Chapter 323 Venice (II)

Backstage at Venice Film Palace.

The opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival was not an award ceremony, but a red carpet event.

So after walking the red carpet, the invited crews came backstage to accept interviews from reporters from all over the world.

Wu Yuan also made an appointment with Chief Jia to meet again in the evening, and took the crew of "A Man Called Li Wen Decides to Die" to accept interviews.

The first people who interviewed him were some Italian media, because the closer you are to the water, the better.

However, no one in the crew understood Italian, and the English of these Italian media had a strong accent, which made Wu Yuan feel overwhelmed.

Most of the questions from these Italian media revolved around the Venice Film Festival itself, around his new work, and asked him whether he was confident of winning the award.

"For me, "A Man Called Li Wen Decides to Die" has the best actors and the best team, so of course I hope to win an award."

"If it wins, it should be the credit of the entire crew, and it will live up to the hard work of everyone in the crew."

"But this is my first time in Venice, and whether I can win an award or not, it is a valuable experience for me."

"If I win, I am lucky, if I lose, I am doomed."

After dealing with these foreign media decently, the domestic media soon squeezed in again.

"Director Wu, how do you feel about your first visit to Venice? What is the difference between Venice, Cannes and Berlin in your opinion?"

"All three are excellent international film festivals. In my opinion, there is no difference. They are all grand gatherings for international filmmakers. I am very happy to be able to participate."

"Then Director Wu has been shortlisted for the main competition unit this time. What are your expectations for the awards?"

"I am lucky if I get it, and I am doomed if I lose it."

"I heard that this movie still explores the eternal topic of life, Director Wu. Most of your films start with topics such as "life" and "death". Why do you prefer this type of subject matter so much?"

"I think that life itself is a topic that humans have been tirelessly exploring. Why do we live and why do we exist? From ancient sages to modern philosophers, they have been repeatedly studying and exploring the answer to this question."

"This is also the essential topic of human existence in the world."

"As a director, of course I will have some of my own views and thoughts on this topic."

"At least this is much more meaningful than studying politics, a contradiction that humans have acquired after birth."

Here, Wu Yuan was caught for an interview.

On the other side, none of the other crew members escaped and were surrounded by domestic reporters, who asked about their feelings and interesting stories during the filming of the movie.

Liu Yifei was naturally surrounded by many people.

"Yifei, are you a guest star this time, or..." a reporter asked boldly.

He was just curious. Although Liu Yifei had appeared in several art films of Wu Yuan before, they were all guest stars, and the total shots were only two or three minutes.

In everyone's impression, Liu Yifei is not an actress who has made achievements in art films, but a typical commercial film actor.

To put it nicely, she has box office appeal.

To put it bluntly, she can only act in commercial films and cannot support the performance of art films.

"This time, I play an important supporting role in my senior's new movie." Liu Yifei blinked and replied with a smile.

She didn't say she was the heroine, because according to the script, her role as Li Wen's wife was less than that of Li Wen's neighbor's mistress, Song Dandan.

Although the role itself was important, it was hard to say that she was the heroine.

However, being an important female supporting role was enough for her to stand upright on the red carpet in Venice.

She smiled and said, "This is my first time in Venice. I am really happy. I hope this will not be the last time. I hope I can walk the red carpet as the heroine next time."

After the brief interview, the opening red carpet was over.

Next was the screening of the opening film of this Venice, the black comedy "Burn After Reading" starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Just now on the red carpet, Wu Yuan also met Brad Pitt, and the two exchanged a few words.

For his sake and the face of the opening film of the organizing committee, Wu Yuan also took the entire crew to watch the opening film together.

Being selected as the opening film, "Burn After Reading" itself is quite good. It plays the humorous black humor to the extreme, explores some of the most current trends in American society, and also criticizes the CIA.

Although the film has a strong commercial connotation, it is understandable that it was selected as the opening film because it involves politics.

Anyway, the opening films of the three major film festivals are the best promotional advertising positions, and they are just short of being auctioned at a public price. It is not surprising that the last commercial film is not surprising.

Wu Yuan was very happy watching it, and Liu Yifei also laughed out loud.

"This movie is quite good, better than "The Mummy 3"."

After watching the opening film, Wu Yuan was also busy.

During the week of the film festival, a large number of films will be premiered in Venice.

There are five or six films from the Chinese Legion alone, plus the films shortlisted for the main competition unit. Wu Yuan has received at least 40 or 50 film premiere invitations.

Even if he is very picky, he has to attend at least two film premieres every day.

On the first day, he was invited by Chief Jia to attend the screening of "Love on the River".

Liu Yifei did not go with him, because she also had some LV brand activities and had to shoot some street photos.

Now the three major film festival weeks are becoming more and more commercialized, and various European luxury brands will also join in the fun, hold some brand activities, and find celebrities to shoot street photos for magazines and street photos.

The girlfriend is also busy.

"Love on the River" is a short film, only 17 minutes long.

This short film was very mysterious from preparation to shooting to post-production, and the outside world knew almost nothing about it until the Venice Film Festival announced that the short film was shortlisted for the short film unit.

However, with Chief Jia's Venice identity, the screening scene of this short film is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters.

Not only was there a red carpet, but the main creators of the crew had to walk the red carpet to shine, and the premiere of the film was also arranged to be screened at the main movie palace.

The movie palace was used to arrange a 17-minute short film, which was undoubtedly a full-scale event.

Many internationally renowned filmmakers came to the scene, such as Richard Pina, chairman of the New York Film Festival.

Wu Yuan was the last to arrive, supporting his senior.

"Here you are."

"Here you are."

Chief Jia was not polite to Wu Yuan, just like entertaining his own brother, he just patted his shoulder and pulled him into the Palace of Cinema.

Today, the Venice Palace of Cinema is Chief Jia's home court, and Wu Yuan didn't want to steal the show. He greeted several filmmakers in the Hollywood circle in a low-key manner, and then sat quietly in the first row, watching his senior perform well.

For Chief Jia, the entire Venice Film Festival can be said to be his home court, and all of them are familiar faces.

He may not rank high in China in terms of box office performance, but in terms of influence and connections in the international film industry, including Feng Xiaogang, a big commercial director, cannot compete with him.

Feng Xiaogang's "Apple" was screened in Berlin, and apart from the Chinese army, there were no foreign directors and producers who ranked high to watch the movie.

Although Jia's film was just a 17-minute short film, the screening site brought together all the international film elites who came to the Venice Film Festival.

Jia was very good at socializing among a group of filmmakers with strong international influence. He exchanged a few words with a well-known British director, talked about the recent situation with a famous German screenwriter, and talked about cooperation with a beautiful French actress. He was very happy.

After socializing for a while, he sat back in the first row and chatted with Wu Yuan: "Xiao Yuan, although my new film is just a short film, you can give me a good look. If there is anything wrong with the filming, please feel free to point it out."

"I also want to hear your opinion as an international director, so that I can draw inferences from one instance to another."

Wu Yuan nodded with a smile.

"Love on the River" was shot very well.

Although the whole film is only 17 minutes long, it is a well-structured and exquisite short film.

The film is still about the intriguing people and events in the style of Jia Zhangke, and it is still a long shot that is calm but breathable. It is still keeping pace with the current society under the complex amount of information.

Although it is short, it is still full of Jia Zhangke's personal style. It is an excellent short film that is above the passing line. No wonder it won the award at this Venice Film Festival.

Speaking of which, Wu Yuan had a good relationship with Section Chief Jia when he was in school. A big part of the reason is that although Section Chief Jia is a bit literary, he is not the so-called "independent director" who only thinks he is awesome and looks down on other directors.

Section Chief Jia has a good personality, is good at accepting advice, and doesn't care much about status and status. He also loves to support the younger generation.

He founded the Pingyao International Film Festival, which specializes in supporting some new directors, supporting Chinese literary and artistic films, and striving for exposure and traffic for new films.

He also founded an independent film investment company, which specializes in investing in some talented literary and artistic film directors.

The movie "Hello! Mr. Tree" was supported by Section Chief Jia.

Although Wu Yuan and Section Chief Jia have different film concepts and do not agree with his directorial concept of always wanting to criticize China in his films, Wu Yuan still appreciates him as a person.

At least he really achieved the goal of helping the world, instead of being like some directors who just talk about "supporting newcomers" every day without any actual measures.

So Wu Yuan is still very happy to have a good relationship with Section Chief Jia.

He also hopes to cooperate with Section Chief Jia to organize the Pingyao International Film Festival.

The Light and Shadow Era has no shortage of money now, but it lacks the blessing of reputation. It would be great to organize a Chinese film festival of its own.