Chapter 750 Decline

The sky in Venice in August is clear and charming, the water surface is as stable as a mirror, and even the reflection of the sun will not shake at all. Looking up, it is blue and quiet, which can be called the same color of water and sky. At this time, Lido Island has reached the busiest time of the year. At this moment, the famous Venice Film Festival kicked off on August 27th. ?

A long red carpet stretches from a distance to the pier to welcome the distinguished guests who come by boat.

The guests who came by boat today, in addition to the jury members of this Venice Film Festival, the most important ones are the members of the "Focus" crew. "Focus" will not only participate in the main competition unit of this Venice Film Festival, It is still relatively rare to be selected as the opening film of this Venice Film Festival.

As the opening film crew, Murphy and the rest of the Stanton party were the last to walk the red carpet.

The red carpet gave Murphy a very deserted feeling. There were many media reporters but few movie fans.

According to the news he read from the newspapers, this year's Venice Film Festival has at least one-third more media reporters than previous editions, and many reporters are here for "Focus" and the Stanton party members.

Murphy will not underestimate himself. At the beginning of March, he won the Oscar for Best Director, and James Franco and Margot Robbie of the Stanton Party won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. It is the capital of considerable media attention, especially his conflict with the Catholic Church, which has risen to the level of Hollywood movies. Twentieth Century Fox has done enough publicity and hype for "Focus", and it is difficult not to attract media attention.

The dense crowd of protesters not far from the red carpet is the best proof.

Before the crew of "Focus" arrived, the 71st Venice Film Festival opened amidst protests and whistles. All kinds of whistles and slogans came from the demonstration team of Catholic believers on the side of the red carpet. The number of slogans supporting Catholicism completely overwhelmed the fans watching the red carpet...

It has not been a year or two since there is a lack of attention from movie fans. This is a problem that the Venice Film Festival has often encountered in the past ten years.

However, Murphy came here for his own purpose, which was to create momentum in the place closest to the Catholic Church. The same crew did the same, and the final result proved that the actual effect was very good.

"Look this way!"

In the media area in front of the Venice Film Palace, Murphy and Gal Gadot stood in a row with all the Stanton followers, allowing the media reporters to take pictures.

It was also a great gathering of Stantonites.

"There are a lot of reporters."

After the group photo was over, Robert Downey Jr. looked around, "There are so few fans."

James Franco shrugged. "The Venice Film Festival is gone."

Murphy and the others nodded slightly, fully agreeing with what James Franco said.

Indeed, as the crew of the opening film, it’s a little unreasonable to evaluate the Venice Film Festival in this way, but the actual situation lies here, and it’s not like Murphy and others don’t say it, and it can get better.

"If there were no protesters." Jonah Hill looked at the place where the protesters gathered, "This Venice Film Festival would be too deserted."

Margot Robbie seemed indifferent, "The more people protesting, the better, so that there will be a topic."

Several people walked to the front of the Venice Film Palace, greeted the jury members of the film festival headed by Alexandre Desplat, and then walked into the main entrance of the Film Palace under the leadership of the organizer's staff.

"You and Gadot don't seem to be in good spirits."

Seth Rogen found that Murphy and Gal Gadot talked very little today, "Is it because of jet lag?"

"Forget it." Murphy shook his head, "Last night was a nightmare."

Compared with the great reputation of Venice, the service of the hotel industry here is simply terrible.

Last night, his experience of staying in a hotel in Venice was horrific. At around two o'clock in the middle of the night, a scream woke him and Gal Gadot out of their sleep.

Then there was a huge slamming door, the windows creaked in the wind, and the sound of moving furniture kept coming and going, like a weird sonata...

After struggling for nearly two hours, Murphy had to change the room.

In the two days since he came to Venice, if he hadn't had some other purpose, to create momentum for the film and make those who attacked him look good, Murphy might have evacuated with the "Focus" crew long ago.

In the past two days, including today's opening ceremony, the perception is very direct - the Venice Film Festival has really declined.

Not only Murphy, but many people who came to the film festival sighed like this. The market is shrinking, the number of guests is shrinking, and the stars are dimming... The world's oldest film festival has encountered another difficulty, and there have been several blows before. The Venice Film Festival has stalled or even been shut down, but the pain has been especially real in recent years.

Of all the films screened or screened during the film festival, the movie with the most tickets sold is "Focus" as the opening film. The average pre-sale of the ten screenings is close to one-fifth. In this era, such a pre-sale It's really low enough, but the pre-sales of other films are even worse, not even one-fifteenth of the pre-sales on average.

Murphy has contacted several reporters. They lamented that the film viewing is not so crowded. This is a good thing, but it just shows that the popularity of the film festival is not enough. In the future, there will definitely not be any shows that can be filled, and there will always be rows of vacant seats. Compared with the packed Cannes, this scene is a bit sad.

The Venice Film Festival has encountered a lot of troubles in recent years. Marco Muller resigned, leaving a film palace unfinished. The new director Barbera prefers the artistry and purity of films, but happened to catch up with Toronto With the rise of film festivals and the aftermath of the European economic crisis, he originally wanted to revitalize the film festival market, but now no one buys it, and there are internal and external troubles.

Before this film festival, there were various rumors. It was reported that Venice might be rescheduled to avoid the sharp edge of Toronto. Even the mainstream Italian media "Evening Post" wrote an article pointing out that the number of registrations for the film festival dropped sharply...

The shrinking European market and the unsatisfactory Italian film industry cannot save Venice's decline. It can be seen from the opening ceremony that the most popular stars will always be Hollywood stars.

Hollywood movies are to blame for all this.

Since the 1990s, the globalization of Hollywood movies has caused major film festivals to "go down to earth". Whether it is Venice, Cannes or Berlin, they have not been able to maintain the youthful momentum of the last century.

The fading of the "Golden Lion" is obvious. In the past 20 years, the Venice Film Festival has been the most preferred starting station for the Oscar seeding contestants, and it is also the battlefield that the major Hollywood film companies, especially the companies with Olympic films, pay the most attention to. , many Oscar-winning films have used this place as the starting point for their long road to Austria.

But today is not what it used to be. Taking this year's film festival as an example, apart from the topical "Focus" that has attracted much attention, other seemingly "cold" film lists have been complained by countless people as boring.

In the articles of the media from various countries, "stars are dim", "anticlimactic" and "award upset" have become the labels of the Venice Film Festival in recent years. Although it is a bit harsh, it is considered appropriate.

Today, Barbera, the head of the Venice Film Festival, regards the excavation of films from the fringes of the world and countries without a history of film production as the main task of this oldest film festival. At the beginning of his tenure, the Italian domestic media once said, " Barbera is trying to separate the Venice Film Festival from Hollywood, and independent art may become a new feature of the Venice Film Festival."

This is what Murphy didn't understand at all before, he was too unfamiliar with the Venice Film Festival.

Therefore, after seeing that the Venice Film Festival has become farther and farther away from Hollywood in recent years, and the number of films with Hollywood backgrounds in Venice has been decreasing. "I have great doubts about whether I can win the Golden Lion Award.

Like this kind of film festival, the personal will of the controller has a very obvious impact on the final award results.

In the past two days, Murphy has already understood that the reason why the Venice Film Festival agreed to "Focus" to participate in the competition and was selected as the opening film is, on the one hand, the result of the decline of Catholic power in modern society, on the other hand It is the topic and attraction that the Venice Film Festival needs from him and "Focus".

To put it bluntly, the organizer of the film festival wanted to use Murphy's fame to attract more people's attention.

However, Murphy also needs the stage of the Venice Film Festival to let the Vatican, which is close at hand, see what they are doing.

In the words of Margot Robbie, countless colleagues in Hollywood are waiting for Murphy to give a good look to the Catholic Church who is trying to invade Hollywood again!

Entering the movie palace, Murphy led the crew to the screening hall quickly, and there was warm applause at the scene.

Screenings of "Spotlight" are about to begin.

In a sunny office in the Vatican, the elderly Pope Benedict XVI suddenly put down his pen and asked the people standing next to him, "Is the Venice Film Festival opening today?"

"Yes, Your Excellency." The middle-aged pastor looked at his watch, "The opening film should start showing."

Benedict XVI stood up, walked to the window, looked out and said, "You are a public relations expert in the Vatican, I ask you, is this a film that has been falsified or poorly made?" ?”

"No." The middle-aged pastor was very honest. "The director of the film is Murphy Stanton. This person has always only made high-quality films. After becoming famous, the influence of each film is world-class. We..."

He shook his head, "We shouldn't have extravagant hopes, I think we have to be prepared for the worst."

"I have proposed at the meeting of cardinals to remove Marquez Costello as regional archbishop," Benedict XVI's eyes looked a little cloudy, "return him to the Vatican to look at the library." 8