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Text Chapter 79 Venice Film Festival

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    On August 6, 1932, when Mussolini founded the Venice Film Festival in the water city of Venice, he never expected that this move would become one of the rare things that would be passed down after his death.  The Venice Film Festival is 19 years earlier than the Berlin Film Festival and 14 years earlier than the Cannes Film Festival, so it is called the "Father of International Film Festivals".  After the second edition, the Venice Film Festival is basically held once a year, mostly in August and September of that year, lasting about two weeks.  After sixty years of practice, the Venice Film Festival has gradually formed its own unique tradition. It focuses on film experimenters from various countries and encourages them to shoot films with novel forms and unique techniques. Even if they have some flaws, as long as they are innovative, they will  Be accepted into film festivals.  The purpose of the film festival is "Film serves serious art". It puts forward a different slogan every year, and the judging criteria are pure and artistic.  However, Venice¡¯s deliberate and independent attitude has made the Venice Film Festival gradually move away from the mainstream. Especially now that Hollywood commercial blockbusters are rampant around the world, the Venice Film Festival has become increasingly deserted.  The scene was shabby and hasty, there were fewer and fewer big stars on the red carpet, and refreshing new faces were rare to see. The effect of the film festival was not even as good as an American blockbuster that was released simultaneously around the world.  We were greeted and sent off by old faces, so it was very difficult to stir up scandals and make entertainment headlines.  A few days before the opening of the film festival, the former chairman of the film festival, Tino Laurentiis, said in an interview with the media that we must face reality. Venice has been left behind by Cannes and even Berlin.  ¡°This is indeed the case. Although the number of films sent to Venice this year has reached an unprecedented number of nearly 2,000, this result is not only far behind Cannes, but even worse than Berlin.  The organizing committee of the Venice Film Festival is also aware of this. The film festival must be reformed, otherwise the oldest film festival will gradually fade out of people¡¯s sight.  Under this situation, Mark Muller, an Italian with Swiss ancestry, who can speak ten languages, and is a producer and film festival planner, became the best choice for the chairman of the Venice Film Festival.  Immediately after Mark Muller came to power, he carried out drastic reforms to the film festival. He canceled the "Upstream" section that encouraged non-mainstream creations and replaced it with "Venice Horizon", which focused on films that reflected the latest trends in film.  It is sending a signal to the world that we must move closer to the mainstream.  Of course, this change cannot change the embarrassment faced by the Venice Film Festival. The most important thing is to save the deserted scene of the Venice Film Festival and attract the world's attention to the film festival.  To achieve this, we can only rely on big Hollywood stars. Therefore, in 2001, the Venice Film Festival, which also launched the banner of "Down with Hollywood", welcomed Hollywood movies with open arms. Not only did 3 Hollywood movies be selected for the main competition unit, but also invited a large number of  Hollywood stars cheered.  In addition to the three participating films, there are also Hollywood blockbusters in the non-participating section, such as "The Terminal", "Shark Tale", "Borrowed Knife", "The Manchurian Candidate", "Man on the Wire", "At World's End"  Hollywood films such as "The House", "Searching for the Perfect Place", "She Hates Me" and "The Merchant of Venice" will be unveiled in Venice.  Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Al Pacino and other big stars will also  Hit the red carpet at the film festival.  Of course, Mark Muller¡¯s reforms have been criticized by the Italian film industry. Many people believe that he has betrayed the creative spirit of Venice and is bowing to Hollywood stars.  But for a film festival that only welcomed one or two superstars and one or two Hollywood blockbusters last year, this is an earth-shaking change. In this sense, Mark Muller¡¯s reform is fruitful.  .  Cheng Peng is the beneficiary of this reform. If it were in previous years, people from the horror film selection committee might not even watch it if they heard it was a horror film, and would be directly excluded from the main competition unit.  This year, Cheng Peng met Mark Muller, who is committed to reform. For him, Cheng Peng's movies are a good choice. Cheng Peng just won the grand prize at the Berlin Film Festival in February and is a very popular young man.  Director, the film has a star like Zhang Ziyi, and it is a horror film. If this film is shortlisted, people will see that the Venice Film Festival is no longer as narrow-minded as before, and is more open in its selection of films, allowing a hundred flowers to bloom.  ¡°This is also true. When the main competition unit was announced, everyone was shocked. The main competition unit not only included horror films, but also animated films. People realized that this Venice Film Festival was different from the past.  Cheng Peng didn¡¯t know the reason for this, but he was very glad that he chose Venice instead of Toronto. At first, he participated in the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival.I hesitated for a while.  Because the Venice Film Festival is different from Cannes and Berlin. There is no trading market at the Venice Film Festival. You cannot set up stalls for transactions like Cannes and Berlin. Business transactions in Venice are often conducted in an informal way and are conducted privately.  The Toronto Film Festival is the largest film festival trading market in North America. There are particularly many film producers in North America. As long as it can attract attention at the Toronto Film Festival, it will open up the North American market.  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 no less than that of Venice. Many movies chose Toronto instead of Venice, but now the influence of Toronto is  It hasn't reached that level yet.  Cheng Peng finished flipping through the newspaper in his hand, raised his head, and looked at the white clouds outside through the airplane window, remembering his trip to Berlin in February.  At that time, there were only four people going, and the film festival only provided Cheng Peng with one person¡¯s expenses. He flew economy class and stayed in a budget hotel.  Now there are more than ten people in the entire crew, all of whom are under the responsibility of the film festival. They are traveling in first class, and the hotel is arranged at the Excelsior Hotel designated by the film festival. They all receive the best treatment. Times have changed.  Cheng Peng shook his head with a smile and looked at his fellow members. Zhang Ziyi was sleeping with her head in big sunglasses; Xu Jinlei was holding a book and flipping through the pages; Li Binbin was reading slowly while holding a fashion magazine;  Fan Binbin put a facial mask on his face and was resting with his eyes closed; Yang Mi and Wang Luodan were particularly excited, bumping their heads and talking non-stop. It's not surprising that they were excited, after all, it was their first time on the international stage.  Zhang Meng opened the newspaper in his hand, pointed to the title, and handed it to Cheng Peng: "Xiao Peng, take a look!" Cheng Peng looked at it and the title read: "Cheng Peng Chases the Lion in Venice". He read the article again.  It lists three reasons why Cheng Peng may win the award.  First, Venice is a blessed place for Chinese films. Hou Hsiao-hsien's "A City of Sadness" won the Golden Lion Award here. Later, Zhang Yimou also won the Venice Film Festival twice with "Qiu Ju's Lawsuit" and "No One Less"  The backbone of Chinese films such as Gong Li, Xia Yu, Zhang Yuan and Tsai Ming-liang have all gained something in Venice.  The second point is that the chairman of the film festival, Mark Muller, can be said to be a China expert, and he currently has a high opinion of Cheng Peng's films. He believes that Cheng Peng's attempt in "Dark Invasion" is "something that few people dare to do."  ".  Third point, Xu Feng, the famous producer who once produced "Farewell My Concubine", was invited to serve as a member of the film festival jury this time.  Before setting off, she told the media that Cheng Peng was a rare talent.  Cheng Peng knew that Zhang Meng was looking forward to the award, so he smiled and shook his head: "The awards are selected by the judges. The key is to see the judges' preferences. Only the third point is meaningful. Xu Feng should vote for us, but also  Just vote for it, don¡¯t think about the awards. There is no booth in Winni, so you can only wait until after the movie is released. Let¡¯s use these two days to go shopping and treat it as a trip!¡± Yang Miting was immersed in chatting with Wang Luodan.  At this point, he raised his head and said: "Director, I want to play too, take me with you then!" Wang Luodan also said: "I'll go too, director!" Fan Binbin, who had a mask on his face and was leaning on a chair with his eyes closed to relax, raised his head  Started: "Director, don't forget me, I'm with you too!" Cheng Peng was startled by Fan Binbin who was wearing a facial mask. She looked a bit like a female ghost: "Binbin, it's late at night, you put on a facial mask  Just don¡¯t make any noise, you scared me!¡± These words caused everyone to laugh. The lights on the plane were dim, and the 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 have never been to Venice. If you want to go out, don't forget to take me with you!" Cheng Peng said with a smile: No problem, I  It is announced that the purpose of this crew will change from now on, from a competition group to a tour group. Please don¡¯t call me director, call me group leader!  " After more than ten hours of flight, the plane arrived at Marco Polo Airport safely. When the crew picked up their checked luggage and walked out of the airport, they felt the warm atmosphere of the film festival. One or two hundred reporters, and  Thousands of fans almost filled the whole building. Today is the day before the movie opens. Many big Hollywood stars arrived today. The media and fans are eagerly waiting for them. Although Cheng Peng is very famous in China,  They had little international influence, and because they were all wearing sunglasses, no media recognized them. They walked out of the airport easily and followed the film festival reception staff to board the passenger ship to Lido Island.  A long and narrow island only eleven miles long, it is a famous health resort; the Film Palace, the main venue of the film festival, is here.It is an island, so from September to September the entire Lido Island is covered with red posters of the film festival, and golden lions are made into sculptures everywhere.  Venice is a water city with many piers. The Cinema Palace also has a dedicated pier. The distance from disembarkation to the entrance of the Cinema Palace is only 20 meters away. It is the most suitable place for shooting celebrities. Therefore, the entire pier is filled with countless media reporters waiting for the stars to appear.  When Cheng Peng and others got off the ship and landed on the pier, they were recognized by the Chinese reporters among them. They surrounded them and tried to conduct a simple interview.  "Director Cheng, are you confident about winning the award this time in Venice?" "Director, as the first director to be shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival with a horror film, how do you feel now?" "Zi Yi, tell me about your feelings about this time in Venice.  What are your thoughts on the trip? " After more than ten hours of flying, the crew members were quite tired and had no interest in talking to the media.  Cheng Peng smiled and waved his hands to several reporters: "My head is dizzy now, so don't do the interview, otherwise I will talk nonsense!" They did not bother with the reporters, and quickly walked into the movie palace, which is only a few meters away.  The Excelsior Hotel is a few hundred meters away.  In fact, the original intention of the film festival was to solve the problem of guest sources at the Excelsior Hotel in autumn. Most of the people who can be arranged to stay here are big directors or important film crews in the main competition unit. Horizon units and screenings are arranged around it.  of other hotels.  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 bit grimacing.  At the celebration reception at the Berlin Film Festival, Cheng Peng had a very good chat with him. He didn¡¯t expect to meet again in Venice, so he greeted him with a smile: ¡°Mr. Jin, we meet again!¡±
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