yuan for Liu Yifei to win the award. Zhang Yimou decisively took on this task in exchange for Wu Yuan's support for him to attack the Oscars next time.

This is an unspoken understanding between the two.

Therefore, although he has no interest in the three major European awards, Zhang Yimou is very concerned about the European awards for "Cai Wenji" this time, even more concerned than Wu Yuan.

After all, the smoother the road to "Cai Wenji" is, the greater Wu Yuan's support for Zhang Yimou to attack the Oscars will certainly be.

Therefore, when he learned that Liu Yifei was pregnant and that the originally scheduled Cannes Film Festival was temporarily changed to the Berlin Film Festival, Zhang Yimou did not complain at all. He immediately mobilized his connections to cooperate with Wu Yuan to build momentum in Europe, and transferred all the connections that were originally intended to be used in Cannes to Berlin.

In terms of influence in Europe, he is not much worse than Wu Yuan.

After all, the original time and space "One Second" was also easily shortlisted for the main competition unit in Berlin, but Zhang Yimou was not interested in spending his connections to win another Golden Bear, so he simply withdrew from the competition.

This time is different.

Under the dual efforts of Wu Yuan and Zhang Yimou, even though it was urgently added to the shortlist, the popularity of "Cai Wenji" in Europe has risen rapidly.

There are stories about the life of this famous woman in Chinese history, and they are also constantly building momentum.

Although they could not influence the judges of the jury, Zhang Yimou and Wu Yuan still contacted a large number of film journalists, film newspaper reviewers, film critics, and other so-called "industry experts" who have influence on public opinion and would attend the Berlin Film Festival to write some publicity for this film.

The crew of "Cai Wenji" has also received a notice that they will leave for Berlin on February 5 to participate in this year's Berlin Film Festival.

Regardless of whether there is a schedule or not, they must immediately clear the schedule from February 5 to 18 to go to Berlin to promote the film.

As for the 2019 Spring Festival, it will not be too late to celebrate it after participating in the Berlin Film Festival!

"Director Zhang has already flown to Berlin in advance to smooth relations for "Cai Wenji."

"Although I haven't made any efforts in Europe for more than ten years, Director Zhang's influence in Europe is greater than mine. After all, I don't do much in Europe."

Holding Liu Yifei, whose temper was a little erratic during pregnancy, Wu Yuan whispered to comfort her: "I will accompany you to Berlin next week. We will treat it as a trip. Berlin is a very beautiful place, and German food is also very distinctive."

"I still remember that when I first went to Berlin, Director Wang Xiaoshuai took me to a very delicious German sausage restaurant. There were more than 20 different styles of sausages, and they all tasted very good."

"I'll take you to try it this time in Berlin."

Originally, Wu Yuan just wanted to share with Liu Yifei some interesting stories about his participation in the Berlin Film Festival that year, but he didn't expect that when he heard the word "sausage", Liu Yifei frowned and immediately began to retch.

This scared Wu Yuan, and he quickly patted her back to comfort her and handed her a glass of warm water.

"Don't mention sausages to me." After several dry heaves, Liu Yifei took the water cup and said with tears in her eyes: "When you mention sausages, I have greasy sausages in my mind, and then I feel sick!"

Yes!

Wu Yuan smiled bitterly and shook his head. Pregnant women are really hard to take care of, and this life has just begun for him! (End of this chapter)