At night, the orange light in the room is dim and ambiguous.

Xiao Zhang was wearing a silk flesh-colored dark V dress, with a slightly messy long hair shawl spread out, and delicate thin eyebrows paired with a gaudy rose pink lipstick, which made her small face, which has always been clear water out of hibiscus and naturally carved to look charming.

She was laughing freely with a red wine glass in her hand, and the bright red wine swayed in the glass. She smiled exaggeratedly, and even looked a little embarrassed, but she attracted Li Tang's attention like a magnet.

As soon as the picture turned, Xiao Zhang turned into a heroic knight, galloping on a horse, his high ponytail was swaying rhythmically with the ups and downs, and a few strands of hair stuck to his forehead wet with sweat.

Her riding skills are superb, her endurance is amazing, and her fierce gaze adds a sense of fortitude and stubbornness to her effeminate appearance.

Li Tang reveled in her versatility, because the feeling she brought to herself was Fan Xiaopang for a while, Teacher Jiang for a while, and an ex-girlfriend for a while.

Just as Li Tang was fluttering, he suddenly shivered, as if falling from a high altitude, and suddenly felt a burst of soft bones, and at the same time he woke up from his sleep.

lifted the quilt, looked down, speechless, and smiled bitterly.

Following the last time I was separated from Xiaopang in Shanghai, more than a month has passed, alas, it's been too long!

Looking up at the window, only a curtain was drawn, and there was already a bright light outside. He sat on the bed for a moment before slowly getting up and walking into the bathroom.

In the early morning, the Cannes esplanade, which was bustling last night, is empty, and occasionally you can see a few people who wake up early for a morning jog or walk their dogs. Due to the combined effects of the pandemic and the war in Iraq, there are far fewer backpacker tents on the beach than last year.

Li Tang jogged rhythmically along the Esplanade, and now he basically runs aerobic running every morning, which can not only exercise his long-lasting ability to exercise, but also achieve the effect of body fat and calories to achieve the effect of body shape.

When he returned to the hotel, he met Zhang Ziyi's agent and assistant at the elevator, as well as two fashionably dressed men and women, with large bags in their hands.

"Teacher Li, morning!"

Xiao Zhang's agent and assistant are already familiar with Li Tang.

"You're early!"

Li Tang glanced at the two strangers, he didn't know each other, the other party obviously recognized him, and took the initiative to greet him very politely: "Mr. Li, morning!" ”

"Early, the two are ......"

The agent next to him hurriedly helped to introduce it.

It turned out that these two were the stylists and makeup artists invited by Xiao Zhang from Li Jiapo this time.

After Li Tang heard this, he couldn't help but be surprised: "So early? ”

The stylist with a goatee but a bit of a girlish gesture said: "We have a few sets to discuss with Miss Zhang first, if Miss Zhang has other requirements, we still need time to prepare......"

This Balabala said a lot, until they entered the elevator and went upstairs together, and when they were about to reach the room, they finally said: "Mr. Li, I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate in the future." ”

After speaking, he also deliberately handed over his business card.

After doing it for a long time, it turned out that this was to sell business to myself.

"Oh, thank you!"

Li Tang took the business card and nodded politely at him.

In any case, buddies are now well-known in Southeast Asia, and it is estimated that it is not far from being popular in East Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia.

In the morning, I made an appointment with someone from my company to have breakfast together, which can be regarded as a meeting in Cannes.

Nine o'clock was too early for Cannes, and many shops and restaurants had not yet opened, so they had to meet at the restaurant of the hotel where Zeng Jia and the others were staying.

This is a four-star hotel, about five or six hundred meters away from the Barier Hotel where Li Tang lives, which is also part of the center of Cannes.

The price of the breakfast buffet for 35 euros per person is quite friendly during the festival, after all, this is in Cannes, and only once a year.

It is said that the French can cook, but the French breakfast is far less rich than that of the Italians, and it is mainly sweet, what French bread, croissant, chocolate bread, biscuits and the like, and then there are all kinds of jams, butter, honey and all kinds of smeared on top.

Occasionally, there are some small sausages, small potatoes, ham, bacon and other salty dishes, which are basically not chosen by the French, only foreigners.

Li Tang is a native of Shanghai, and he is more accepting of sweetness, and he feels good with a cup of black coffee, but it is bitter for several other northerners. For example, Zeng Jia and Diao Yinan are both from Xi'an, Ning Hao is from Shanxi, Du Hua is from Shandong, and Zhao Luoyao is a native of Beijing.

The few small sausages that had just been laid out in the restaurant and the ham and bacon were almost swept away by them.

In fact, their trip was relatively easy, because the overseas rights of the two films "Uniform" and "Incense" have been packaged and acquired by MK2 for 600,000 euros, and they did not use the cooperation method of the previous two agents.

Since it is a cooperation, there are always a variety of ways, both agents and buyouts. In fact, agency is also risky for the producer, and if the box office is not ideal, he may not even be able to recover the capital.

The advantage of a buyout is that you are in the pocket. "Uniform" and "Incense" have a small investment, and in the words that are currently popular, China has a large number of industrial workers and cheap labor, and Made in China wins at low prices.

For example, to make the same "Incense", Ning Hao only needs to spend 300,000 yuan to organize the team by himself, and if the European team is organized for the same effect, the production cost may not be able to withstand 300,000 euros.

600,000 euros to buy out two global rights except Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, for MK2 is to buy two excellent art films at almost below cost.

For Shengtang Film and Television, the price of 600,000 euros is enough for them to make a lot of money, because the production cost of these two films is still a total of 800,000 yuan. And the cost of "Incense" magnetic transfer is also borne by MK2.

Such a cooperation is a completely win-win situation for both parties, which is why MK2 will work so hard this time to shortlist the operation of these two films in a kind of attention unit.

Now that they have been bought out, the more attention and more sales of the two movies, the more they will naturally make money.

For these Diao Yinan and Ning Hao, they all know that they will not care about the remuneration, as if their works have made Shengtang Film and Television make a lot of money. On the contrary, they are also very grateful to the company, because this is the resource, the irreplaceable resource advantage that Shengtang Film and Television has.

Not to mention how difficult it is to make a movie this year and want to attract some investment, even if you invest in it, will you be shortlisted for Cannes?

Of course, Li Tang is not a stingy person, as soon as the money arrives, he immediately seals a big red envelope of 200,000 yuan for each of them. 200,000 yuan, enough for a down payment on a house on the edge of the Third Ring Road.

After breakfast, go to the film market as planned.

Compared to the cold trading market in Venice, Cannes is much more lively. As the world's largest film market, more than half of the world's international distribution companies set up booths here during the festival every year, and more than 2,000 films are sold here every year. This is the main reason why Cannes has become the leader of the three major film festivals in Europe.

Although the film festival has not yet opened, the film market is already lively. It's just that due to the outbreak of the war in Iraq, Benla Lantern threatened to make trouble at this year's film festival, so this year's security at the Palais du Cinémath is particularly strict, and all those who enter must go through two checks: opening the bag and checking the metal detector.

The Marché du Film in Cannes occupies two floors of the Palais du Cinémathèque and covers an area of 7,000 square metres, and the organizers have provided nearly 30 screening rooms for film screenings.

As soon as I entered the market, I saw the booth set up at the entrance of Wanwan Movie, but this booth is very small, and the staff is also two or three kittens, and the layout is also very general, the only eye-catching thing is that the booth is hung with a pair of advertising slogans written in Chinese, English and French - "Wanwan Movie Charm is Infinite". Such a slogan is valid everywhere, but it seems to be lacking in confidence to hang it in such a shabby stall.

In recent years, with the large-scale invasion of Hollywood films, Wanwan Films basically has no local market, and there are only a few well-known literary film directors in the overseas market who are struggling to support it.

Li Tang saw the name of China Film on the list of exhibitors provided by the organizers, which is also the only exhibitor in the mainland. It's a pity that everyone looked around, but they didn't see the booth of China Film.

However, there are two booths of Hong Kong films, which are quite eye-catching, a Hong Kong distribution company called "All Network Asia" is an independent exhibitor, and the movie poster of "McDull Story" is prominently pasted in the booth. When Li Tang and the others stopped to watch, the staff obviously recognized Li Tang in the crowd and walked over enthusiastically to greet and hand over business cards.

Li Tang chatted with him for a few words, and listened to the staff member say that Hong Kong movies are not the focus of their promotion, and they will mainly promote Thai movies this year.

He also emphasized that Chen Guo's films are also promoted here every year, and introduced: "This year we will introduce "People's Public Toilet" here, Chen Guo's film is good among the Hong Kong films we promote every year, and he already has a fairly regular audience in Europe, so the sales are very stable." ”

Li Tang is to listen to this kind of words, Chen Guo's "People's Public Toilet" was unveiled at the Venice Film Festival last year, and if it sells well, it will not be brought here this year to shout.

However, the staff member finally confessed: "Because of the economic downturn in the past few years, our sales here have been declining for several years. ”

This sentence sounds quite pertinent, but it is not that the economy is sluggish, but that Hong Kong movies have been declining as a whole a few years ago.

Not far from the booth of "All Network Asia" is a booth with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the Hong Kong International Film and Television Board. Although this year's "Hong Kong Night" was suspended for a year due to the pandemic, the Hong Kong film booth was one of the largest in the entire trading market. It's just that their location doesn't seem to be ideal, opposite is a very elaborate Italian film booth, and next to it is a Spanish film booth with a booth area comparable to theirs. Under the attack of these two traditional film powers, Hong Kong films that are getting worse are estimated to be enough.

In fact, the most eye-catching ones in the chaotic film market are the Korean booths, because they are not only very delicately arranged, but also very clean, all the glass is polished, and the promotional materials are neatly arranged. The staff in the booth spread out the computers to work inside, and a few beautiful young ladies were specially arranged outside, bowing and distributing leaflets when they met people.

Although none of the Korean films were shortlisted for the main competition unit this time, their work attitude is still very worthy of recognition. Once upon a time, Korean films were only students of Hong Kong films, and in just a few years, they had a tendency to catch up.

More than ten years later, in the era in which Li Tang lived in his previous life, a "Strange Worm" not only won the Cannes Palme d'Or, but also won four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film.

And almost after this time period in 2015, among the huge Chinese American community in the United States, everyone gradually prefers to watch Korean movies, as for Chinese movies, except for "The Wandering Earth", the rest are really sorry.

Like the rise of Japanese football in Asia, the rise of Korean films has a lot to do with the serious and persistent work attitude of their practitioners and the creative environment.

For example, in this film festival, Korean films were not shortlisted for the main competition unit, and they were not even shortlisted for a parallel attention competition unit. But when talking about their films, the staff at the booth were still full of pride, and they also said with great confidence: "We have high expectations for this year's film market, and I believe that the results will be good." ”

So we are afraid of comparisons in everything, compared to our attitudes?

At this year's Cannes, two films created by mainland filmmakers were shortlisted for the main competition unit, and two films were shortlisted for the first-of-a-kind attention unit, which is definitely the highlight of Chinese films.

But as for us, there are some things that are really hard to say, and we can only say them in one word.

However, everyone walked around the film market, only to find that they didn't see the booths of Hollywood studios, which was quite surprising.

It happened that Li Tangzi caught a staff member of the organizer at the scene and asked about it.

This handsome French guy spoke with a lot of humor, pointed in the direction of the exit of the movie palace, and said: "The advertising space outside is very expensive, and no other company can afford it except Hollywood." ”

The implication is that Hollywood movies are all used off the court.

Indeed, they had seen with their own eyes when they had just arrived, and there were large billboards about every ten meters along the coastal promenade that winded along the coastline outside the Palais du Cinéma, and this time the billboards were almost entirely Hollywood movies.

For example, Kim. Carrey's new film "All-Around Blues", such as the old cowboy Clint. Eastwood's Mystic River, and Nicole. Kidman's Dogtown and more.

Of course, the most eye-catching, and also the most billboarded, is the long-awaited Hollywood blockbuster "The Matrix 2" that will premiere at this film festival.

But then the French guy smiled and said, "Let's see, the film festival is going to open tonight." It's the Cannes Film Festival! ”

Sure enough, it's very French.

Among the many old American vassals in Europe, only the French will jump out from time to time to make trouble, which makes the American father a headache.

(End of chapter)