Three Hundred and Thirty-Six Sundance Film Festival

The white snow spreads along the two sides of the street all the way up, the houses like Lego blocks are scattered in an orderly manner, and the slow hills gradually climb up under the footsteps.

Walking through the quiet road of the town, suddenly, the vision becomes wider, and you can see a wide and gentle platform space, the steep mountains and rolling mountains behind it are like natural barriers, blocking the world from the outside. The thick snow covered the original lush green, and replaced it with a silver-covered ski run, winding down in the dark green forest, outlining a touch of leisure in winter.

Located not far from Salt Lake City, Utah, Park City is known for its skiing and world-famous for the Sundance Film Festival. All of this seems to have the same effect as Telluride. In fact, these two towns are somewhat similar in layout and style.

The difference is that when the Telluride Film Festival is held, it still grasps the tail of summer. People wear short sleeves, hold Coke, sunbathe on the lawn, and enjoy the leisure brought by movies; Sundance Film Festival When it was held, the winter was bitter and the wind was raging. People wearing down jackets and holding hot coffee walked back and forth between the major theaters to welcome the grand event that belongs to independent films.

Since 1983, the Sundance Film Festival, founded by Robert Redford, has come to the 27th edition and has become the largest gathering place for independent films in the United States and even the world. Thousands of independent filmmakers gathered here to celebrate.

Compared to Telluride's star-studded scene, Park City welcomes a slew of completely new faces every year. There's no awards season hustle and bustle, no college PR, and no commercial vibe. The noise is so loud that some are just movies, and only about movies.

Telluride can invite big-name producers and big-name actors such as "The King's Speech", "The Social Network", and "127 Hours" to participate in popular awards season movies, allowing fans to truly enjoy a feast of stars; but Sundance There are only first-time directors, unheard of independent directors, independent works that are difficult to win the attention of awards season, and cult films with a unique style of swordsmanship. Movies, everything is about movies, and only about movies.

Of course, the film "Tiger and Leopard" brings together Telluride and Sundance, two very different film festivals, which is another story.

This week, "Crazy Love" is coming to this year's Sundance Film Festival.

For a low-cost work with an investment of less than 250,000 yuan, the situation of "crazy in love" is even more bleak than "buried alive".

The production cost of "Buried Alive" is at least 3 million, and part of it is promotional expenses, so "Buried Alive" could sign up for the Toronto Film Festival, and take the east wind to join the ranks of the Telluride Film Festival; but " Love is crazy" without the money.

They have no way to go to the small film festivals in Europe to open up the market,

They can't even participate in some film festivals in North America, because each film festival requires registration fees, and then the crew goes to the film festival to promote, and the cost of transportation, accommodation, food, installation, etc. are also expenses.

Sundance is their only option - in Park City, independent films have certain privileges; at the same time, Sundance is their only chance, and if they can't find a suitable distributor here, the crew will fall into In the predicament, it is very likely that even the art theater line will not be able to go on, which means that the investment of 250,000 yuan will be wasted.

Perhaps for those rich independent film companies, 250,000 is still affordable. But for Derek Doremus, it's not a big loss.

So, after the Golden Globe Awards, Renly ended a series of brief promotions for "Buried Alive", and then made a non-stop all the way to Park City, making a special trip here to attend the Sundance Film Festival, for "Love Crazy" of propaganda.

Before the official launch, though, Renly earned precious time to return to his fandom and have a good time at Sundance.

In this small town, "Mulholland Drive" is more popular than "The King's Speech", and "Social Networks" is not even as hot as "The Uninvited Guest", "Inception" and "New York Alchemy" If you make a choice, the former will always be the loser; "Winter's Bone", which shined here last year, has also been mentioned many times, but people are complaining that the mainstream market simply does not appreciate the excellence of this work...

At the entrance of the cinema, next to the street, at the entrance of the cafe... In every public place, there may be a small group of people gathered at any time and place, standing together in twos and threes, discussing the movie-watching feelings just now. Sometimes, after a movie is shown, there may be six or seven small groups gathered at the entrance of the cinema, each expressing their opinions, and passing fans wandering among different groups, looking for their like-minded friends.

There is no self-introduction, no greetings, the only way to communicate is your own views and opinions. This wonderful and unique way of making friends can be said to be the most beautiful landscape of the Sundance Film Festival.

At this point, Renly was standing next to a small team, and did not speak lightly, but listened carefully to their opinions, and then confirmed their own ideas.

"No, I don't think the sci-fi element is the most important thing, it's about our attitude towards mistakes, which in turn leads to our attitude towards life..."

"This is a sci-fi movie! You actually said that sci-fi elements are not important? What is the most important thing? There is another earth hanging in the sky, do you just turn a blind eye?"

What they are discussing is the film that just finished showing, "Another Earth", this small-budget sci-fi work, turned out in a stunning manner. Almost everyone can't wait to express their opinions and opinions.

Different from Toronto, where every work is highly sought after, and is more or less influenced by critics' word-of-mouth, at Sundance, everyone has their own unique ideas, right or wrong, or profound. Or plain, but what is certain is that everyone is willing to express their opinions and share their opinions.

Seizing the moment, Renly cut into their conversation.

"Both of you have misunderstandings. That's just the first meaning of the movie. The idea that is really hidden in the core of the script is that in parallel spaces and parallel universes, different factors lead to different results, but the choice is always made. the same person."

Unconsciously, everyone was listening to Renly's point of view.

"So, when this person's ideology has changed, is his avatar in different parallel spaces still the same person? Or, has it split into a completely different personality? But if it is split, then the parallel Does the space still have meaning for discussion? Because the other space is already a stranger, no longer oneself, we can completely regard it as another person with similar experiences in the same world, in different countries or regions Different choices were made. The concept of parallel space itself has lost its meaning.”

The discussion that had been heatedly exchanged fire suddenly came to a standstill because of Ren Li's remarks, and the abrupt silence seemed a bit jerky. Surprisingly, no one interrupted such a long speech. Everyone fell into their own thoughts. It could be seen that they were struggling to find the loopholes in Renly's words, and then they were ready to refute.

At a time when sci-fi movies are becoming more and more routine and typed, it is difficult to find a sci-fi work that has solid basic skills, strong theory and can bring surprises. Who would have thought that this year's Sundance Film Festival actually found a treasure! The appearance of "Another Earth" is indeed exciting.

What is even more rare is that the heroine of this work, Brit-Marling, is also one of the screenwriters. She has a dazzling appearance, good acting skills and great talent. It is definitely the biggest gain since the opening of Sundance for three days. . Moreover, she is only twenty-eight years old this year.

After the viewing is over, it is the time when the mind explodes, and the audience can't wait to start a discussion - even an argument, and everyone is eager to express their opinions and exchange their ideas. Suddenly, Renly threw a bomb, causing everyone to savor and ponder.

It can also be seen from another aspect that "Another Earth" is indeed an excellent work worth pondering.

"So how do you define parallel space? You mean that everyone's character is the same, then faced with the same situation, we will still make the same choice, does this mean that the results of different parallel spaces are the same? It is the same, in this way, the meaning of parallel space does not exist.”

Suddenly, a voice was inserted next to it, but no one found it strange that this was a grand event that was open to everyone to participate in the discussion.

The person who spoke was a "newcomer" who had just passed by. After stopping, he immediately joined the discussion. He cut into the topic and successfully attracted everyone's attention.

Renly followed the voice and looked over. It was a female audience member.

Science fiction movies undoubtedly have a huge fan base, including many women, but considering the huge base, women are still a small minority. Therefore, among otakus and geeks, if a female audience appears, they will immediately be treated by the stars and the moon, and everyone regards it as a rare treasure.

But at this moment, everyone was caught up in the debate between the two, and no one looked up and noticed the female audience for a while. Typical geek, no?

What surprised Renly was not the gender of the audience, but her identity.

Her skin is better than snow, her red hair is long, and her facial features are tough. She is not a beauty at first sight, but she has a tough and sassy heroic spirit, and even the little freckles on the tip of her nose left a deep impression on people. It's Jessica-Chastain!