Millennium director

Because it was the opening ceremony, all the jury members of this year's Berlin Film Festival were present.

This year's jury consists of five people, namely:

German actress Sandra Wheeler, who won the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress Award in 2006 for the film "Requiem".

Director Sebastian Lelio, who won the Berlin Golden Bear Award in 2017 for the LGBT-themed "A Normal Woman".

British actress Trudy Styler.

Famous North American film critic Justin Chang and curator Rajendra Roy.

In addition, the chairman of the jury is French actress Juliette Binoche, who is a top European filmmaker. With the films "Blue of the Blue Trilogy", "The English Patient" and "Legal Copy", she became the first actress in the world to win the Grand Slam of the three major European film festivals!

But her relationship with Hua Xia is also long-standing.

Cooperating with Hou Hsiao-hsien on the film "Red Balloon" was the first time Binoche personally came into contact with Hua Xia.

Later, because of the tour of the stage play "The Depths of Me" in China, she and Jia Zhangke appreciated each other and became the well-known "cross-border brother and sister". Then she served as a guest of honor at major domestic film festivals many times, and attended the award ceremony of the Hainan Island Film Festival last year.

In other words, she and Jia Zhangke have a close relationship.

More importantly, she has sent out favorable signals for Chinese-language films more than once, wanting to work with Gong Li and Zhang Manyu, and looking forward to meeting Jiang Wen...

Binoche once said frankly that "Asian directors all have a common way of capturing life. Their observation angles are different from ours. This is not a kind of guidance, but an observation, an encounter."

Such experience and attitude destined Binoche to become a booster for Chinese-language films at this Berlin Film Festival. At least she will not misunderstand Chinese-language films because of ideological differences like Cate Blanchett.

When Wu Yuan met the chairman of the jury, he understood why Wang Xiaoshuai's "So Long, My Son" won the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor/Actress in the original time and space.

With such a jury president who is fair and impartial to Chinese-language films and is not influenced by the current "politically correct themes" of the international film industry, it is no wonder that a film like "So Long, My Son" that does not involve any ideology can win the grand prize.

However, this time it is not only "So Long, My Son", but also "Cai Wenji" shot by Zhang Yimou himself!

Compared with Wang Xiaoshuai, I am afraid that Binoche, the jury president who knows Chinese-language films very well, will pay more attention to Zhang Yimou's new film!

However, due to the rules of the film festival, the judges and the president of the jury cannot have close and biased conversations with anyone from the shortlisted film crew at this time, so everyone just greeted each other and brushed their faces, and then separated again.

Looking at Binoche's beautiful back as she left, Wu Yuan jokingly said to Zhang Yimou: "Director Zhang, the chairman of the jury just kept his eyes on you, and didn't even look at me and my senior brother Wang Xiaoshuai."

"It seems that he admires you very much, maybe he is your European fan!"

Zhang Yimou didn't think so, just nodded and said: "Maybe."

There are really few people in Europe who like to watch art films who have not watched Zhang Yimou's art films, and there are a lot of European actors who like Zhang Yimou, and he has long been used to it.

Among Chinese directors, only Sunglass King can compete with Zhang Yimou in terms of influence in Europe.

There is no way, Sunglass King's violent aesthetics and "Happy Together" and "In the Mood for Love" are so popular in Europe, especially in the UK, Germany, and France, all of which have been on the list of the top 100 films in the history of these countries.

"It depends on the next few days." Zhang Yimou finally concluded.

After the opening ceremony, no matter how many turbulent waves there were behind the films shortlisted for the main competition unit, Wu Yuan turned into an ordinary tourist and plunged into the film week.

In the first few days, he and his wife Liu Yifei lingered in major cinemas on the streets of Berlin every day, watching independent films from all over the world that were released in China.

Although it is now a very developed Internet era, to be honest, a large number of independent films are still not available on the Internet.

There are many independent films that are only shown in small-scale art schools or only shown at film festivals. Anyway, it is difficult for Wu Yuan to see them in domestic theaters, even on the Internet.

After all, to find film and television resources online, you must first know the name of the movie.

Just like this Berlin International Film Festival, there are hundreds of films from all over the world participating in the exhibition, 90% of which are films that Wu Yuan has never heard of, which can be said to be a feast for his eyes.

However, during the movie watching, he did not forget to take care of his beloved wife.

Liu Yifei's belly is already four months old.

If it were an ordinary pregnant woman, her belly would have bulged at this time, and her pregnancy would be more obvious.

But Liu Yifei is not an ordinary pregnant woman, she is a star and artist.

Just like Xiao Ming's baby, her belly only looked slightly bulging when she was seven or eight months pregnant. Most celebrities and artists would ask very professional health care workers and nutritionists to develop a reasonable diet plan and do the necessary exercise when they are pregnant.

The advantage of doing this is that it can ensure that the mother and the baby in her belly will always be in the healthiest state.

What is the healthiest state?

It means being neither fat nor thin, just right.

Perhaps many ordinary people think that the heavier the newborn, the better, and the heavier it is, the more blessed it is.

But in fact, this idea is completely wrong. An overweight baby will cause many problems during delivery and put a greater burden on the mother's body, which is not a good thing.

Of course, if it is too light, it will not work, which means that the development is unhealthy.

So how to control this degree in the middle requires a very professional maternal and child doctor to fully control it.

This is also why many celebrities, even in the late pregnancy, do not have a very big belly when they are photographed by reporters. Generally, they look like ordinary pregnant women in six or seven months in seven or eight months. These are all "perfect" babies that are bought with money!

Liu Yifei is enjoying such treatment now.

Although she is already four months pregnant, her figure is still very good. Her lower abdomen has only become a little bigger. If you don't keep staring at it, you can't see it at all.

At least when she walked the red carpet at the Berlin International Film Festival, no reporter found that she was pregnant. Even if some reporters thought that her belly was a little fat, they thought she had gained weight. After all, Liu Yifei often gained and lost weight, and everyone was used to it.

Both Wu Yuan and Liu Yifei were very satisfied with this.

It was not that they planned to hide it from the public. They planned to wait until the child was six months old before announcing the good news. There was no need to publicize it so early.

"Sissi, I hope this trip to Berlin will have a successful outcome."

Wu Yuan, who had just finished watching an Indonesian independent film in a cinema in Berlin, reached out and stroked his wife's belly with a smile on his face, "Little guy, you also want to go on stage with your mother to receive the award~" (End of this chapter)