Xu Wangqiu glanced at the man, looked at Tong Yuejuan and asked with a smile, "Grandma Tong, who is this?"

Tong Yuejuan looked at Xu Wangqiu and said coldly: "This is Liu Zhikuan, director of the Film Division of the Information Bureau. ”

"It turned out to be Director Liu of the Information Bureau of Wanwan Province, who has been looking up for a long time. Xu Wangqiu's mouth was full of admiration, but his tone was full of banter, he looked at Tong Yuejuan and asked, "By the way, are Qingxia and Xianglin here? I haven't seen them for a year, I really miss them a little!"

Tong Yuejuan knew that Xu Wangqiu didn't really miss Lin Qingxia and them, but was demonstrating to himself, telling himself that he would use the co-production policy to defeat the Freedom Association, and said coldly: "Three-quarters of this year has passed, and your film only has "Shaolin Temple" at the box office, and it is obviously impossible to occupy five seats in the top ten this year." I don't think it's going to be any better next year, I think you're going to lose this gamble, and I'm looking forward to you joining the Freedom Association. ”

Xu Wangqiu laughed and said: "In addition to "Shaolin Temple", we have an impact at the box office this year, and only "Defection to the Angry Sea" of Sister Xia Meng's Blue Bird Company remains. This year you should have won. But next year we have seven or eight big box office productions, and it will be a big problem to win five seats. As long as the situation opens up next year, the rest will be simple, and it is only a matter of time before the free will always be dissolved. ”

Xu Wangqiu didn't give Tong Yuejuan a chance to fight back, and waved his hand at her: "You guys play slowly." I'm going back to prepare for tomorrow's opening ceremony. After speaking, he hummed, "We ordinary people are really happy today", and ran away with a smoke.

When he got up the next morning, Xu Wangqiu let the crew members move freely, go to Venice for a walk, and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the water city, but they had to come back before twelve o'clock at noon. At 6 p.m., the festival will open, and the crew will attend the red carpet ceremony. Attending the red carpet definitely requires you to clean up, do your hair and makeup, and it takes a lot of time.

When it was almost eleven o'clock, Tang Yan ran back in a hurry. He pulled Xu Wangqiu and walked outside: "Wangqiu, you hurry up and take a look, the flag is hanging at the gate of the movie palace again." ”

When he arrived at the Movie Palace, Xu Wangqiu raised his eyes and saw that the flag that was removed last night was indeed hung again. Without saying a word, he went straight to the organizing committee office and negotiated again. The president of the festival still did not show up, only Giovanni was there. Xu Wangqiu pointed out the window and said loudly: "I want to know what's going on, why did the removed flag hang up again?"

Giovanni shrugged his shoulders and said innocently, "Yes? There is such a thing, they must be mistaken." ”

Xu Wangqiu said coldly: "If it's just a mistake, please correct it immediately." ”

Giovanni didn't move, looked at Xu Wangqiu and said slowly: "Mr. Xu, I am very busy with the opening of the film festival this afternoon, and I have a lot of things waiting for me to deal with." Hanging the flag is just a trivial matter, and I don't have time for it. I think so, when the time comes, I'll give them a feedback, and they will definitely change. ”

Xu Wangqiu felt that Giovanni was perfunctory to himself, not a problem-solving attitude at all. It doesn't take much time to remove the bent flag from the outside of the Movie Palace, just a phone call. He said coldly: "Then you give me an accurate time, when can the flag be removed?"

Giovanni shrugged: "I can't give you time to prepare for this, I can only say send someone to solve it as soon as possible." ”

Xu Wangqiu was even more sure of his judgment, Giovanni was perfunctory and delaying time. He raised his voice and said, "Since this is your attitude, then I will also tell you our attitude." If the flag is not removed by 6 o'clock today, we will refuse to attend the opening ceremony. If it is not removed by 12 noon tomorrow, then we will hold a press conference to announce our withdrawal from this Venice Film Festival. You will be responsible for the consequences of this!"

After saying this, Xu Wangqiu left without looking back. When he walked out of the door of the organizing committee's office, he had already made a decision in his heart that if the organizing committee refused to correct it, then he must make this matter bigger, and it was best to make the film festival disgraced, so that when other film festivals encounter this kind of problem in the future, they will be cautious.

There is a precedent for this kind of thing, and in 1979, the Vietnam War-themed film "The Deer Hunter" filmed in the United States was screened in Berlin. The film reflects the trauma of three young Americans during the Vietnam War, but an important reason for the trauma is the brutal torture they were subjected to after being captured by the Vietnamese army. The Soviet delegation withdrew from the festival in protest against the deer-hunter's malicious disparagement of the Vietnamese people. Subsequently, Cuba, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany and the Czech Republic all withdrew from the festival, as did two jurors from Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Despite the fact that "The Deer Hunter" was screened as scheduled with the support of the West German government, it still had a huge impact on the Berlin Film Festival. Major American studios have become extra cautious about sending movies and stars to Berlin, and the Berlinale has begun to take this issue seriously. This also led to Berlin becoming conservative, and industry insiders began to criticize the Berlinale for lacking dynamism and unappealing.

When the crew members came back, Xu Wangqiu told everyone everything that had happened, and solemnly said that the worst preparations must be made now, if the organizing committee does not remove the flag before 6 o'clock, then the crew will refuse to attend the opening ceremony, and if the flag is not removed at 12 noon tomorrow, then the crew will withdraw from the Venice Film Festival.

The time soon came to 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and in the afterglow of the setting sun, the 39th Venice Film Festival officially kicked off.

As the oldest film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival's red carpet is different from other film festivals in that it has to be walked sideways. While the red carpet of other film festivals is perpendicular to the gates of the Palais du Cinéma, Venice runs parallel to the gates of the Palais du Cinéma. When walking the red carpet, the main creator got off the left side of the movie theater, and then walked to the gate on the right, and the red carpet was finished.

The Venice Film Festival has always been known for its coldness, with few Hollywood stars and relatively dim stars. In Cannes, media and fans from all walks of life have to "set up" on both sides of the red carpet a day or two in advance, while the opening red carpet of the Venice Film Festival often does not need to queue, and it is not until an hour or two before the opening that fans begin to gather around the red carpet.

However, this year, due to the gathering of masters, the lineup is unprecedentedly strong, which has aroused strong attention from the media and fans. Two hours before the start of the red carpet, the outside of the red carpet was occupied by nearly 1,000 reporters and countless fans, which was even more lively than the temple fair during the New Year.

Famous directors such as Wim Wenders and Fassbinder, the French film master Hou Mai, and the Polish film master Zanusi appeared one after another, making the screams on the scene wave after wave. The click of the reporter pressing the shutter came and went, and it was like a locust plague.

The high / 1 tide of the entire red carpet ceremony is undoubtedly the appearance of seven members of the jury, Marcel Carnay, Tarkovsky, Rey who are the masters of the masters, famous in the film industry. Their collective appearance sparked a carnival at the scene, and the excited screams and shouts of fans were earth-shattering, which could literally deaf people's ears. The reporters suppressed their excitement and frantically pressed the shutter at Tarkovsky. The intense light emitted by the flash lights is so intense that it seems like the sun has exploded, and it can almost blind people's eyes.

After the appearance of the jury group, the red carpet ceremony ended. At this time, the reporters suddenly realized that the crew of "A Game of Chess That Didn't End" didn't show up. This morning, the reporters got the list of guests to attend the red carpet, including "A Game of Chess That Didn't End", but now that the red carpet is over, the crew did not show up, which makes many people feel strange.

Many reporters speculated whether the crew did not arrive on time and did not catch the red carpet of the opening ceremony. However, reporters are not particularly concerned about this, after all, this year's film festival is full of masters, and there are popular fried chickens like Wim Wenders, who cares about the masters can't care, who cares about the co-production made by two commercial film directors.

The exception is Zitlon a reporter for Le Monde, who interviewed Xu Wangqiu on a passenger ship yesterday, when Xu Wangqiu was looking forward to the opening ceremony, but now they are not on the red carpet, there must be something wrong.

The reporter's instinct made Zitlon realize that there might be something worth digging into, and if something of value was discovered, it would certainly be more interesting than covering the opening ceremony in one fell swoop.

After the red carpet, Zitlon did not enter the Cinema Palace to watch the opening ceremony, but knocked on the door of the organizing committee's office.

Meanwhile, at the Grand Canal Hotel in Oman, Xu Wangqiu was talking to Marco Muller about the removal of the flag. Marco Müller had been in China for seven or eight years and knew that this was about China's bottom line, and that the delegation could not compromise. He also talked to the organizing committee and emphasized that "A Game of Chess That Didn't End" is a real masterpiece, and it would be a pity to miss such a movie. But the organizing committee didn't listen at all, and asked Marco Muller to convince the delegation that he had no other choice but to come and talk to Xu Wangqiu.

Marco Müller said helplessly: "This morning the bend delegation approached the organizing committee and asked to put their flag back up. If the organizing committee does not agree, they will withdraw from the festival. After weighing up, the organizing committee finally agreed to their request. ”

Xu Wangqiu said coldly: "It means that the film festival thinks that Hu Jinquan and them are more important than us, right?"

Marco Müller sighed, although he didn't want to say it, but at this time he could only tell the truth: "In the eyes of many people, the film festival is a temple of art, it is very pure, but in fact it is not, the festival is really snobbish sometimes. Hu Jinquan won the award in Cannes and is well-known in Europe. You also have a certain degree of popularity in Europe, but in the eyes of the organizing committee, you are a commercial film director, and the Hollywoodization is more serious. The Venice Film Festival is the world's first international film festival, and Italy is the homeland of neorealism, with world-renowned masters such as Fellini, Rossellini, and Antonioni. In the eyes of the organizing committee, Hu Jinquan and his films are more artistic and more important. ”

Xu Wangqiu understood what Marco Muller meant, and said coldly: "The organizing committee thinks that Hu Jinquan and his film are more important, and doesn't want him to withdraw, and what we adopt is a delaying tactic, right? Anyway, our movie premieres on the 30th, which is the day after tomorrow, and the organizing committee wants to drag it until the 30th, remove the flag, and give us an explanation." After the movie was released, they hung up the flag again to meet Hu Jinquan's requirements again. That's what the organizing committee is going to do, right?"

Marco Müller sighed helplessly: "That's exactly what the organizing committee intended. I really plan to delay, in their opinion, you are all here, and you will definitely not quit easily, and "A Game of Chess That Hasn't Been Finished" is a Sino-Japanese co-production, even if the Chinese delegation withdraws, there will be the Dongying delegation. ”

Xu Wangqiu sneered: "This perfunctory attitude is unacceptable to us. If the flag is not removed by 12 noon tomorrow, we will hold a press conference to announce our withdrawal from this year's Venice Film Festival. ”