National Tide 1980

On May 15, 1987, the opening day of the Cannes Film Festival, Prince Charles of Wales and Princess Diana of the United Kingdom appeared on the red carpet hand in hand.

The arrival of the British royal couple suddenly pushed the red carpet session to a climax.

Especially Princess Diana, who appeared on the Cannes red carpet in a Catherine Walker water blue chiffon tube dress, was elegant and graceful, with long laces behind her, adding a sense of softness.

Her popularity was extremely high, and she received cheers from many media and the public at the scene.

In fact, her limelight not only overshadowed all the stars present, but also surpassed her husband.

On the other hand, Charles was very much like a bodyguard beside his wife, with no sense of existence.

He even looked very ugly because he was robbed of the limelight.

As for being one of the guests who witnessed the scene and walked on the red carpet after the popular British royal couple attended.

In fact, when Ning Weimin saw this scene and was on the red carpet, his mood was also extremely complicated.

First of all, no one can "tell fortunes" like him.

Only he knew that Princess Diana, who was shining today, actually had only about ten years left to live.

And the myth of the love between the royal couple who were in love but not in harmony would be shattered, letting the world know that there is no fairy-tale happiness in the world.

For this reason, he witnessed history with his own eyes and personally participated in it, and although he had an incomparable wonderful feeling.

But as an Oriental, he still couldn't help but feel the sadness of "people have joys and sorrows, the moon has its ups and downs, and it is difficult to have everything in the past."

On the other hand, it was also because Ning Weimin was the first citizen of the Republic to walk on the red carpet in Cannes. Not only was he accompanied by his beautiful wife Qingzi, but also Alain Delon, the big brother, took Rosalie's hand and deliberately took care of him and supported him, which made him feel a lot of emotion.

The four of them appeared together on the red carpet of the opening ceremony of the film festival that day.

Alain Delon took the lead and took Rosalie to walk on the red carpet, showing his superstar aura again.

In addition to constantly waving to the onlookers, Alain Delon has also been deliberately taking care of the couple behind him.

When he stopped, he always kindly pushed Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko in front of him so that they could have a better position to take pictures.

Especially after walking the red carpet and standing on the steps of the Film Festival Palace, Alain Delon let go of Rosalie's hand, and took the initiative to hold Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko's hands on the left and right, and waved to everyone.

To a certain extent, this is to tell the public without hesitation that these two Orientals are his good friends.

So under Alain Delon's deliberate efforts, this red carpet trip attracted special attention from European and American filmmakers and global media. The flashing of flashlights was like an ocean, and the four of them received almost the highest courtesy in front of the media, second only to the British royal family.

This can also be regarded as Alain Delon helping Ning Weimin create a new history.

He felt quite honored and felt that he could add a small footnote to his life achievements.

It is also interesting to say that although the public shouted Alain Delon's name throughout the event, and had a mediocre reaction to the unfamiliar Japanese actress and Ning Weimin, the problem is that the media's feelings are really different from those of ordinary people.

You know, reporters from all walks of life are the most sensitive group and are best at discovering behind-the-scenes stories.

Even without wind, waves can arise, let alone Alain Delon's clear direction.

In particular, some reporters who are familiar with the Japanese film industry and media from Japan have recognized Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, the couple who have attracted much attention in Japan not long ago.

At this time, they found that these two actually came to Cannes without saying a word.

And they chose to appear on the red carpet with French stars without other Japanese filmmakers.

Then these reporters must take good pictures of this scene, take the photos back to Japan, and then use their imagination to write about it.

A chain reaction of flashes is inevitable.

As a result, this move immediately stimulated some European and American reporters.

There are always some people who are smart and clear-minded.

I thought it would only cost some film, so I took some photos first.

Don't wait until you find some great news and find out who the big shot is. If you want to use the photos, you will be finished.

So there are countless people who followed and raised their cameras.

And as luck would have it, it happened at this time.

The most unexpected thing was that David Bailey, the royal photographer of the British royal family, actually rushed to the front and took the initiative to take pictures of the four people in the group.

His reaction triggered endless associations from many media, and all reporters had no worries.

This is David Bailey. No reporter doesn't know this guy, and everyone knows that he has a high vision.

At this Cannes Film Festival, except for the British royal family members and Catherine Dephner who appeared earlier, no one else could be favored by him.

So, what does his behavior show? Who are these two Orientals?

Well, as their thoughts expanded and became more sophisticated, all the reporters were going crazy.

No one knew that David Bailey only promised to compensate them with his professional skills today because of the chance encounter with Ning Weimin and his wife on the beach, and because he lost playing cards in his ex-wife's small salon yesterday.

This resulted in a swarm of flashbulbs, as if their status was precious and Cannes welcomed them.

Even the many guests were dumbfounded. No one dared to look down upon these two Orientals. They were all secretly speculating on their identities. Many people could not help but activate their own information channels to inquire.

In this way, it can be said that it was many coincidences that caused the sensational effect of Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko's appearance. Thinking about it afterwards, it was enough to make Ning Weimin happy for a few days.

But no matter how you put it, it doesn't matter whether it was a mistake or an accident.

What deserves recognition is that the effect of Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko's appearance in Cannes was really good, and the popularity was so cost-effective.

It's a bit like the wedding of the British Queen's granddaughter that a certain Mr. Liu attended with his wife. It didn't cost much but was extremely powerful.

At the dinner that day, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko successfully attracted the attention of many celebrities present. Not only did they have conversations with many people with high status in the French cultural circle, such as the French Minister of Culture and the Cannes Film Festival Film Selection Director.

They even succeeded in arousing the curiosity of the Prince of Wales and his wife, otherwise their accompanying military attaché would not have come over to strike up a conversation during the dinner and chatted with them for more than ten minutes.

These factors, coupled with the fact that at the gate of the Palais des Festivals, people hired temporarily by Ning Weimin were handing out flyers for the screening of "Li Xianglan".

As a result, their film, which was not promoted enough and was not even included in the catalog, actually gained a lot of attention.

Three days later, during the temporary screening, both the morning and afternoon screenings were actually full.

Moreover, they themselves have been featured in domestic entertainment news in Japan and the main content of local reports in Cannes.

The attention and treatment he received even outweighed Rentaro Mikuni, who sent two films to officially participate in the competition this year and has a high reputation for winning awards in Japan.

This is really an anomaly, and I don’t know if it should be called “victory without force.”

But no matter what Matsumoto Keiko's Japanese colleagues think, Mikuni Rentaro does not mind.

At least the video tape and original soundtrack album of "Li Xianglan" have increased their sales a lot in Asia because of this incident. This is real.

Coupled with the good chat with the French, Ning Weimin feels that he has initially mastered the tricks of running the Cannes Awards, which will be extremely beneficial for him to send "Crazy Rich Asians" to compete for awards next year.

What could be more affordable than such benefits?

So Ning Weimin doesn't care. He can't always seek perfection in everything. He should be more shameless when he should be shameless.

Of course, having said that, after all, Eastern and Western cultures are different, and Europeans also have their own unique artistic preferences.

"Li Xianglan" is an anti-war oriental story based on the life experience of a female star. Because Europeans lack understanding of history and characters, the enjoyment of watching it is naturally greatly reduced.

Therefore, it is a pity that European film producers are generally not optimistic about this film, and their willingness to purchase it is not strong, and their bids are not high.

Although the big scenes in the movie were close to epic movies and quite shocking, only five film studios made bids in total.

Moreover, they all asked to buy out the local screening rights and the distribution rights of video tapes and original soundtracks.

Specifically, France's World Television and Film Company offered 350,000 francs.

The Italian Medusa bid was ninety million lire.

The West German Konstantin Film Company offered 120,000 West German Marks.

The Americans were the most stingy. A representative from Columbia Pictures was only willing to pay $40,000.

As for the most sincere company, it is France's Yingogan Film Company.

Perhaps for the sake of Alain Delon and Catherine Deneuve, or perhaps because of the production cost of this film, producer Pierre Edelman quoted a "high price" of 550,000 francs. .

But that's it. This kind of price is just like a joke. Each one is only a few hundred thousand yuan, which is far from the expectations of Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko. It is not as good as the price Okamoto sold to the Philippines.

That's still one million, and it only has the screening rights.

So if they were just talking about business, they wouldn't even want to sell one, and they wouldn't even need a booth.

Obviously, if European film producers all think this way, there will be no point in spending money on promotion.

But the problem is that Ning Weimin is Ning Weimin.

He has the foundation of doing business in his previous life and the abilities he learned from Kang Shude in this life. His business ideas have long been broadened.

Not only can you look at problems from a condescending perspective, but you can also look to the future, and there are endless ways to ask for prices.

First of all, whether buying or selling, Ning Weimin habitually likes to test the price in the opposite direction.

If the other party's offer is too unreliable, he can just use the other party's words to slap the other party in the face.

Secondly, out of his full understanding of the future world, Ning Weimin also knows that some things that may not seem of much value today have promising business prospects in the future.

For example, things like film libraries are like antiques, the more they are kept, the more valuable they become, but they are not taken seriously nowadays.

In this era, no matter which country, the most profitable movies are when they are first shot, and then the video tapes are released to make a lot of money. After that, you can only make a little money by renting them to TV stations for broadcast.

Films with little influence, as well as old films shot in the early years, are basically left to gather dust in warehouses.

No one understands how amazing these copies can be in attracting money in the Internet age.

Except for Disney, not many people seem to understand the importance of IP, understand how to play with IP, and how huge economic returns can be obtained from it.

So copyrights are extremely cheap in this era, especially European movies.

For no other reason than because not only are there a large number of countries in Europe, they are also very small, and the film market is also small.

Each country also has its own film company. In order to maintain the glory of the place where the film originated and to compete for the right to speak of culture, new films are produced every year.

But converted into RMB, most of the films produced are small-production films with between 2 million and 5 million. The production costs are no higher than those in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and they are barely higher than those of Bollywood in India. That’s all.

Movies with large investments often require film companies from several countries to work together, such as "Zorro" and "Men's Ambition".

Then one can imagine the relationship between the quantity, market, stars and prices of European films.

As long as Ning Weimin briefly inquired about the market situation, he felt happy.

Because even if it is Alain Delon's movies, such as "The Dead", which helped him become famous in the early days, and "Zorro", which later became a global hit, high-quality movie classics, if you want to buy out the copyright in Asia, you can't It only requires five hundred thousand francs.

It must be noted that it is a permanent buyout. After all, the latest movie is a movie from more than ten years ago, and even TV stations in Europe are not willing to spend money to broadcast it.

So for the film company that produces the film, if it sells it for a penny, it means making a penny in vain. Why not do it?

Realizing this, when making the final decision, Ning Weimin had a new idea. He simply invited representatives from two French film companies to come together.

"Gentlemen, I have a new suggestion. I would like to discuss it with you. If one of you two is willing to spend three million francs to buy the movie "Li Xianglan" from our Fog Studio, and have it in Paris, Lyon, France, If Marseille, Toulouse, Nice and other major cities can be screened at the same time for three weeks, and the number of screening screens is guaranteed to be no less than 150, then we are also willing to pay to buy the films in your film library so far. All the films you have produced have been completed, and we can maintain long-term cooperation in the future. What do you think?”

Needless to say, his sudden statement not only stunned Alain Delon and Keiko Matsumoto, but also caused the heads of two French production companies to laugh.

"What? Three million francs! Guaranteed to be shown in five cities! It will continue to be shown for three weeks! Are you kidding, young man!"

"Haha, the number of screens is 150 yuan? No, no, there will never be that many viewers willing to buy tickets to watch it. Not only will we suffer heavy losses, but we will also lose face because the theater is too cold!"

They seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world.

But Ning Weimin still said patiently and seriously, "If the audience is too small, you can spend your own money to buy tickets for others to watch. I don't require you to show the movie all day long, one in the morning and one in the afternoon." That's fine. I just want the news effect brought by these terms and prices so that we can continue to expand the influence of this movie in the Asian market. Besides, you didn't hear my additional conditions. I will spend a huge sum of money. The funds will be exchanged for your useless copies, those outdated movies that not many people in Europe and America are willing to pay to watch anymore, and the funds for your new movies in the next few years will be solved at once. Let me help you promote it in the Asian market. Whether it is your country's film actors or your company, it will have a publicity effect that increases your reputation. It will definitely be more conducive to your country and your company's new films opening up the Asian market. Isn't this enough?"

I have to say that both Ning Weimin's attitude and his proposal are quite convincing.

After he finished speaking, the heads of the two French production companies looked at each other for a while and calmed down.

"Are you serious? The total number of films we have screened by Organa Film Company is probably a thousand. No matter how discounted it is, it will probably cost two to three hundred million francs. Are you sure you are not joking?"

"Yes, young man, and our World Television and Film Company's film library not only has movies, but also TV series. Do you only want the movies or do you want both? If you really have such a big appetite, our quotation will probably be at least Around four to five billion francs..."

Unexpectedly, Ning Weimin actually laughed and answered very readily.

"I never joke when we are talking about business, of course I am serious. I have no objection to TV series. If you want to sell them, in fact, whether it is a movie or a TV series, even a cartoon or a documentary, as long as it is a completed film, I am willing to buy it. Down."

However, he raised his eyebrows and immediately "revolted", which made the representatives of the two production companies feel that it was really difficult to resist.

"But I also have a question. If we start talking about the specific price and terms of the agreement now, are you two sure that you can make the final decision for your company on such a large deal?"

"Ahem, please wait a moment, I have to make a phone call..."

"Ah, I'm sorry, please excuse me for a moment..."

At the same time, the two studio representatives could not withstand the pressure and left the meeting in a hurry and a bit rudely.

Alain Delon's eyes when he looked at Ning Weimin turned into one of disbelief and confusion.

Although he tried his best to restrain himself, he could barely control his screams.

"My friend, are you serious? Do you have so much money?"