Chapter 348: Wu Baige's Earnest

In the theater, many people shed tears as the soulful and touching music played.

Although many people watching the movie are not Asians, but European and American whites or blacks, and they may not necessarily understand Asian culture and customs, they can all feel the warmth conveyed in the film at this moment. Many people were moved by the attitude towards death in the film.

After the film ended, when Wu Yuchen took the stage with Zhao Wenxuan, Jiang Qinqin and others to take the curtain call, the audience below burst into violent applause.

After a while, after Wu Yuchen sent the audience away, he also communicated with several judges who came to watch:

"Oh, Wu, this is really a great movie. I have always been deeply impressed by your "Love", and this time you took us to explore different attitudes towards death from a special angle!"

A female judge was the first to praise Wu Yuchen.

Later, the chairman of the jury, Kusturica, also smiled and said to Wu Yuchen:

"It's like a carefully arranged movement that blends the bitter, spicy, sour and sweet tastes of life together to create an unexpected and touching lyrical symphony!"

"Thank you for the compliment!" Wu Yuchen nodded slightly.

"Wu, this is really a good movie! It takes us through the subtleties of Eastern death rituals. It would be nice if the movie could be less sensational."

Hearing what the judge named Landita said, Wu Yuchen just smiled and didn't make much reply.

To be honest, he knew that someone must be talking about the situation. Although "The Embalmer" is a good movie, it may not be loved by everyone, especially some literary and artistic people who think that the movie is too sensational. It's too heavy, with too many funny elements, and I think it's deliberately moving towards commercial direction.

But it is impossible for him to remove these necessary elements for the sake of so-called literature and art, which would make the movie unfriendly to most ordinary audiences. This movie of his is not made specifically for a small group of artistic celebrities.

Then a short man in a straight suit walked up to Wu Yuchen, then stretched out his right hand and gave a thumbs up, and said loudly in Mandarin with a Bayan accent: "This year's Palme d'Or is none other than "The Embalmer"!"

Wu Yuchen lowered his head, looked at Wu Baige in front of him, took the initiative to reach out his hand and shook it with a smile: "Director Wu is really over-the-top!"

Wu Baige also held Wu Yuchen's hand and said:

"Hey, no! Director Wu, if you can promote our Chinese culture to the whole world, then I will definitely support you! We all need to help each other!"

If the other judges could understand Chinese, they would definitely frown. After all, "The Embalmer" is just the first movie they watch, and there are dozens of movies waiting for them to watch. You are now saying to fellow villagers that the Palme d'Or belongs to "The Encoffiant", your favoritism is too obvious!

But Wu Baige didn't care at all and showed his kindness to Wu Yuchen without hesitation.

Wu Baige is not really that stupid, rude or a good big brother who takes great care of his compatriots. He naturally has his own little Jiujiu in his heart.

Although Wu Baige has a glorious past in Hollywood and is a major international director, today is different from the past. The failure of "Wind Talker" became the straw that broke MGM's back, causing his situation in Hollywood to take a turn for the worse. However, after that, he still got another opportunity and filmed "Memory Crack" which cost 60 million US dollars. However, when it was released, he once again hit the street and completely lost his way in Hollywood.

Therefore, Wu Baige has now returned to the Chinese film industry from Hollywood. After ten years of absence, the current Chinese film industry has long since changed. The mainland has replaced Hong Kong Island as the largest market. If he wants to continue to be his director Wu, he must survive in the mainland market.

Now the largest film and television company in mainland China is Miracle Films. Moreover, he also heard that Wu Yuchen and China Film Group's Han Sanping had a close friendship and called themselves brothers. It can be said that Wu Yuchen is the real powerful person in the mainland film industry, a big shot figure.

Wu Baige wants to make an epic costume movie. Although he has the reputation of a major international director, he also knows the importance of local snakes. Whether it is filming or approval, you have to get the nod of local snakes before you can make the trip.

If Wu Yuchen was just a director, even if he had his current achievements, then Wu Baige would at best be complimenting him. But now Wu Yuchen is capital, the financier, and the one in power!

Whether in Hong Kong or Hollywood, Wu Baige deeply understands that if a director wants to make a good movie, he cannot do without the support of capital and power.

Therefore, after being invited to be a judge at Cannes this time, Wu Baige had such an opportunity to make friends with Wu Yuchen, so naturally he would not let it go!

Although Wu Yuchen could not figure out Wu Baige's thoughts in an instant, he still felt the kindness he conveyed, and Wu Baige's last sentence of "mutual help" also made Wu Yuchen's heart move, and he probably felt it. Taking Wu Baige's idea, he also smiled and said:

"Director Wu, if you are willing to contribute to Chinese-language films, I will certainly welcome it!"

When Wu Baige heard Wu Yuchen's words, he couldn't help but feel overjoyed and determined in his heart that he must try his best during the selection process to get Wu Yuchen a Palme d'Or!

After a while, Wu Yuchen looked at Wu Baige's back and smiled, and he also figured out that this old boy was also a guy who assessed the situation.

When he was in Hollywood before, the other party never expressed goodwill to him like this, just because they thought he was useless. He was proud of his status as a top Hollywood director and thought he could make a good living with his own ability. But he didn't expect that two consecutive failures of his movies would make him dead. Now that he has returned to the Chinese film industry, he immediately changed his attitude towards Wu Yuchen.

Wu Yuchen didn't think it was offensive. Aren't most people like this? He and Wu Baige didn't have any grudges. The other party came up so eagerly, which could be said to be a show of courtesy. Wu Yuchen would not put on airs or take advantage of his status.

If the other party wanted to make a movie, he would not stop it. But if he wanted him to invest in "Red Cliff", forget it. Although the movie was profitable in the end, especially in Japan, the box office was quite good, but the reputation in China was too bad, and he didn't want to get involved.

As a heavyweight film in this year's Cannes Film Festival, "Departures" was naturally arranged in the most core theater, with sufficient publicity, and attracted a large number of audiences and media.

However, Wu Yuchen did not stay in the theater as he did before. His identity and status are different now. He does not need to stay in the theater like a young director and thank every audience who watched the movie. After almost one show, he accepted some media interviews and took Jiang Qinqin to hang out.

This time in Cannes, he naturally wanted to see other directors' movies. The first movie he watched in the afternoon was Du Dapao's "Underworld".

Compared with the full seats of "Departures", there were fewer people in the theater of "Underworld", and it was sparse.

Many people in China may have seen the movie "Underworld", but in fact most people have seen the castrated version, that is, "Dragon City Years".

The original director's cut is a 3-hour version with many bloody and violent scenes. The version shown in Hong Kong Island is a 100-minute version, which barely expresses Du Dapao's meaning. Most people in China watch the 85-minute version of "Dragon City Years".

For harmony, this version not only cuts a lot, but also completely changes the ending. For example, Gu Tianle was not an undercover agent at all, but was changed to an undercover identity. And after Ren Dahua smashed Da D, played by Liang Jiahui, to death, he strangled his wife with a belt, and then dug a pit to bury the two. He was not caught by the police at all, and at the end he drove home calmly with his son.

Du Dapao was actually very ambitious in filming "Underworld", wanting to make it into an epic gangster movie. In fact, if you watch "Underworld" one by one and two together, it is really good, especially the character Jimmy Zai played by Gu Tianle, who expressed some of his ideas.

After the movie started, with some bloody scenes of slashing people, screams were heard from time to time, and some viewers made disgusted sounds.

When the movie was halfway through, an old foreign lady vomited with a loud wow, which attracted many people's concern. The staff could only take the old lady out for a physical examination. There were not many viewers to begin with, and after this happened, some people lost the mood to continue watching and simply left.

After the movie ended, Du Dapao and the crew of "Underworld" were very frustrated when they saw the empty theater.

After Wu Yuchen walked over, he saw that they all looked dejected, so he encouraged them: "Actually, the movie is pretty good."

Du Dapao said a little disheartenedly: "Alas, Director Wu, don't comfort me, everyone has run away..."

"That old lady was an accident. To some extent, this is also a certainty. It's shot realistically enough!"

"In fact, I think this movie might be better taken to Venice. After all, the gang culture in Italy is more popular than in France."

Then Wu Yuchen asked again: "Director Du, I remember that your previous gangster movies were all gunfights. This time there are almost no guns in the whole movie?"

Du Dapao adjusted his mood, then smiled and said to Wu Yuchen: "Realistic! There are at least 300,000 gangsters in Hong Kong Island, so I want to shoot a movie that can truly present the gang culture and ecology. In fact, most gangsters use knives to cut people, and not even one out of 100 has touched a gun."

After communicating with people at "Underworld", he went to see "The Best Time". During the communication with Hou Hsiao-hsien and others, Wu Yuchen found that the two male and female protagonists, Shu Qi and Zhang Zhen, were not in a good state, as if they had fallen in love with each other because of the play.

It is rumored that there was a kissing scene during the filming of the two, because both of them were too involved in the kiss and forgot the time, so when they stopped, they found that the director and the photographer were already smoking. However, passion is passion, and in the end, Zhang Zhen's parents also strongly opposed their son and Shu Qi getting together.

In the evening, after Wu Yuchen brought Jiang Qinqin back to the room, Jiang Qinqin excitedly took a newspaper to Wu Yuchen.

"Wu Yuchen showed his master's skills, and "Departures" was widely praised!"

""Departures: Respect for death is like sincerity for life."

Seeing these compliments, Wu Yuchen was in a better mood even though he had expected it.

Although Western culture and Eastern culture are different, when facing the common topic of death, the true feelings shown by the characters can be felt by audiences from different countries. Moreover, this unique Eastern coffin culture will indeed make many Westerners who see it for the first time very interested. These are all plus points for "Departures".

Wu Yuchen stayed in Cannes for three days, and he also met all the judges he needed to meet, some movies he wanted to watch, and some filmmakers he needed to communicate with. Then he took his private jet and flew back to London.

The scenery of the Cardington Studio over there has been set up. Wu Yuchen wants to go back and take a look. If possible, he will start shooting directly. He plans to finish filming the scenes here in about five days, which is not much. The main thing is a large model of the appearance of Gotham City, which is used to shoot the distant views and panoramic views of Gotham City. The reason why it is not produced with computer special effects is to pursue realism.

Wu Yuchen has temporarily put aside the Cannes matter, but there are people in Cannes who are having disputes because of him.

"No, no, I think "The Embalmer" is not in line with the taste of Cannes. It is a bit deliberately sensational, as if it is programmed to make the audience cry when they reach that point..."

When Wu Baige heard this, he stood up as soon as he slapped the table. His height of 1.6 meters and 2.3 meters in height exploded, interrupting the other party:

"What is deliberate sensationalism? Do you understand that this is the expression of true feelings? You guys should stop using sensationalism and comedy to slander "The Embalmer". Do you think this is easy?

It is obviously such a heavy subject matter, but it has to blend humor and sadness, profundity and ease into one film. How can ordinary directors achieve this subtle control of scale? ! "

Wu Baige glanced at the people in the room, and then said loudly: "In my opinion, "The Embalmer" is the best film this year that emphasizes both skill and emotion. It is a well-deserved Palme d'Or!"

The other party was impressed by Wu Baige's momentum and was unable to compete with Wu Baige, so he set his sights on the chairman of the jury, Kusturica.

To be honest, Kusturica's favorite movie is actually Jarmusch's "Broken Flower", but when he thought of the hint given to him by Jacob, the chairman of the organizing committee, he sighed in his heart. Then he said:

"I think John Wu is right. "The Embalmer" not only showcases Wu's superb skills, but also the emotions that cross borders and races are sincere and touching, making people think about death in such a peaceful, tender and sacred way. !”