As a tourist destination and a holiday destination, the water city of Venice is lively and lively all year round, even in the harsh winter, with warm sunshine, noisy crowds, laid-back life, wonderful food, ancient architecture, rich culture and friendly people, all of which attract people to come to the city and secretly treasure a ray of sunshine in the northern hemisphere winter.

This is especially true during the Carnival in February and the Film Festival in September.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival, and all the events and ceremonies are different, with three days before the countdown to the opening ceremony, people from all over the world begin to flock to Italy and enter the land floating on the edge of the Adriatic Sea like a rolling tide.

The film festival has not officially kicked off yet, and the bustling rumors and heated discussions have already begun to boil in advance -

Regarding the power struggle within the Organizing Committee, about the determination of the President of the Jury, Bernardo-Bertolucci, to support Italian films, about the concerns about the quality of the works in the main competition, about the fork in the road where the 70th anniversary lies in the future development of the festival...... And so on and so forth.

It is precisely because this is the special day of the 70th anniversary of Venice that the Italian mainstream media and the top management of the film industry believe that this is a memorable year, and if Italian local films can stabilize the Golden Lion, then it will be of positive significance for the future of the film festival and the development of the local film industry.

However, there are different voices within the organizing committee, some people insist that the film festival should be a film festival, everything is based on the film itself, and it is no longer the film environment of the thirties and forties, and in order to support local films, it is completely possible to learn from Berlin's practice, but the film festival still needs to win with quality after all.

In other words, it's really a debate about home field advantage.

It is often said that Italy is the China/country of Europe, and it is not without reason, from culture to tradition, from customs to habits, there are many similarities between the two countries. As for the future development plan of the Venice Film Festival, we can see the subtleties.

It is foreseeable that this year's main competition is bound to attract more attention, and more importantly, in order to celebrate its 70th anniversary, the Venice Film Festival has spent a lot of effort to invite many big names to the festival.

However, the big names who arrived in Venice first did not bother to pay attention to the main competition for the time being, after all, there are still a few days before the opening of the festival, and the hottest figure in recent days is Lan Li-Hall.

Andre Hamilton, the head of Scotland's leading whisky brand and the son of the hereditary Duke of Hamilton, hosted a private party in the name of Lanley-Hall, inviting guests to gather in their private home for an evening in preparation for the world premiere of Gravity.

This private party became a hot topic in the entire European film scene.

The reason is simple: there are only 200 party invitations.

Looking at the European film industry, there are definitely not many people who can stand at the top of the pyramid, but there are definitely more than 200 people, and some invitations were sent to the real aristocracy of Europe and Asia, including Sweden, England, France, Denmark, Arabia and other countries that still retain royal families and aristocracy.

In other words, this is in itself a small group of the best and most honorable group, most of whom are names that have been heard of but have never had the opportunity to meet, and now, this party is open to only two hundred places, and no one can be exempted, which is the real weak water 3,000 only take one scoop.

The competition was fierce to become far more than Oscar Night.

Every elite, every upper class, is eager to receive an invitation, not only to expand their contacts or open their eyes, but also to prove their social status and join the so-called top class. Not money, not glory, not fame, but honor.

Because of this, the name "Arthur Hall" spread for the first time throughout the European upper class, as he was the party planner who had a list of invitees in his hands. Many people have begun to inquire about how the names on this list were chosen-

Personally selected by Lan Li and Andre, or recommended by an acquaintance, or was it self-recommended?

Also, what is the level of the invitees - the prince or princess in the first line of succession, the chairman of the listed group, the head of the family, or a lower level, so as to ensure that the party does not become a dull and polite social occasion, but retains the carnival atmosphere of the festival?

Overnight, Arthur became hot.

It is rumored that in the black market, an invitation has been hyped up to 100,000 euros. But rumors are just rumors, because everyone who receives an invitation doesn't care about 100,000 euros at all, and there is no shadow of an invitation in the market.

In the end, two hundred is two hundred, and Andre Hamilton did what he said he would, and didn't open up more possibilities because of the hype of the topic. As for whether the guests who received the invitation were there, Andrei didn't care at all.

That night, the private dock in front of the Duke of Hamilton's private residence was densely packed with a large number of news media, all of whom were on the surface of the sea, and they could not hide their tracks at all, so they simply stood at the door openly, blatantly filmed, and counted every guest present.

Surprisingly, but also reasonablely, most of the guests' faces were relatively unfamiliar, and only a few veteran entertainment reporters were able to name some of the charters - because these are the real bigwigs behind the scenes, who rarely show their heads, but have real top-level resources in their hands.

What is certain is that each name is weighty, understated and luxurious. This is the real aristocratic party.

It is worth mentioning that all the invited London aristocrats attended the party.

For outsiders, they don't understand the ins and outs of the invitation, and naturally they can't understand the significance of today's invitation, but for insiders, they know exactly what this invitation means, or rather, what this party means.

Although the invitation was given to André Hamilton instead of Ranley Hall, despite the fact that the invitation was to young aristocrats between the ages of twenty and thirty-five and not to the current rulers, and although the number of invitations was limited to fifteen, it was only a sprinkling for a formal party.

However, it was clear to every non-present London aristocrat that this was the first time that Ranley Hall had officially invited the nobles as an actor, not as "the youngest son of the Hall family", and furthermore, this was the first time that Arthur Hall had officially hosted a private party as an individual, building a bridge between the aristocracy and the film. Then, the meaning is naturally extraordinary.

When the fifteen invited guests arrived in Venice for the evening's party and enjoyed an amazing evening, the attitude of London's upper class was evident.

Far away on the other side of the English Channel, the British high society has begun to speculate whether this means that Lan Li will officially return to the social circle in London.

However, their conjectures were wrong – at least not 100% correct. The reason why Lan Li invited the London nobles was, on the one hand, Andre's idea, he hoped to improve the quality of the party, and using his connections was undoubtedly the easiest, and on the other hand, Lan Li's idea, for Arthur.

Lan Li never mentioned it, but Arthur knew it.

Lan Li didn't give any affirmation on his lips, but behind his back he was doing his best to support him, as if he had supported Edith in the first place, and now it was Arthur's turn.

This is not an important move for Lan Li, even if he stands up for Arthur and means a-for-tat confrontation with Elph, but he doesn't care about Elph's emotions at all, but it is a vital support for Arthur.

Everyone said that there was no family affection between nobles. Arthur used to think so, but now he had changed his mind.

Behind a party, there is still a war without gunpowder, not as fierce as before, but it still exists.

Maybe no one minds Lan Li's status as an actor anymore, but compared to the professions of banker, lawyer, and gallery owner, it still doesn't seem to be a profession worth talking about, let alone aristocrats, even many nouveau riche or ordinary people don't care too much.

Lan Li is destined to be an outlier.

It's just that now Lan Li has gathered another group of outliers around him, Andre, Matthew, Eton, Edith...... And Arthur.

After the private party ended, almost no one could know about the content and details of the party, and the top bigwigs were not willing to be interviewed at all, and even Alfonso Cuarón, Scarlett Johansson, Judi Dench and others who attended the party laughed and closed their mouths tightly.

Immediately after that, another party appeared again, this time with "gravity", but the organizer became Warner Bros.

The night before the Venice Film Festival officially opened, Warner Bros. threw a warm-up party for Gravity, the party planner was still Arthur Hall, but the audience was much more approachable, and many celebrities who came to Venice to attend the festival received invitations, and even many top journalists were invited.

It's a simple premiere warm-up party, but it's made different by Arthur Hall's planning.