Chapter 758 Golden Lion Award
"An excellent movie can always reflect the various situations of life..."
On the stage of the Venice Film Palace, the chairman of the jury, Alexandre Desplat, said a long list of words about the return of the film to its essence, then looked down at the card in his hand, "The winner of the Golden Lion Award at this year's film festival yes……"
The closing ceremony of this Venice Film Festival has come to the end, and only the most important Golden Lion Award has not yet been announced. ???
Many European directors in the audience looked at Alexandre Desplat eagerly. In a sense, the Golden Lion, Golden Bear and Palme d'Or are the highest film awards they can get.
Compared to these people, Murphy seemed very calm. For him, the purpose of screening "Focus" at the Venice Film Festival this time has been achieved. Whether it is the film's momentum and reputation, or the impact and negative impact on Catholicism, it is important to everyone. Greatly exceeded previous expectations.
This is very beneficial to "Focus"'s impact on next year's Oscars.
Due to personal cognition problems, the status of the Oscar statuette in his heart is naturally much higher than the top awards of the three major European film festivals.
Because of this, Murphy left Venice directly after attending the opening ceremony, went to the Toronto Film Festival, which is more important to the North American film market, and did not return to Venice until the closing ceremony.
As for some of the public relations work here, of course, all of them were handed over to 20th Century Fox.
Therefore, Murphy believes that his chances of winning the award should not be too high.
Although all the previous media praised "Focus", in view of the selection of the Venice Film Festival in recent years, they are not very optimistic about "Focus" being able to win the Golden Lion Award.
Moreover, tonight's closing ceremony and awards ceremony has been going on, and "Focus" has not won any awards. It seems that just like in the past few years, no matter the quality of the film itself, the Venice Film Festival will ignore the film from Hollywood in order to show its own personality. of videos.
But the name read out by the chairman of the jury, Alexandre Desplat, caused the audience to be silent for a moment.
"The winner of the Golden Lion Award is..." He paused briefly and said the answer, "Focus!"
The film palace was extremely silent, only the voice of the chairman of the jury, Alexandre Desplat, was floating around.
"'Focus'?" Many European filmmakers were taken aback, "How is this possible?"
The applause first sounded where the Hollywood filmmakers were focused, and then most people started to applaud, but compared to when European filmmakers won awards, the current applause is not very loud and a bit messy.
"That's it."
Murphy had already stood up, and walked towards the awarding stage without hesitation. Unlike the Oscar for Best Picture, the highest awards in the three major European film festivals were all awarded to the director.
He was very fast, and at the same time his head was turning very fast. When he came to the front of the stage, he had already thought of some reasons why he won the award. The theme of "Focus" is the key!
I am afraid that the Italian counterparts have had enough of Catholic restrictions and oppression...
Stepping onto the stage and forgetting all of that, Murphy took the Golden Lion from Jury President Alexandre Desplat and stood in front of the microphone.
"Thank you, thank you to the jury." Murphy did not intend to make a long speech, but said as briefly as possible, "Thank you Stanton Studios and 20th Century Fox, and thank you everyone in the "Focus" crew! This Golden Lion Award means to me extraordinary!"
He thought for a while, and then said, "Borrowing two lines from the movie, the church is an institution, made up of people, it makes mistakes, it perishes, and our faith is eternal. Sometimes, we love Forget, most of the time, we're stumbling around in the dark until dawn!"
In any case, this is one of the highest awards in world cinema, and it is better to have it than nothing.
Standing on the podium that was a lot higher, Murphy could see that the directors sitting in the first row had doubts and disdain on their faces, as if he won the award,
Seriously violates the art of cinema in general.
Murphy knew very well that in the eyes of many pretentious European directors, a Hollywood director like him who mainly shoots big commercial productions is not popular at all.
After finishing his acceptance speech, Murphy walked directly off the podium, completely ignoring those people.
According to the awarding principles of the Venice Film Festival in recent years, "Focus" is indeed not the favorite of the Golden Lion Award, and winning the Golden Lion Award can be regarded as an upset, but the problem is that those directors and their works are more important than "Focus" Qualified? Is it more representative of film art?
Before the closing ceremony, it was recognized that the most popular film for the Golden Lion Award was "The Image of Silence". This film tells the story of the "9.3o" incident that massacred Japanese during Suharto's time in Indonesia.
The film completely stands from the perspective of the executioner. These murderers who killed like hemp in the past are still in power. Faster and more efficient, what kind of results will be shown by cutting off the genitals, they talk about it without any scruples.
If the hell of "The Image of Silence" comes from description and imagination, then another popular film "Nymphomaniac" is even more wonderful. The director Lars von Trier has a stronger taste, and Charlotte Gainsbourg The scene of an abortion for oneself, the close-up and the detailed operation process, drove away many viewers with weak hearts, and the viewers who insisted on staying also admitted that they were disgusted with internal injuries after watching it.
Even in Western society, Lars von Trier's actions are undoubtedly full of provocation.
Can such a film represent film art? Are European directors like Lars von Trier really working hard to realize the art of film?
I'm afraid any sane person would come up with a negative answer.
Just like the visual effects of mainstream Hollywood commercial films, they are just creating selling points to attract audiences.
It’s just that these people don’t have enough investment and the technical support behind the movie, which determines that they can’t create those time-consuming and labor-intensive scenes. To attract viewers to realize profit.
If someone says that these large-scale European films represent film art, I am afraid many people will spit on him.
In any case, it is an indisputable fact that Hollywood films have conquered the global film market.
Compared with the globalization of Hollywood movies, the living space of European movies has also been greatly threatened. According to statistics, the share of Italian movies in the domestic market only accounts for about 30%, and this has already been achieved in Europe as a whole. It is the highest domestic share. More and more European directors and actors are following in the footsteps of Hollywood, pursuing more practical returns such as movie box office.
As we all know, the globalization of Hollywood has enabled American films to break through cultural barriers and obtain higher box office. The global influence of French and Italian films with comparable film strength has plummeted.
In this context, the decline of European film festivals cannot be avoided.
This Venice Film Festival came to an end, but the Golden Lion Award finally fell on the heads of "Focus" and Murphy. The reactions of the North American and European media were completely different.
The mainstream media in North America generally believe that Murphy and "Focus" won the Golden Lion Award as expected.
And many European media have used words like "unpopular" and "upset" to describe the most important awards of the Venice Film Festival.
In any case, it is an unchangeable result that Murphy took away the Venice Golden Lion Award.
The day after the closing ceremony of the Venice Film Festival, Murphy left Italy and returned to North America. The film "Focus" took advantage of the opportunity of being screened at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival to create a huge momentum. Many countries and regions Many filmmakers approached 20th Century Fox one after another, wanting to introduce this film.
There is still a long time before the release of "Focus", but 20th Century Fox has already started negotiations with peddlers from many countries. Fox signed a formal contract.
In addition to some overseas markets that 20th Century Fox can operate on its own, the film "Focus" will appear in theater markets in at least 80 countries and regions.
This is enough to ensure that the film will have a world-class influence.
Of course, Murphy and 20th Century Fox must first ensure that the film "Focus" can attract attention in the North American market.
With the development of Hollywood movies so far, most of the most popular movies in North America will also cause a sensation in overseas markets, at least they can also ignite the movie market in the Western world.
Frankly speaking, Murphy never thought that this film could affect several countries in the east, after all, the spread of Catholicism there is not particularly wide.
It is no exaggeration to say that without the foundation of Catholicism, the influence of "Focus" would be much smaller.
Afterwards, 20th Century Fox started the pre-screening promotion and marketing of "Focus", and its media continued to hype related topics, and Catholicism was still one of the themes.
"What is distorted is not all belief cognition, but people who have no faith and can only be affected by the common religious beliefs around them..."
Perhaps because of witnessing the whole incident with his own eyes, Gal Gadot felt very emotional. He once said to Murphy, "A lot of religious beliefs are actually people's brand recognition of religious organizations. Once the organizational management is not sound, it will It is easy to have problems. The problems are covered up because people are superstitious about authority and tradition, which is like religious organizations peddling beliefs, and salespeople hurt consumers, but consumers have no way to complain.”
Perhaps this represents the views of many people. At the beginning of November, "Focus" officially entered the North American theater market with ten theaters, and countless audiences flocked to it. 8