Park the car, Richard? Thomas tightened his clothes, braved the cold wind and walked towards the most famous independent theater on Long Island, and soon entered the theater, unlike when he came to see the movie in the past, most of the theater was actually middle-aged and elderly people like him, many of them still had gray hair, Thomas walked in the middle and felt much younger.

Standing in front of the conspicuous poster in the theater, I took a look, it was a large poster of "Chicago", on which Tom? Cruise and the other two heroines look really good, especially the two actresses in short dance dresses, beautiful and sexy enough, much more eye-catching than the main actors of the new Broadway revue.

When a man's body is old, his heart will not grow old.

If someone asks, it must be purely because of art, because they want to see how different the movie version of "Chicago" is, because this is the Toronto Film Festival's 'Audience Choice Award'!

In the past few years, the final films selected by the Toronto Film Festival are very suitable for the tastes of North American audiences, on the other hand, what is the Golden Lion and Golden Bear, how many people can sit there and watch it peacefully?

With this in mind, Thomas walked to the ticket office, and the conductor immediately put on a big smile, "Is there anything I can help you, sir?" ”

"The most recent show of Chicago, one ticket!" Thomas prepares to pull out his wallet.

"I'm sorry." The female conductor said directly, "There is a show in half an hour, but there are no more tickets." ”

"No more tickets?" Thomas was taken aback. "How can there be no tickets, "Chicago" is so popular?"

The female conductor quickly explained a few words, "In the two screenings in the morning. The film received an excellent response, and the tickets for the two performances in the afternoon were booked by many people, and if you want to buy tickets, you can only wait until the evening screening. Or if you wait for a while, if someone chooses to refund their ticket 15 minutes before the show......"

"No need." Thomas didn't want to wait and waved his hand. "I'll look elsewhere."

Get out of the theater and get in your own car. Thomas took the time to make it to the Imperial Cinema, one of Long Island's most famous theaters, with a plethora of auditoriums. It's Friday day again, and it shouldn't be hard to get tickets.

Walking into the theater hall, Thomas did not hesitate, first went to the ticket office to inquire, bought a ticket for the latest "Chicago", found a free place at random, and waited for the ticket check-in.

Out of boredom, he looked around and found it like he had been in a theater. There are a lot more middle-aged and elderly people here than usual, and you can still hear the voices of several people in the vicinity.

"Tickets for Chicago are tight." It was a man in his fifties, he said to another man of the same age. "I ran to three theaters in the Manhattan area and couldn't get tickets, so I had to come to Long Island."

"Is it so hot?"

"I have a friend who went to the Toronto Film Festival and saw the screening, and he thought the film was better than any version of the revue." The man seemed to be confident, "Otherwise, the film wouldn't have won the Audience Choice Award." ”

After listening to the discussion, Thomas noticed that there were people from the TV station doing the show. A female reporter from NBC walks in front of the camera and interviews viewers.

"Which movie are you going to watch next?"

The female reporter Juliet smiled lightly. It's easy to give people a good impression, "Why did you choose it?" ”

"What I want to see is Star Trek......"

Juliet interviewed more than a dozen viewers around the crowd, most of whom chose Paramount's latest commercial blockbuster "Star Trek", a few chose "Chicago", and only a few chose "The English Patient".

People who choose commercial films like "Star Trek" have basically the same reasons, and viewers who want to watch "Chicago" have a variety of reasons for watching the movie.

Most of them were said by older viewers because it was "Chicago", and the rest were "Want to see Tom?" Cruise", "This is the Audience Award Winning Film", "Duke? Rosenberg's new work", "I want to see the director's work with his new girlfriend"......

What surprised Juliet the most was that some people came because they heard from the Internet chat room that the film was good, so they ran over.

However, Juliet also heard a voice, a complaint about Chicago.

"I live in Manhattan, and I heard from my friends who watched the film in the morning that the film was very exciting, and I wanted to come out and watch it in the afternoon, but the theaters where Manhattan screened "Chicago" were sold out, so I had to come to Long Island and find two theaters in a row......"

After asking several people who were going to watch "Chicago" one after another, Juliet found that there were a lot of such complaints, and many people responded that the film was tight on tickets, as if there were a lot of people watching it......

Waited for almost half an hour, Richard? Thomas walked into the theater, this is a hall, he habitually chose a slightly lower position, sat quietly and waited for the film to start, it didn't take long for him to find that in response to the tight ticket supply reflected outside, the attendance rate of the theater was extremely high, and when the film began to be shown, from his position, at least more than ninety percent of the seats were occupied.

"It's only Friday afternoon!"

Just thinking of this, Thomas couldn't help but shake his head, most of the people in the theater were his age, and for those of them who were retired, there was actually no difference between day and night, Friday and weekend.

The film begins quickly, and from the moment the clock is ticked, Richard? Thomas was hooked.

The director did a very good job, using a seemingly praising tone to thoroughly ridicule the impetuous mentality represented by Chicago in the 20s of the last century.

Especially for a person as experienced in society as he is, it is not difficult to find that the content in the film is still relevant to today, 70 years later.

There is a classic lyric in the film, called "Killing can be an art".

This struck a strong chord with Thomas. whispered, "It should be said that shamelessness can be an art!" ”

"That's right!"

Sitting next to him was the man from Manhattan. "A successful adaptation, isn't it?" he said. ”

"yes." Thomas nodded and whispered, "The director has a good inheritance from Bob?" Fosse's style boldly treats the film's song and dance into a Lockhee illusion, making the song and dance inserted more vivid and natural. ”

"His choice of actors is also good." The man chimed in. "Tom? Cruise acted brilliantly, and the singing and dancing of the two heroines was also excellent. ”

The screening of the film ends. Richard? Thomas had become familiar with the people sitting around him, several of whom were similar in age as they walked out and talked about the film. I've seen different versions of the show, and it's the way it comes out.

Thomas said to a few people, "Depth is not the specialty of musical, and the director was very successful in making the theme of Chicago so accurate and colorful!" ”

"Although the cut-offs have been made, there are still a lot of singing and dancing scenes in the film." Another person said, "The singing and dancing are very smooth, unlike those previous song and dance films that always slow down the plot." Instead, a train pushed the plot forward. ”

The man from Manhattan said, "Chicago is a long-standing stage play, and adapting it from stage to screen is very restrictive. Can the movie do this kind of Cheng dù, which is called Duke? Rosenberg's directing is indispensable. I'm interested in him now, and it's time to go back and look for his past movies. ”

A few people nodded, "I'll go back to the tape store." ”

Half an hour earlier, Mr. Moakley of TPZZ had arrived from another theater, and he and a few colleagues had booked the end time for "Chicago." Just waited at the exit.

"Hello, sir......"

See the audience come out. Instead of stopping the older ones, he found the few young ones, introduced themselves, gave them small gifts, and then asked, "Can you tell us about the "Chicago" you just watched?" ”

"I've seen a few cassettes of song and dance films before, but none of them made it to the end, it was too slow and dull."

The young man looked at the Locke doll given by the other party and said, "Because Chicago is a big director like Duke and Tom?" The work of a big star like Cruise won the Audience Choice Award, so I decided to take a look, the film is different from what I thought, very relaxed and joyful, and the plot is particularly exciting, especially the cage tango and string puppet show, which are too cleverly conceived. ”

"If A+ is the highest rating, how much can you rate?" Moakley asked.

"A+, the film is far better than imagination and publicity."

Then, Moakley stopped another person, and the other person said, "I came to see this movie because of Duke, he didn't disappoint, although the genre of the film has changed, but the production is just as brilliant, especially since it has a strong visual impact, and the song and dance design is also very good, which is in line with my appreciation." ”

Ten minutes after the investigation, another movie "The English Patient" ended, and the audience who came out, except for a few people, was mostly drowsy, and someone from another investigation consulting company walked up.

"I'm bored, the pace is too slow."

"I didn't understand how love happened in the film? Can the director be less pretentious? It's a very simple thing, but you have to shoot it in the most complicated way! ”

There are also many people who praise the film, but compared to "Chicago" just now, the proportion of viewers who think the film is dull is significantly higher.

"Why doesn't the theater set the fast-forward button? I'm sitting there bored and really want to press fast forward! ”

"I'm still confused, I can't figure out what the movie is about......"

Subsequently, investigators on both sides of the market obtained their respective attendance rates so far in this theater, "Chicago" was screened four times in one theater, with an average attendance rate of 79 percent!

"The English Patient" was screened four times in the same theater, and the attendance rate was only 27%!

Star Trek: First Strike, the strongest film of the weekend, had less than 20 percent attendance, but it was shown in seven theaters! (To be continued)