Westerners were surprised and pleasantly surprised.

They have become accustomed to the backward, poor, ignorant, and dirty China shown in the works of representative Chinese directors such as Section Chief Jia and Wang Xiaoshuai. Including Wang Quanyu, who won the Golden Bear in Berlin at the beginning of the year, "Tuya's Marriage" is also of this type.

Either they will never be shortlisted, and they will come to the three major festivals to promote the majestic costume martial arts films and the like, such as "Hero", "Wuji", "Night Banquet" and so on.

Probably only Lou Ye is an alternative, because the theme of his movies is always love. Westerners, or the European literary and artistic film industry, are particularly tolerant of alternative guys, so Lou Ye's films will never lack investment, and they will always be more popular than Wang Xiaoshuai in Europe.

Nowadays, it is surprising and delightful to see a film about animals from China in Venice, especially about animal revenge, and this genre immediately scratches their itch.

The key is that the viewing experience is still very good, and a small burden from time to time makes people laugh.

It's no wonder that the professional rating of the house magazine gave the film a high score of 30.5 stars. The next day, the non-professional score of the official venue magazine of the film festival "CIAK" was released, and "The Tale of Two Donkeys" actually received 37 stars, surpassing "Scouting", which was originally ranked second, and second only to the most popular French film "Millet and Mullet" with 38 stars at this year's festival.

Many authoritative media outlets have also given their own evaluations.

First of all, the official house magazine "CIAK" prominently published the article "Awe and Resistance - A Story of Imagination!"

The authoritative British film publication "Daily Screen" claimed: "Man and animal, system and resistance, morality and individuality, rebellion and submission, love and tradition, seriousness and humor." This is a movie to be savored. ”

So "The Tale of Two Donkeys", which has always been very low-key, became the most popular Chinese film in one fell swoop after its premiere. And at the strong request of fans, the organizers had to add two more screenings the next day.

This is definitely a huge honor, nearly 200 films have to be shown in 11 days, and the film schedule can be described as very tight. The previous treatment was the score of the house magazine, and "Millet and Mullet", which ranked first in both the professional and non-professional groups, after the premiere of this movie, under the strong demand of fans, it was screened every day for three consecutive days.

Now this popular French film is already the biggest favorite of the Golden Lion Award at this film festival.

At the same time, the most embarrassing thing is probably the domestic media.

First of all, the "Lust Caution" and "Sun" that they touted before, were really mediocre in the field magazine ratings. "Lust and Caution" is not bad, because of the blessing of the Oscar Best Director and the winner of the last Golden Lion Award, Li Yu, it has received great attention after its premiere. However, the evaluation is polarized, the Chinese-language media is one-sided and highly praised, and the comments of the European and American media are reserved, especially the foreign audiences who lack understanding of the historical background of China in the 40s of the last century feel that the film is difficult to understand.

"Variety", an authoritative media in the global film industry, published an article saying that the first half of "Lust and Caution" is too long, the whole plot is too bland, and the story is too poor.

As for Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises", Venice seems to have reacted extremely coldly to this Chinese "genius director" who has been away from Europe for eight years.

After the premiere of "The Sun", only a few media comments mostly stayed at the outstanding vision of the film, showing ambiguous and empty comments such as Chinese's understanding of love in the context of a specific era. It is in great contrast to the one-sided praise of the Chinese-language media.

However, before the premiere of "A Tale of Two Donkeys", many media began to change their tone.

For example, "Venice Film Festival halfway summary: Chinese film tasks are a bit heavy!"

"More than halfway through the Venice Film Festival, Chinese films are weak to capture lions?"

"Chinese films are not adaptable, and the cultural and historical background is difficult for foreign audiences!" and so on.

Now that there is a sudden fire in "The Tale of Two Donkeys", how do you ask them to write it?

In the competition for the best actor and actress, the Western media also pay more attention to the performances of European and American actors, such as Brad Pitt in "Assassination of the Sharpshooter", Jude Law, who was praised for his acting skills in the film "Scouting".

Cannes actor Liang Chaowei has a certain reputation in the international film industry, and his role as Mr. Yi in "Lust and Caution" left a deep impression on the audience and was barely included in this ranks.

Hopeful winners for Best Actress include Kirsten Walling in "Free World," Keira Knightley in "Atonement" and Cate Blanchett in the biopic "I'm Not Present" as singer Bob Dylan. As for Tang Wei, who has been touted by the domestic media, no one has mentioned it at all.

However, a day later, the domestic media who couldn't catch up with the crew of "Two Donkeys" immediately had nothing to write, because the Italian national treasure tenor Pavarotti died in his hometown of Modena in the early morning of the 7th.

This year's maestro seems to be particularly industrious, and the Italian film master Antonioni passed away at the end of July, for which the festival has arranged a special commemorative event at the opening of the festival.

Although He Xin is also a filmmaker, he really doesn't know much about this Italian film master who is said to be extremely admired by Jia Kechang, and the only work he has seen is the cyan film "Eros" co-directed by this film master and Wang Sunglasses and Steven Soderbergh with the theme of "love and sex".

But even if he has watched it, he pays more attention to the clip of "Hand" directed by Wang Sunglasses in it, and Gong Li in it is really sexy.

And he still remembers Pavarotti vividly, because in the early 90s, CCTV would record the Italian Serie A for the previous week every Sunday afternoon. At the end of the program, a fixed repertoire is Pavarotti singing "My Sun". So much so that at that time, anyone who liked football could hum a few words.

Now that the master is gone, I really miss it when I think about it.

Originally, the Venice Film Festival was already a little deserted in the past two days. It was because the Toronto Film Festival opened, and many European and American journalists flew there with the big-name stars and producers who participated in Venice. Venice is certainly very high, but for those Hollywood stars and producers, North America is the biggest box office!

The news of Pavarotti's death has made many reporters rush to Modena, including many domestic media, and Pavarotti's popularity in the country is still very high.

This is not the first time this has happened during an interview with an international film festival. Three years ago, just after the Cannes Film Festival, Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport collapsed. Suddenly, a film journalist becomes a social journalist. It is said that a Chinese reporter rushed to the Paris airport to cover the news, and the person in charge of receiving the media at the airport was very surprised and said, "Why did you come so quickly?" said the butler

And this time, the domestic journalist in Venice may have to do an obituary reporter.

There are fewer reporters, and He Xin is rarely quiet, sitting on the balcony with sunglasses in the afternoon drinking tea leisurely. Although it is not as lively as Lido, and the hotel is not of high grade, at least the view is good, and you can see the Mediterranean Sea in the distance.

"Brother, do you think you have any hope of winning the actor this time?" The little rookie sitting opposite obediently helped him fill up the tea in his cup, and asked with a silly and sweet look.

He Xin's sunglasses covered the eyes behind her and gave her a white look without any scruples, can she speak, why don't you open the pot and mention the pot!

The actor, although he wants to, he has long been completely dead. This is really too accidental, in addition to his own excellent acting skills, it also depends on the right time, place and people. Now not only is his acting skills very reluctant, but all other people who are in the right place at the right time are not on his side.

I remember that at the end of the premiere that day, reporters flocked to interview the only member of the jury who came to cheer, Hollywood's emerging director Alessandro Gonzalez, who also publicly claimed that if animals could also be judged, he would definitely vote for Black Six and Black Seven for Best Actor.

Especially when the strange tone of this goods called Chinese to say black six and black seven, He Xin, who was standing beside him, still couldn't help but have a black line.

He snorted coldly and asked, "Then you say, do you have any hope of winning the queen this time?"

"Brother, look at what you said, even Tang Wei doesn't have much hope, how can I have hope!" the little rookie Tong Yali said with a twisted face.

But it can be seen that the rookie still has a little bit of expectations. But then again, it's all in Venice, and even if it's only one in 10,000 hopes, it's worth looking forward to.

The reason why Gong Li and Zhang Yanyu are called "Gonghuang" and "Man God" is because they have proved themselves after winning the movie at the European Third Festival. Even Zhang Ziyi is like that, but she is empty-handed in the three major festivals, and she is destined not to surpass these two predecessors.

After all, the awards of the three major festivals in Europe are still very valuable in this year, and in the era when Chinese people still generally lack self-confidence, it is undoubtedly a superstar to be recognized by foreign awards.

Unlike later generations, the domestic box office is often hundreds of millions and billions, even if you take a Berlin actor, the attention may not be as high as that of a little fresh meat or a little flower who posted a photo with memorizing lines on the Internet.

"Boss!"

At this time, Xiao Douding didn't even knock on the door, and ran in directly and excitedly.

"What's the matter?"

Fortunately, he was just drinking tea and chatting with Tong Yali now, and he didn't do anything else. Of course, he really did something strange with Tong Yali, otherwise it would be impossible not to lock the door.

Weinstein Pictures offered $500,000 to buy out the rights to "Two Donkeys" in North America. ”

"Is it reliable? Harvey didn't go to Toronto!" He Xin's first reaction was to question.

Nothing else, it's really Harvey's reputation that stinks too much in the film industry. When Director Chen took "Wu Ji" to Cannes for screening, Harvey directly bid $8 million to buy out the copyright of "Wu Ji" in North America, and paid a deposit of $200,000 in advance after reaching an agreement.

At that time, Director Chen was ecstatic, and even the media reported it. In the end, this guy actually repented and said that he would not buy it, and he didn't even want a deposit of 200,000 US dollars.

Director Chen can't help it, this cowhide is blown out. And if Harvey didn't buy it at that time, there were really no other companies interested in "Wu Ji", so they had to sit down and talk again, and finally sold it for $1.2 million.

However, Harvey did not stay proud for long, even if he bought out the copyright of "Wu Ji" in North America for 1.2 million, but in the end he still lost money. The box office of my big "Wu Ji" in North America is only 660,000, the number is quite auspicious, 66 Shun, but it is too far from the box office of "Hero" in North America of 53.7 million US dollars, and the 100 million US dollars of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is too big.

As a lesson from the past, He Xin had to keep an eye on it.

"Harvey was in Toronto, but he was there when we had a media show for the first time, and he was definitely tempted by the response to our premiere. I was talking to a Weinstein vice president of film distribution who was willing to pay a 10 percent down post. Xiao Dou Ding Mei Fei danced.

Then without waiting for He Xin to speak, he said: "And I agreed with MK2 that the terms of the contract will be finalized after the award is issued, in case we win a grand prize, it will be beneficial to both parties." Moreover, their distribution capacity in North America is limited, and the main market is still in Europe, even if the North American copyright is taken away by Weinstein, it will not affect them much. If we release pigeons from Weinstein's side, in addition to taking a 10% deposit for nothing, we also have MK2 backing!"

Hearing Xiao Douding's analysis, He Xin couldn't find anything wrong at all. Besides, when it comes to business, he could go bankrupt when he opened a commissary in his previous life, but he really didn't have this talent.

"Anyway, you can do it. ”

"Oh, by the way, boss, Lao Song just got the latest news, the release of "Lust and Caution" in China has been postponed, and I heard that it is still a question whether it can be released. ”

"The scale is too big?" He Xin said stunned.

"Lust and Caution" was originally scheduled to be released on September 24, a week apart from "The Sun". It is precisely because of this that "The Tale of Two Donkeys" was squeezed until mid-October before it could be released.

"Definitely!"

Xiao Douding gloated and said: "During this time, the large-scale topic of "Lust and Caution" on the Internet is too lively, and the relevant departments must consider re-checking. ”

"Well, in this way, you can ask your old Song to make an appointment with Yu Dong in a while, if "Lust and Caution" is really postponed, then we must strive to fill this schedule!"