The audience who can come to the Cannes Film Festival is not an ordinary audience, most of these audiences from all over the world have a pilgrimage mentality and have a certain appreciation for films.

In fact, the laughter from time to time in the audience during the screening and the fact that almost no one left the venue early can explain the success of the premiere of "Incense".

The applause at this time was full of surprises, and it was also a tribute to the film itself. Speaking of which, since the opening of the film festival, there has not been a good movie that makes people shine.

Even yesterday's American film "Brown. Barney was booed and left en masse at the premiere. In the end, director Vincent . Under pressure from RB investors, Carlo had to come forward and apologize publicly: "If you don't like the film, that's right, because Brown. Barney is a disaster, and you can only waste your time when you go to the movie! ”

Despite this, there are still many media outlets who are not reluctant to give up on the film, and the venue magazine "Screen" also published a special feature for this purpose: "All the future generations who participated in this film festival will reminisce with relish, 'Screening of Brown. Were you there that night in Barney? We should suggest that the organising committee issue a commemorative coin for this film and hold an annual 'Brown-Barney' party, which we have reason to believe is a 'classic moment' at the 56th Cannes Film Festival and will forever be in the history of the festival." ”

Screen, the leading British film review magazine, is known for its caustic and sarcastic jokes, especially for Americans.

For example, on the day of the opening ceremony, they were commenting on Monica. Bellucci wrote: "Look at Monica. Bellucci, the Italian beauty who served as the emcee of the festival, set off a wave on the south coast of France, and perhaps her gray eyes will infect some vitality. It's been a long time since we've seen such a glamorous beauty, and in contrast, American sweetheart Meg. Ryan is like a country girl......"

It is precisely because the quality of the shortlisted films has been generally low since the opening and the atmosphere is dull that today I actually saw such a sincere and interesting movie, how can I not make the audience feel happy and excited?

Western audiences, especially European audiences, are most interested in the elements of cinema that are nothing more than issues of youth, growth and disillusionment, exoticism, and politics and religion in general.

It can be said that the film "Incense", except for youth, includes almost all the elements that European audiences are interested in, although Buddhism may still be relatively foreign to them.

"Don't be stunned, let's go up quickly. This is your moment. ”

Li Tang pushed Ning Hao, who was still sitting beside him in a daze, and pouted on the stage.

The host has already taken the microphone to the stage and started the introduction.

"Ah...... Oh! ”

Only then did the thing react, nodded in a panic, walked up to the stage stiffly, and waved at the audience.

"Wow!"

"Whoa......

Seeing the director on stage, the audience below became more enthusiastic, and the applause was accompanied by cheers.

Listening to Ning Hao stumbling on the stage about his creative journey, Zhang Ziyi turned his head sideways and whispered to Li Tang: "Congratulations, you have discovered another young director!" You're almost a Bole now. ”

I think that Cheng Er was discovered by Li Tang at the beginning, and at this time, seeing Ning Hao being so enthusiastic by the audience in Cannes, even Xiao Zhang was envious. There is no doubt that when the news of today's scene reaches China, Ning Hao is another rising star in the directorial industry.

"I don't dare to be a director, I don't know how to direct, I can only say that I am lucky." Li Tang hurriedly said modestly.

But he was secretly muttering in his heart: Since it's congratulations, do you want to invite yourself to a drink at night?

Just as Li Tang and Zhang Ziyi were whispering, the emotions in the hearts of the other people sitting in the first row were more or less subtle.

Diao Yinan seems to be very calm on the surface, but it is still difficult to hide the turmoil in his heart. Regarding Ning Hao and his shortlisting for Cannes, he always thought that it was the result of MK2's operation, so he had a certain psychological preparation for the poor response to the premiere of his film yesterday. But seeing Ning Hao so popular at this time made him have to reflect on what he didn't care about.

To put it bluntly, "Incense" is undoubtedly more storytelling than "Uniform", and its attitude towards the audience is more sincere.

As for Wang Xiaoshuai and Lou Ye, the two leaders of the so-called sixth generation of directors, looking at Ning Hao with surprises, but more complicated.

To be honest, they didn't think much of Ning Hao from the beginning, but at this time, they had to admit that the little junior brother in front of them had far more attainments in movies than they had back then.

After the premiere, Ning Hao undoubtedly became the focus of media pursuit, not only Chinese media including Wanwan and Hong Kong, but also reporters from many foreign media.

Seeing that the translator arranged by the organizer was too busy, Zeng Jia also had to step forward to help translate, but her English level could only reach level 6 at best, not enough to specialize in eight, and it was inevitable that she would stumble in translation.

In the end, it was Li Tang who appeared, and his authentic British accent communicated very smoothly with the reporter of the "Screen" field magazine, and the half-bald buddy thought that he had met a fellow countryman if he didn't know Li Tang. After interviewing Ning Hao with two questions, the conversation changed to ask Li Tang a question.

After answering questions from domestic reporters, Zhang Ziyi and Lou Ye, Wang Xiaoshuai and others left first. It's just that before leaving, he deliberately looked at Li Tang, who was surrounded by foreign reporters, and couldn't help showing a hint of brightness in his eyes.

A talented man will definitely attract the attention of the opposite sex, especially a good, handsome and talented man is the target of the opposite sex. Especially Xiao Zhang, who is working hard to learn English, is full of envy and appreciation in his eyes.

The success of the premiere of "Incense" made MK2 also breathe a long sigh of relief. The results of yesterday's premiere of "Uniform" really gave them a slap in the face. The premiere sat 80% of the audience, and in the end only 20% remained, and the future of the film was visibly worrying to the naked eye. Buying out the rights to two films for 600,000 euros may seem like a bargain, but if this is the case for both films, it is estimated that the 600,000 euros will be lost.

Fortunately, their worries only lasted for one day, and the premiere of "Incense" received an enthusiastic response, and now even if "Uniform" is smashed in their hands, they can make a steady profit with a "Incense".

Juliet. Schlamaker called to congratulate him as soon as he heard the news, and he had to treat him to dinner in the evening.

……

"The collision of reality and thought, magical realist film. It's sad and funny, and it makes people have mixed feelings. This is undoubtedly a wonderful movie, with profound connotations and profound implications. ”

"I like the grasp of the narrative rhythm in "Incense", although the fragmentary plot structure seems very deliberate, but for a rookie director, he undoubtedly delivered an excellent work."

"We are very pleased to see the changes in the new generation of directors in China. Faith meets survival, religion meets reality, bold and spicy, it's hard to imagine that this is actually a student work. ”

Perhaps the appearance of "Incense" is too amazing, and the two major magazines "Varlety" (variety) and "Screen" (screen) have used very surprising layouts to report on this kind of attention unit work.

So much so that in the next two days, Ning Hao finally experienced the feeling of fame, as long as he appeared in public, he would always be surrounded by the domestic media, and he tried to dig some fierce material from him in vain.

There are thousands of journalists from all over the world who have come to cover the Cannes Film Festival this year, because for security reasons, the organizers have specially registered all journalists who apply for interviews this year, and they are divided into five levels according to the strength of the media.

For example, the first level, in addition to a few major field publications, is only available to journalists from USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, and major news agencies around the world. The second-class certificate is awarded to veteran journalists who have covered several film festivals.

Covering the film festival, a small press card, is even more important than a passport.

Because it was the first time for the domestic media reporters to come to interview this time, many of them only got fourth-class or even fifth-class interview cards, and the opportunity to interview those big-name stars was only reserved for "first-class reporters" and "second-class reporters". So they can only stare at their own filmmakers desperately picking wool.

Even Wanwan's film godmother, Sister Jiao Xiongping, asked Li Tang to come to the door to chat with Ning Hao, adding some material to her column "Jiao Xiongping's Cannes Diary" in "Nandu Daily".

On the 19th, the premiere of "Second Brother", which was shortlisted for the main competition unit, was finally ushered in.

As a second Cannes finalist, the new work of Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, is still a film starring Venetian actor Li Tang, which attracted many domestic and foreign media reporters during the media special screening in the morning.

But when it was time for the screening to end and hold a media conference, Wang Xiaoshuai and Li Tang suddenly felt a chill when they saw that almost all of the people sitting below were Chinese reporters, and there were only a handful of Western reporters.

The English title of "Second Brother" still continues the original title "Drifters" (Drifters), in fact, this film still continues the style of his work "The Girl with a Flat Burden" that was shortlisted for the Cannes Attention Unit in '99. The story is not strong, and it focuses more on an emotional thing.

However, this style of playing, playing with coldness, and filling the picture with a lot of personal shots, is something that is left over from ten or twenty years ago in Europe. watched too many of these kinds of movies, which naturally made Western reporters not interested, and even thought that Wang Xiaoshuai was a little floating, deliberately showing off his style, and he didn't bother to cheer.

However, domestic reporters are still very enthusiastic and have asked questions to Wang Xiaoshuai and Li Tang. In addition to focusing on the film itself, the journalists were also very concerned about the farce in China before the opening of the festival.

In the past, due to various reasons, Wang Xiaoshuai's works have never been released normally in China, and now "Second Brother" is likely to not escape this fate, what does Wang Xiaoshuai think?

Maybe it's completely flat, Wang Xiaoshuai said very calmly: "I'm working hard for this now, but I don't know what the probability of success is in the end." However, I always believe that with the continuous reform of China's film system and the increasingly flexible mechanism, I believe that my films will finally be able to meet domestic audiences one day. ”

After the media conference, Wang Xiaoshuai said to Li Tang with an apologetic face: "I'm sorry, this movie must be out of play." ”

"Brother Wang, what's so embarrassing about this, didn't you say it before, being able to go to Cannes is a victory. Twenty films, uh...... Even if there are nineteen films, only three or four of them can win awards, and I never dared to expect to win an actor or anything. Li Tang said with a smile.

His mind is very clear, don't look at the two Chinese films shortlisted for the main competition unit of Cannes this time, he is the male lead, but it is absolutely useless to win the actor.

The reason is very simple, when he was filming "Second Brother", he felt that this film did not have high requirements for actors' performances. Again, the movie itself is to convey an emotion.

As for "Purple Butterfly", it is even more impossible, he is nominally the male number one, to put it bluntly, he is a match for Zhang Ziyi, and Xiao Zhang is the absolute heroine of this movie.

Although the domestic media has been touting Zhang Ziyi as a movie queen, in the final analysis, this is the media itself forcibly adding drama to itself. As Xiao Zhang said in a previous interview, "Purple Butterfly" is a director's work, and it is a film that is extremely stylized. In the final analysis, this film is about the director, not the actors.

"Walking to Cannes is victory!"

That being said, Wang Xiaoshuai is still a little uneasy after all. It's not easy to be shortlisted for the main competition unit, who doesn't want to win the award!

Li Tang glanced at Wang Xiaoshuai, who had a somewhat ugly expression, and asked, "When are you going to leave?" ”

The festival has an unwritten rule that if the organizer retains the crew before the awards ceremony, it implies that the film will win the award, and vice versa.

Generally speaking, the crew will book a ticket to leave Cannes in advance with half-truths, just waiting for the organizer to keep it, and if the crew leaves for the airport before waiting for the organizer's news, then they can only get out of the way as soon as possible.

"I booked the twenty-fifth, and I came here, and I always want to cheer for Lou Ye." Wang Xiaoshuai said.

He and Lou Ye were good friends when they were at Nortel, and they both played cameo roles in their respective debuts when they first started making movies.

"What about you?"

Li Tang smiled: "We also booked the 25th, maybe it's still the same flight." ”

"Purple Butterfly" premiered on the 24th, and the awards for another kind of attention unit will also be announced on the evening of the 24th. The main thing is to see if there is a play in "Purple Butterfly", if there is no play, then the 25th will set off according to the original plan.

However, Li Tang is full of expectations for Ning Hao's "Incense" this time, because although the attention unit also has its own independent jury, its jury composition is more diverse, in addition to professional filmmakers, there are also senior journalists from France and Europe.

And there are many awards, in addition to the Best Film Award, there are also the Jury Award, the Best Director Award, the Best Performance Award, and so on. In addition, this year, a new "Premiere Attention Award" was added, which is a major award after the Best Picture Award.

Li Tang feels that even if "Incense" does not win the Best Film Award in a kind of attention unit, this premiere attention award can be imagined.

(End of chapter)