On August 6, 1932, when Mussolini founded the Venice Film Festival in the water city of Venice, he never imagined that this act would become one of the few things that would be passed down after his death. The Venice Film Festival is 19 years ahead of the Berlin Film Festival and 14 years before the Cannes Film Festival, so it is known as the "father of the international film festival". After the second edition, the Venice Film Festival was held almost every year, mostly in August and September of that year, and lasted for about two weeks.

After 60 years of practice, the Venice Film Festival has gradually developed its own unique tradition, which focuses on film experimenters from all over the world, encouraging them to make films with new forms and unique techniques, even if there are some flaws, as long as they are innovative, they can be accepted by the festival. The purpose of the film festival is "film at the service of serious art", and a different slogan is put forward every year, and the judging criteria are very pure, artistic surname.

However, Venice deliberately asserts its usual reading attitude, which makes the Venice Film Festival gradually move away from the mainstream, especially now that Hollywood commercial blockbusters are rampant all over the world, the Venice Film Festival is becoming more and more deserted. The scene is cold and rushed, there are fewer and fewer big stars on the red carpet, refreshing new faces are rare, and the effect of the film festival is even worse than an American blockbuster that is released simultaneously around the world. It is very difficult to usher in old faces, and it is very difficult to make some scandals and stir up some entertainment headlines.

Speaking to the media a few days before the opening of the festival, the former president of the festival, Tino Laurentiis, said that we have to face the reality that Venice has been left behind by Cannes and even Berlin.

Indeed, although the number of films sent to Venice this year has reached an unprecedented 2,000, this is not only a big gap with Cannes, but also Berlin.

The organizing committee of the Venetian film is also aware of this, and the festival must be reformed, otherwise the oldest film festival will gradually fade into obscurity.

In this situation, Marc Müller, an Italian of Swiss descent, who speaks 10 languages and is a producer and a festival planner, is the obvious choice for the president of the Venice Film Festival.

Marc Müller immediately overhauled the festival, eliminating the "Against the Current" section, which encourages non-mainstream creation, and replacing it with "Venice Horizon", focusing on those films that reflect the latest trends in cinema, which is sending a signal to the world that we need to move closer to the mainstream.

Of course, this change will not change the embarrassment faced by the Venice Film Festival, the most important thing is to save the cold scene of the Venice Film Festival and attract the attention of the whole world to the film festival.

To do this, you can only rely on Hollywood stars, so in 2001, the Venice Film Festival, which also played the banner of "Down with Hollywood", welcomed Hollywood films with open arms, not only 3 Hollywood films were selected for the main competition unit, but also invited a large number of Hollywood stars to cheer.

In addition to the 3 participating films, in the non-competition unit, Hollywood blockbusters are also pouring out, "Happiness Terminal", "Shark Story", "Murder by a Knife", "The Candidate in Manzhouli", "The Man in the Line of Fire", "The House at the End of the World", "Looking for the Ideal Place", "She Hates Me", "The Merchant of Venice" and other Hollywood films will appear in Venice. Big stars such as Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Al Pacino and many more will also be on the red carpet of the festival.

Of course, Marc Müller's reforms have come under fire from the Italian film industry, with many arguing that he betrayed the Venetian creative spirit and bowed to Hollywood stars. But for a festival that only welcomed one or two superstars and one or two Hollywood blockbusters last year, it's a sea change, and in that sense, Mark Mueller's reform has been productive.

Cheng Peng is the beneficiary of this reform, if it was in previous years, people who heard that it was a horror film selection committee might not have seen it, and they were directly excluded from the main competition unit.

And this year Cheng Peng met Mark Muller, who is committed to reform, for him Cheng Peng's film is a good choice, Cheng Peng just won the grand prize at the Berlin Film Festival in February, is a very popular young director, the film has a star like Zhang Ziyi, and it is a horror film, if this film is shortlisted, people can see that the Venice Film Festival is not so narrow as before, it is more open in the selection of films, and a hundred flowers bloom.

In fact, when the main competition was announced, everyone was taken aback, and there were not only horror films but also animated films in the main competition, and people realized that this year's Venice Film Festival was different from the past.

Cheng Peng didn't know why, but he was glad he chose Venice over Toronto, and he initially hesitated between Venice and Toronto.

Because the Venice Film Festival is different from Cannes and Berlin, the Venice Film Festival does not have a market, and cannot be traded in stalls like Cannes and Berlin, and business transactions in Venice are often carried out in an informal way, all in private; The Toronto Film Festival is the largest film festival trading market in North America, and there are many film dealers in North America.

If it were ten years later, Cheng Peng would definitely choose the Toronto Film Festival, because at that time, the Toronto Film Festival had broken through the limitations of North America, and its influence was not inferior to Venice, and many films chose Toronto instead of Venice, but now Toronto's influence has not reached that level.

Cheng Peng finished flipping through the newspaper in his hand, raised his head, looked at the white clouds outside through the plane window, and remembered the situation when he went to Berlin in February.

At that time, there were only four people who went, and the film festival only provided Cheng Peng with the cost of one person, taking economy class and staying in an economy hotel. Now the entire crew of more than 10 people, all of whom are in charge of the film festival, sit in the first class, and the hotel is also arranged in the Excelsior Hotel designated by the film festival, which is the best treatment, which is really a change of time.

Cheng Peng shook his head with a smile and looked at the members of his peers, Zhang Ziyi was wearing big sunglasses and sleeping with her head down; Xu Jinglei held the book in her hand and flipped through it page by page; Li Binbin took a fashion magazine and read it slowly; Fan Binbin put a mask on his face and was closing his eyes to recuperate; Yang Fan and Wang Luodan were very excited, their heads bumped into each other, and they chattered non-stop, which is no wonder that they were excited, after all, it was the first time they appeared on the international stage.

Zhang Meng opened the newspaper in his hand, pointed to the index question, and handed it to Cheng Peng: "Xiaopeng, take a look!" ”

Cheng Peng looked at it, the title read: "Cheng Peng chases the lion in Venice", and then looked at the article, which listed three reasons why Cheng Peng might win the award.

First, Venice is the blessed land of Chinese films, Hou Xiaoxian's "City of Sadness" won the Golden Lion Award here, and then Zhang Yimou also won the Venice Film Festival twice with "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit" and "No One Less", and Gong Li, Xia Yu, Zhang Yuan, Cai Mingliang, the backbone of Chinese films, have gained something in Venice.

Second, the festival's president, Mark Mueller, is a China expert, and he currently has a high opinion of Cheng Peng's films, believing that Cheng Peng's attempt in "Dark Invasion" is something that "few people dare to do".

The third point is that Xu Feng, a famous producer who once produced "Farewell My Concubine", was invited to serve as a member of the jury of the film festival this time. Before she set off, she told the media that Cheng Peng was a rare talent.

Cheng Peng knew that Zhang Meng was looking forward to the award, and shook his head with a smile: "The award is selected by the judges, the key is to look at the preferences of the judges, only the third point is meaningful, Xu Feng should vote for us, but this is just this vote, don't think about the award." Winnie doesn't have a booth, so you can only wait until after the movie is screened, so everyone can use these two days to have a good visit, just like a trip! ”

Yang Fan, who was chatting with Wang Luodan, raised his head when he heard this and said, "Director, I also want to play, take me with you then!" ”

Wang Luodan also said: "I'll go too, director!" ”

Fan Binbin, who was wearing a mask on his face and leaning back on the chair to close his eyes and recuperate, raised his head: "Director, don't forget me, I'm also with you!" ”

Cheng Peng was taken aback by Fan Binbin, who was wearing a mask, she looked a bit like a female ghost: "Binbin, at night, don't make a noise if you put on the mask, scare me!" ”

This caused a burst of laughter from everyone, and the lights on the plane were dim, and a mask on his face looked really scary.

Fan Binbin leaned his head on the seat and asked with a smile, "Is this okay?" Director, I've never been to Venice, you're going out to play, don't forget to take me! ”

Cheng Peng said with a smile: No problem, I announce that the crew will change the purpose from now on, from the participating group to the tour group, you don't call me director, you want to call me the head of the group! ”

After more than ten hours of flight, the plane arrived safely at Marco Polo Airport. When the crew took their checked luggage and walked out of the airport, they felt the warm atmosphere of the film festival.

One or two hundred reporters, as well as a dense crowd of fans, almost filled the entire building. Today is the day before the opening of the movie, and many of Hollywood's biggest stars have arrived today, and the media and fans are eagerly awaiting.

Although Cheng Peng is very famous in China, he really has no influence in the world, and they all wear sunglasses, so no media recognizes them. They walked out of the airport with ease and boarded the passenger ship to Lido Island with the festival's reception staff.

Lido Island is a narrow island no more than eleven miles long, and is a well-known health resort; The main venue of the festival, the Cinema Palace, is located on this island, so from September to September, the whole of Lido Island is covered in red posters of the festival, and golden lions are made into sculptures everywhere.

Venice is a water city, there are many piers, and the Cinema Palace also has a special pier, which is only 20 meters away from the entrance of the Cinema Palace, which is the most suitable place to shoot stars, so the entire pier gathers countless media reporters waiting for the stars to appear.

When Cheng Peng and the others got off the boat and boarded the dock, they were recognized by the Chinese reporters among them, who surrounded them and tried to conduct a simple interview.

"Director Cheng, do you have the confidence to win the award in Venice this time?"

"Director, how do you feel now as the first director to be shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival with a horror film?"

"Ziyi, can you tell us what you think of this trip to Venice?"

……

After more than ten hours on the plane, the crew members were tired and had little interest in talking to the media. Cheng Peng smiled and waved his hand at several reporters and said, "Now my head is dizzy, don't interview, otherwise I will talk nonsense!" ”

They didn't bother with the reporter too much, and quickly walked into the Excelsior Hotel, which was only a few hundred meters away from the movie palace. In fact, the original intention of the film festival is to solve the problem of the autumn source of customers at the Excelsior Hotel, and most of the people who can be arranged to stay here are big directors, or important film crews in the main competition unit, and the horizon unit and the screening are arranged in other hotels in the surrounding area.

Walking into the hotel, Cheng Peng saw a familiar figure, Kim Ki-duk, who won the best director at the Berlin Film Festival, and looked a little bitter.

At the celebration reception of the Berlin Film Festival, Cheng Peng chatted with him quite speculatively, but he didn't expect to meet again in Venice, so he greeted him with a smile: "Mr. Jin, we meet again!" ”;