The next day, after Zuo Jiang and his entourage visited the beautiful scenery of Paris, they flew to Cannes, a small city in the south of France, with Higgins and other Accor Group personnel, and Accor Group has a Novotel 4-star hotel under Cannes, and Zuo Jiang and Higgins and his party collapsed in this hotel.

The Cannes Film Festival is known as the 3S Film Festival because of the sea, beauty and sunshine. Every year, during the event, many beauties gather on the famous seaside promenade and the nearby beaches, looking forward to the big names in the film industry and talent scouts to dig and realize their star dreams.

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the largest and most important film festivals in the world. In 1939, in order to oppose the Venice International Film Festival, which was controlled by the fascist regime in Italy at the time, France decided to create its own international film festival. The outbreak of the Second World War halted preparations. After the end of the war, the festival was held on September 20, 1946 in Cannes, a tourist destination in the south of France. Since its establishment, it has been held once a year for about two weeks, except for the closure in 1948 and 1950 and the suspension in 1968. It was originally held every September. From 1951 onwards, in order to compete earlier than the Venice International Film Festival, it was held in May. In 1956, the highest award was the "Golden Duck Award", and since 1957, it has been changed to the "Palme d'Or", which is awarded to the best feature film, documentary, science and education film, art film, etc. In addition, over the years, it has also awarded awards for romantic psychological films, adventure detective films, musical films, biopics, entertainment films, debut films, directors, actors and actresses, screenwriters, cinematography, editing and so on.

The festival is divided into six sections: "Official Competition", "Directors' Fortnight", "Un Certain Eye", "Critics' Week", "The New Look of French Cinema" and "Side Market Exhibition". There are two groups of jury judging feature films and short films, and the "official competition" part is made up of people from the film culture circles from various countries, and the candidates are all prestigious directors, actors, screenwriters, film critics, composers, etc., and one of them is the chairman.

Because the next day is the opening day of the festival. Liang Zijin led the work of the competition to the main committee to report, Higgins also went to the main committee to sign in, only Zuo Jiang and others were more idle and had dinner. Zuo Jiang and Tao Fei, Li Biyu and others walked on the seaside avenue to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Cannes and the unusually eye-catching beauties.

When Higgins signed in at the office of the main committee, he happened to meet his old friend, the famous French director Rigelme, the chairman of this year's film festival, and Riggel Mei was very happy to see Higgins. Warmly stepped forward to hug him and said, "Hello, my old fellow! I'm still thinking about it. It's amazing that Accor is coming today not my old friend Higgins, but you're here! ”

Higgins patted Rigelme on the back and said, "My old friend, it's a pleasure to see you here." Got time? Shall we have a drink? ”

"Of course, when I see you, I have time no matter how busy I am!" As he spoke, Rigelme took Higgins out of the office of the presiding committee, and there was a small bar not far from here, and there were not many people in the small bar at this time, so the two of them found a place by the window and sat down.

Higgins waved to a waiter at the bar who was wiping down bottles, "Get us a dozen cold beers!" ”

It didn't take long for the wine to come up. Higgins and Rigelme chatted over beer.

Higgins said: "Old friend. Listen to the opening ceremony of Heaven and Earth, and the Minister of Culture, Mr. Mellinspan, will attend? ”

Rigelme said: "It's the ground. Originally, we made an invitation to Mr. President. But the president's office replied to us. Mr. President is visiting China. There is no time to attend. He also replied. There is no precedent for a president to attend the Cannes Film Festival. Please don't invite the president every year! ”

Speaking of this, Riguelme sighed and said: "Our presiding committee has always been committed to inviting our local French president to attend the festival. But after many years of hard work, it was not possible. I will be the last chairman. It seems that this wish will not be fulfilled during my tenure! ”

I heard Rigelme mention that Mr. President is visiting China. Higgins couldn't help but move. He knew that the film festival committee had a strong desire to invite the French president. Efforts have not been met with a response from successive presidents. He comforted Rigelme and said, "My old friend. Please don't be so lost. Everything needs opportunity. Since the opening of the festival in 1946. The efforts of the presiding committee have not been realized. So you don't have to be so frustrated. Giving always has to be rewarded. I believe that one day your sincerity will impress Mr. President! ”

"Alas! It's hard! Rigelme sighed. Take a sip of the glass and dry.

Higgins said, "My old friend. Don't be so refreshed. Although after this term, you, the chairman of the committee, will step down. But you're going to lay the groundwork for your underground term. You may even be able to see the spectacular scene of Mr. President attending the festival in your lifetime! ”

Rigelme is 75 years old this year. He had a hard time believing that he would wait until that day. Listened to Higgins. He said, "Effort? That's easier said than done. I want to work hard. But I don't know where to start! ”

Higgins saw that he had finally led Rigel May on the right path, and he said: "Now that we are on good terms with China, it is said that Mr. President is leading a high-level economic and trade delegation this time, and if you want to negotiate a series of economic and trade cooperation with China, you might as well make a fuss about the Chinese side, maybe you can attract the attention of Mr. President!" ”

"Making a fuss about the Chinese side? How, how? Rigelme listened to Higgins's words with a puzzled expression.

Higgins said: "I heard that there are Chinese films shortlisted for this film festival, you may wish to pay attention to this shortlisted Chinese film, once this Chinese film can win the award, you can organize the main French media to vigorously publicize, according to our current relations between France and China, Mr. President's trip to China will definitely achieve fruitful results, Mr. President's return to China is the time when the film festival awards are released, which just caters to the President's trip to China, will definitely attract the attention of Mr. President!" ”

When Higgins said this, Riegelme immediately remembered that China participated in the film festival, called "Red Face Through the Ages", when this film signed up for the film festival, many committee members were not optimistic about this movie, thinking that China has no real film art, after watching this movie, he thought that this film has reached a certain artistic height, but most of the committee members did not have enough understanding of China's traditional culture, and he personally came forward to persuade everyone, and this film was shortlisted.

Rigelme patted his forehead and thought carefully about what Higgins said, thinking that he had a good point, that cinema is never pure art, and that it is always affected by some political factors, just like the various Nobel prizes, there are certain political factors in them.

Thinking of this, Rigelme said: "My old friend, I will carefully consider your suggestion, the mind of a businessman is extraordinary, and he can always find common ground in something seemingly unrelated, and this is indeed an opportunity to impress Mr. President!" ”

Higgins laughed and said: "We businessmen are good at seizing opportunities, and we also pay attention to grasping all the opportunities that can be grasped, and the same is true for your film art industry, if you attract the attention of Mr. President this time, then the next invitation, Mr. President must always think about it, and one day your sincerity will impress Mr. President!" ”

Rigelme stood up and said, "My old friend, you are right, I must now go to see the film "Eternal Red Face" exhibited in China again, to see if it has the possibility of winning an award, if you are interested, you can go with me to see it!" ”

"Of course I'm interested, let's go, I'll go and see it with you!" Higgins was very happy when he saw that Riegelme's interest had been aroused, and he immediately stood up and settled the account and went with him to the office of the main committee.

Walking into the office of the main committee, Rigelme said to a golden woman who got up to greet her: "Laura, please immediately bring out a copy of "Eternal Red Face" exhibited by the Chinese side and send it to the No. 1 screening room, I want to see it immediately!" ”

"Oh, okay!" Laura said: "Mr. Rigelme, when China Liang came to report just now, he brought a 15-minute promotional video, would you like to watch it together?" ”

Before coming to France, Zuo Jiang considered that the judges of the Cannes Film Festival were all Westerners and might not know much about Chinese traditions, so he asked Liang Zijin to edit a promotional film that showed Chinese traditional culture, as well as the background introduction of the Three Kingdoms era, and specially dubbed in French, the purpose of which was to let the judges feel the traditional Chinese culture more intuitively.

Rigelme said: "Okay, I'm going to watch the promo too!" With that, he turned to Higgins and said, "My old friend, please, let's go to Screening Room One." ”

Soon after Higgins and Rigelme sat down in Screening Room 1, the projectionists prepared for the screening, and after asking him for his approval, the lights were turned off and the screening began. The first to show is the promotional film, as soon as the camera unfolds is the continuous mountains and the majestic Great Wall, after an introduction, the camera pulls the Forbidden City palace group that is shot at high altitude, and as the introduction deepens, the camera pulls to the noon gate of the Forbidden City......

As soon as the 15-minute promotional video ended, Rigelme excitedly shouted: "Stop! The staff immediately stopped and turned on the lights. Rigel Mei rubbed his hands together excitedly and said to Higgins: "This promo film is so timely, with it I can be sure to convince the other judges!" ”

Higgins was also very happy to hear this, he didn't expect his plan to be so smooth and successful! Originally, he prepared several sets of plans to lobby Rigelme, and even thought of moving out as a sponsor to put pressure, but he didn't expect the news of the president's visit to China to solve the matter!

Higgins smiled and said, "Our old friend, don't you watch this film anymore, if this film is not artistically good, it will be difficult for you to convince them with this promotional video!" ”

Rigelme was very sure: "No, I've seen this film and I'm very confident in it!" ”