Chapter 163 Award Ceremony

“Love” may be the simplest but most profound movie I have seen this year.

“It is full of the power of humanity from beginning to end. In two hours, which is not a long time, it calmly and restrainedly only focuses on telling a story, but it is enough to bring the emotions in the audience to the peak and last for a long time. ”

“Aging, death, illness, loneliness, those things we least want to experience in life, those hidden pains that we know but keep silent about, were brought to the screen by Wu Yuan, and the cruelty became even worse.

"No one can escape aging and death. We will all face it. Isn't life crueler than movies?"

-Cannes Film Weekly

"Life and death are like that dove. You can't catch it or keep it. Only love that grows old together is eternal."

"Minimal restraint, profound inner strength, many images, details, despair and depression, and delicate touches that are difficult to repeat. The performances of the two old actors are too shocking."

"It's hard to believe that this is a movie brought by a director under 23 years old. Considering the age of this director, I am willing to give this movie five stars!"

-Film Critics Weekly Magazine

"Without sensationalism, it calmly tells the emotions between the two old people. All the dialogues are very reasonable and the emotions are real. Coupled with the heart-wrenching ending, the performances of the best actor and actress made me cry on the spot and couldn't control it at all."

"Minimalism style, enclosed space plot expansion, and great use of empty shots make the audience have Time to digest the emotional impact brought by the plot. "

"A calm and cold director, the poster is very gentle, but the movie has more than just a gentle side."

--"Cannes Film Review"

"Every shot reveals a cold demeanor, but at the same time it is full of human tenderness and affection. This gentle cruelty, cruel tenderness is heart-wrenching!"

"Some people think that the shots of this movie are too plain, wrong! Very wrong!"

"The director seems to have shot an infinite world in an indoor environment, with various stills, push tracks, and follow-ups, as steep and exciting as mountains, and no mistakes are allowed. The scene of the two at the dining table, that color! The beauty of light almost made me scream!"

"You must savor it carefully to feel the director's pictures and light aesthetics in this movie!"

--Film critic Thomas

Liu Yifei took various local program brochures delivered to the hotel early in the morning, and specifically turned out the film reviews of "Love", reading them to Wu Yuan one by one.

Although this is Cannes, France, most of the on-site program brochures have English versions.

Every time Liu Yifei read a favorable comment, she would raise her head proudly, as if these film critics were praising her, and she was very happy.

In comparison, Wu Yuan's expression was much calmer, even a little sad.

"Brother, so many film critics are praising our "Love", aren't you happy?" Liu Yifei came to Wu Yuan with a stack of newspapers and asked with a pouty mouth.

Wu Yuan peeled a white and tender boiled egg and stuffed it into Liu Yifei's mouth, while explaining to her: "Cannes is not the same as the Berlin Film Festival."

"The more the program book is optimistic about a movie, the more it is praised, the more likely it is to be ignored by the judges."

"It's as if the jury is going against the film critics."

"Last year, the Berlin program book of Sunglass King's "2046" thought that this movie could win the Palme d'Or, but it didn't even get a consolation prize, which almost pissed off Sunglass King to death."

"Ah?" Liu Yifei opened her mouth wide and chewed the boiled egg and swallowed it in no time, "Doesn't that mean that our "Love" may not win the grand prize?"

"It's very likely!" Wu Yuan said in a serious tone, but Liu Yifei didn't see the teasing in his eyes.

Liu Yifei's excited expression just now collapsed immediately.

On the other side, Liu Xiaoli, who was eating breakfast elegantly, sighed helplessly.

Her precious daughter's heart is tied to Wu Yuan.

Now her mentality is completely rotten.

After Liu Xiaoli's observation of Wu Yuan in the past few years, Wu Yuan is actually a good person. In the smoky entertainment circle, he has not been involved in any bad habits and has never had any scandals.

She actually thought about it carefully. Her daughter is in this circle, and sooner or later she will have someone she likes.

And Wu Yuan is definitely a 0.01% high-quality stock in this circle.

If they can really succeed, it will be a good result.

Liu Xiaoli loves her daughter, but she loves her daughter just to give her a better choice.

Obviously, in terms of choosing a spouse, Wu Yuan is already the better choice. What else can she ask for?

So as Liu Yifei's coming-of-age ceremony is getting closer, Liu Xiaoli is getting more and more lazy to care about her and Wu Yuan's affairs.

Even if the two of them are sticky in front of her, she will pretend not to see it.

What's more, Wu Yuan didn't do anything sticky.

"Xixi, sit down and eat honestly." Liu Xiaoli called out to Liu Yifei, who was not reserved and almost threw herself on Wu Yuan.

"Got it." Liu Yifei put the program booklet on the table with a pout, and sat down to eat breakfast honestly.

In the next few days, in addition to participating in a few screenings with the actors of the crew from time to time, Wu Yuan also took time to accept an interview with the local media and the Sixth Princess.

Whether it was the local media in Cannes or the domestic movie channels, Wu Yuan's "Love" was full of praise.

Indeed, the way Caihua died in the ending of this movie has caused a lot of controversy among the audience in the next few days of screening.

Many viewers cannot agree with the values ​​shown in the film, thinking that this is a murder, and even if Lao Zhang committed suicide in the end, this is not correct.

"In fact, when I watched "Love", when Lao Zhang picked up the pillow, he was also surprised and puzzled at first, and then he was relieved with sadness."

The male reporter from CCTV Film Channel asked curiously: "Director Wu, how did you think of dealing with the ending like this?"

"I thought of this ending when I had the idea of ​​​​this movie."

Wu Yuan spread his hands: "In fact, the details in the movie have reminded the audience countless times that Caihua has long been heartbroken and determined to leave."

"When Lao Zhang came home and saw Caihua sitting on the window, he knew that she had already decided to jump off the building and die."

"When Caihua flipped through the photo album, didn't she say that life was too long for her?"

"When she cried "pain" and "mom" all night, didn't she feel like she couldn't stand it anymore?"

"When Lao Zhang fed her soup, didn't she feel like she couldn't accept the last mercy?"

"The last slap hit Caihua's face, but it also hit Lao Zhang's heart hard."

"He understood that struggling to survive like this would only hurt both parties."

"This is what the movie wants to tell the audience."

"Instead of letting your lover die in pain, it's better to let her live happily in your heart."

"This is also a kind of love, a more real love."

After the interview, both media gave Wu Yuan and the movie "Love" extremely high praise.

Daily narrative is the simplest and most basic narrative, so it is the most difficult.

But Wu Yuan, who is less than 23 years old, used a very daily narrative method in the movie "Love" to bring the audience an unforgettable movie.

"It's hard to imagine that the director who made such a mature film full of moral and conscientious choices and torture is only 23 years old this year!"

Amid the praise and exclamations of the media and reporters, time came to May 22, the closing ceremony of the film festival.

It was still early in the morning. All the members of the "Love" crew, all the members of the "Qinghong" crew, plus the CCTV reporter group that stayed behind, and the China Film employees headed by President Han, were anxiously walking back and forth in the two rooms.

"How is it, is there any news?"

"No, is there any news from "Qinghong"?

"No."

Everyone was nervously asking each other about the situation.

Suddenly, cheers rang out from the suite of the "Qinghong" crew.

You don't need to listen to know that the "Qinghong" crew obviously received a call inviting them to attend the closing ceremony.

As we all know, the closing ceremonies of the three major European films all mean that you can get a prize as long as you participate.

Before the "Qinghong" crew finished celebrating, Wu Yuan's phone rang on the other side of the "Love" crew.

"Bonjour (hello)"

"Yeah, OK, thank you."

It was a very short conversation, but Wu Yanshu, You Benchang and others all looked over nervously.

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yuan showed a relaxed smile.

"Let's go, change clothes, we are going to attend the closing ceremony!"

At this time, the well-informed Han Dong also rushed into the room and said to Wu Yuan: "It's confirmed, the crews of "Underworld" and "The Best Time" are already packing their luggage to return home."

"Of the four Chinese-language films going to Cannes this time, only our two mainland films were invited to attend the closing ceremony!"

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the red carpet of the closing ceremony of the 58th Cannes International Film Festival began.

It was similar to the red carpet session at the opening ceremony, except that Wu Yuan's female companion was replaced by Liu Yifei this time.

Wearing a pair of sky-high heels and a white long dress, Liu Yifei stood next to Wu Yuan. It was a handsome man and a beautiful woman, and the two were very well matched.

"Xixi, you should be the first actress born after 1985 to walk the red carpet in Cannes, right?" Wu Yuan did not forget to tease Liu Yifei while walking on the red carpet.

Standing on the red carpet, Liu Yifei was already very nervous, and subconsciously held Wu Yuan's arm tightly with both hands.

Now hearing him tease like this, Liu Yifei became even more nervous.

Counting, she is indeed the first Chinese actress born after 1985 to walk on the red carpet in Cannes. If this range is narrowed down to the red carpet of the closing ceremony, no one born after 1980 has walked on it.

The gold content of the opening ceremony red carpet and the closing ceremony red carpet is different.

Those who can walk the closing ceremony red carpet can win awards!

Although she is nervous, she still has to walk on the red carpet.

Wu Yuan pulled her and walked briskly to the end of the red carpet.

On the way, she was inevitably stopped by reporters for interviews.

"Director Wu, what are your expectations for this closing ceremony?"

"Expectations? Haha, of course I hope to win an award."

Wu Yuan and the reporter smiled at each other. Both knew what participating in the closing ceremony meant, but neither of them said it out loud.

Another reporter came up and asked, "Director Wu, what do you think of the movie "Qinghong"? Do you think this movie is realistic?"

As a mainland movie selected for the main competition unit, Wu Yuan could not avoid the issue of the movie "Qinghong".

But to be honest, he really didn't want to talk about this movie.

But in front of the reporters, he had to laugh and said: "'Qinghong' is a very good movie. I have worked with director Wang Xiaoshuai, and he is also my senior."

"Of course I hope that 'Qinghong' can also win an award today!"

After answering these two questions, Wu Yuan took Liu Yifei and walked quickly to the Film Palace without looking back.

The other members of the "Love" crew also quickly walked the red carpet and met Wu Yuan in the Film Palace.

It has been said before that the award ceremonies of the three major European film festivals are relatively traditional, and in plain words, they are boring and straightforward.

Even though Cannes is the most commercialized of the three major European film festivals, there is no relaxed and happy, gag-filled segment at the award ceremony.

At the beginning of the closing ceremony, two hosts who Wu Yuan did not know walked on stage and introduced the crew, directors, and actors sitting on the scene in a serious manner.

The simple and straightforward introduction made people feel sleepy.

It was when Wu Yuan was introduced that some cheers and boos were clearly heard on the scene.

After all, the 23-year-old Wu Yuan really stands out among this group of directors who are at least 40 years old.

When the camera was given to Wu Yuan, Wu Yuan showed a face-saving smile like a dragon, which caused another round of cheers.

Next, it was to introduce the jury of this year's Cannes Film Festival headed by the jury chairman Emil Kusturica.

Among the eight jury members, Wu Yuan was most familiar with John Woo.

But Wu Yuan knew that with Wu Baige's attitude and behavior of preferring to give cheap things to Japan and South Korea rather than mainlanders, his jury vote would not be cast for him 99% of the time.

He also had no thoughts about Wu Baige, and there was no eye contact.

When the jury members appeared one by one, today's closing ceremony and awards ceremony officially began.

There was no singing and dancing session, nor any bad jokes from the talk show host. A bunch of awards for non-main competition units were awarded first.

Awards for the non-competitive unit, the Un Certain Regard unit, the Film Foundation unit and other units were presented one after another, but Wu Yuan didn't pay much attention to them.

Soon, the much-anticipated main competition unit began to present awards.

All the guests present were excited.

The first awards were for short films.

The Best Short Film Debut Award was presented to a short film called "Buy Now".

The Special Award was given to a short film called "Clara".

The most important Short Film Palme d'Or was given to a Ukrainian short film "Traveler". This short film, which was only 10 minutes long, defeated nearly a hundred competitors and won the Short Film Palme d'Or.

Looking at the Ukrainian director who was crying excitedly on the podium, Wu Yuan was also a little envious.

After all, it was the Palme d'Or!

However, the presentation of the next award immediately made him have no time to envy others.

The next award to be presented was the Best Director Award!

And the winner of this award was actually Wang Xiaoshuai's "Qinghong"!

Seeing Wang Xiaoshuai jumping up excitedly, hugging and laughing with Li Bin and Gao Yuanyuan, Wu Yuan was also excited.

Originally, "Qinghong" could have won the Jury Award, but now it only won the Best Director Award!

This shows that there is a movie that has surpassed it, which squeezed "Qinghong" out!

So who is this movie that has surpassed it? Does Wu Yuan still need to doubt it?