Chapter 769 Asian Films Became the Biggest Winners of This Year's Cannes Film Festival!

When Fang Minghua received Li Li's call, the filming of "Xiao Wu" was nearing its end, and the last scene was being filmed today.

In the shot, Xiao Wu, played by Wang Hongwei, was arrested for theft. He walked on the street with an old policeman. The policeman went to do private business and temporarily locked him to the cable that fixed the electric pole.

Xiao Wu squatted on the ground and waited boringly, while more and more people gathered on the roadside. The onlookers, men, women, old and young, pointed and talked, with curiosity and contempt in their eyes, looking at the locked Xiao Wu like a monkey.

Jia Zhangke's camera kept scanning the crowd and recorded everything.

Fang Minghua stood behind Jia Zhangke and watched him filming quietly.

This scene had actually been filmed just now. It turned out to be like this: the old policeman captured Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu was handcuffed, and finally disappeared in the vast crowd.

But Jia Zhangke was a little dissatisfied, always feeling that something was missing. When he was about to finish work, he suddenly had an idea and decided to reshoot it and changed it to the current set of shots.

It was really shocking.

There is no excessive sensationalism, only a calm narration, but everyone knows:

Xiao Wu is "dead", completely killed by Jia Zhangke's set of shots.

At this moment, Fang Minghua's mobile phone in the mobile phone case on his waist rang at an inopportune time, and he hurried to the side to answer it.

"Minghua, this is Lili, I have good news for you." Li Li's sweet voice sounded from the other end of the receiver.

"What? Xinxin can call mom?" Fang Minghua asked with a smile.

"What? The baby is six months old now, it's too early." Li Li said angrily, "Amazon went public, and the closing price was 23.5 US dollars. Your assets have increased by more than 100 million."

"Congratulations." Fang Minghua replied with a smile, and then asked, "Have you told your cousin?"

"Yes. I called her first. Guess what my cousin said?"

"What did she say?"

"She said that after hearing the news, she suddenly felt so boring."

"Boring?"

"Yes, she said that she is busy all day, and her annual salary, bonus and other miscellaneous items are only 600,000, which is not even a fraction of what you earn."

"That's easy, give her a raise!"

"What's the use of raising her salary? My cousin said that even if you give her the entire Shengshi Film and Television, it is only worth 1 billion, not as much as your assets in Amazon."

"Oh, did she really say that?"

"Yes, she really said that, and said that she didn't want to do it anymore, and just wanted to be a rich wife." Li Li said on the phone.

"Really? That's easy. Just quit your job immediately, go home and find a few nannies and maids to serve you, wear a mink coat, hold a guifei cat, go to a beauty salon, and play cards. What a wonderful life!" Fang Minghua answered seriously.

"Hehe. I was lying to you, but you really believed it? My cousin doesn't want to live like this."

Fang Minghua also laughed.

If Song Tangtang was a little emotional about getting rich overnight, he believed it. But if she said she would quit her job and become a rich wife, he would never believe it.

He knew what kind of person his wife was.

The two chatted for a while before hanging up the phone.

Here, Jia Zhangke had finished work.

"All finished shooting?"

"Yes, all finished shooting."

"Well, to celebrate the completion of the crew, let's celebrate tonight. I'll treat you. Don't go home until you're drunk." Fang Minghua said loudly.

"Okay" everyone smiled immediately.

During the 21 days of filming, Jia Zhangke set a rule that all members of the crew were not prepared to drink! Not even beer!

How can you come to the famous Xinghua Village in Shanxi Province without drinking some wine?

In the evening, Fang Minghua set up three tables in the restaurant. All the crew members, including some temporary staff, were present and everyone went home drunk.

"Minghua teacher, I am going back to Yanjing for post-production of the film." Jia Zhangke said, "Hongwei and I are about to graduate, and there are still a lot of things to do in school."

"Okay, you go, when the film is reviewed, I will go to Yanjing with you." Fang Minghua said.

"Okay, thank you."

The next morning, the crew was disbanded on the spot, Jia Zhangke took the train back to Yanjing, and Fang Minghua drove back to Xijing alone.

I stayed in Fenyang for more than 20 days and returned home at the end of May.

When I went home to see Song Tangtang, the first thing his wife said was: "I have good news for you. Lou Ye's "Eighth Bus" was nominated for the Golden Palm Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival."

"Nomination is not bad." Fang Minghua smiled.

At the beginning of this year, "Eighth Floor Bus" was released in China, and the box office was indeed terrible, with a total box office of less than 1 million. The cost of this film was 2 million, which is not considered a low-cost film in this era.

Unlike the six-generation directors such as Jia Zhangke who like to use non-famous actors or even amateurs as male and female protagonists, Lou Ye's films are never tainted with commercial atmosphere, but he likes to use stars very much.

The heroine of his debut film "Dangerous Girl" is Qu Ying, who is a popular actress in this era. "Weekend Lovers" is starred by Wang Zhiwen and Ma Xiaoqing.

And this "Eighth Floor Bus" uses Shao Bing and Gai Lili, both of whom are now well-known in the mainland, especially Gai Lili, who has been nominated for the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress several times and is considered a popular star.

The strange thing is that Lou Ye likes popular stars who are unknown, and these stars are also happy to star in his movies.

This is the reason for the high cost of filming.

"We are also preparing to send the film to the Sydney Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada to expand its influence. At the same time, we have signed agreements with film distribution companies in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and other countries to prepare for public release in these countries first." Song Tangtang Said again.

"It's probably no problem to get the money back, right?" Fang Minghua asked.

"no problem."

"That's ok, how about the awards at this Cannes Film Festival?" Fang Minghua was very interested.

"I'll show you the list of winners."

Song Tangtang went upstairs to the study and picked up the latest issue of "Popular Cinema", which suddenly read this year's Cannes Film Festival winners and shortlist list.

Fang Minghua sat on the sofa and looked carefully.

Hey, hey.

Asian films have become the biggest winners at this year’s Cannes Film Festival!

The film "Eel" directed by the famous Japanese director Shohei Imamura and the Iranian film "Taste of Cherry" both won the "Palm d'Or"!

Hong Kong's sunglasses king won the Best Director Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for directing "Happy Together"!

In addition, James Summers, who served as screenwriter for "The Ice Storm" directed by Ang Lee, won the Best Film Screenplay Award!

Relatively speaking, mainland movies are a bit inferior.

Fortunately, Lou Ye's "Bus No. 8" was nominated for the Palme d'Or, which is a kind of consolation.

"Zhang Yimou doesn't make literary films, and now there's no director who can do it in China." Song Tangtang sighed.

"Who said that? Didn't Chen Kaige get nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year for his movie "Feng Yue"?" Fang Minghua asked rhetorically.

"Chen Kaige? That's true, but I heard that he also wants to switch to commercial films." Song Tangtang nodded, "Leaving them aside, how was the filming of "Xiao Wu"?" Song Tangtang asked again.

"It has been completed. Jia Zhangke has brought it back to Yanjing for post-production. I will go there when it is sent for review."

"Hey, these young directors nowadays are more courageous than the last." Song Tangtang couldn't help but shake his head when he thought of this.

"This is normal. Back then, didn't Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige take the risk of their films being blocked and shoot one after another? Now it's Jia Zhangke and Wang Xiaoshuai's turn. They will eventually break through certain taboos in the system and go underground. to the ground."

Fang Minghua said: "Actually, the biggest "enemy" for directors of this generation is not some leaders of the so-called film bureau, but the market. Even if the ban is lifted for you, no one will watch it!"

Song Tangtang fell into silence.