Chapter 162 [The year when Chinese films have the best chance of winning the Palme d’Or]

night.

Li Yishu and others also returned to the Martinez Hotel.

After a busy day, Li Yishu felt very tired. In addition to meeting Abraham in the morning, he also followed Xu Lu to meet many European film directors.

It was also at this time that Li Yishu finally understood why Xu Lu’s Tang Chen Film Company, which had hardly made any movies, still had good profits.

The main business is to purchase foreign language films in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian countries for screening or videotape production.

It is a company that specializes in distributing art films.

inside the room.

Xu Suo had already gone back. Li Yishu looked at Amy and Yongmei and asked, “How was it, how did you feel about this day?”

“It feels amazing. I didn’t expect the European film festival market to be so large.”

This is Amy’s first time attending a film festival, and she understands why so many people enjoy attending the film festival every year.

It turns out that it is really profitable! !

“Do you think the company should become a film distributor in the future and buy some films to give it a try?”

Yongmei hesitated and said, “Boss, it seems that we in the mainland are not allowed to produce and distribute those…European art films, right?”

In the afternoon, they went to the surrounding private film trading markets to take a look. The movie exhibition halls were not big, seating at most forty or fifty people, a bit like video halls.

Most of the movies screened were literary works with many stars, and they contained almost all nude scenes. It was the first time for Yongmei to see such a fierce movie, which was much more exciting than Hong Kong’s Category III movies.

Amy followed up by saying, “If we cut out some scenes, we can release it in Hong Kong, and we can also make a videotape and distribute it intact, but Mr. Xu’s film company is already working on it. Even if we do it, we can’t compete with Mr. Xu’s.”

“I know.”

Li Yishu nodded and said in agreement, “You are right. That is why we should go for the boutique route. Many excellent works are born at the European Film Festival every year. Even if we only produce one movie a year and do not seek to make money but to break even, we can still give it a try.”

The film festival market is a big pie, but the current environment in the mainland is not very suitable. Li Yishu has never thought about making money by purchasing copyrights, screening and producing videotapes. He hopes that his company can become familiar with the European Film Festival process.

At the same time, participate in the film distribution.

This year, mainland film studios have undergone reforms. In two years, the first year of private film companies will begin. By that time, not only will private enterprises be able to produce films, but they will also be able to participate in film distribution.

Li Yishu’s idea was to take advantage of the reform of state-owned cinemas to buy some high-quality cinema chains in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Even if they did not make money, the value of the land owned by these cinemas in the future would bring Li Yishu unimaginable wealth.

He knew very well that Wanda established Wanda Cinema Line and Wanda Pictures by acquiring part of the state-owned cinema chains.

In addition to developing the distribution capabilities of his own film company, there is one thing Li Yishu did not mention, which is that the radio, film and television department will introduce new regulations starting next year, which is that China Film Corporation will introduce 10 films that meet two basic requirements each year through a split distribution method.

That is, films that “basically reflect the outstanding achievements of world civilization and the latest achievements in world film art and technology today” were released in China, which were later commonly known as the ten imported blockbusters.

Li Yixi remembers that the first ten imported blockbusters were not mainly Hollywood movies, but were evenly divided, with the United States accounting for 1/3, Europe accounting for 1/3, and other countries accounting for 1/3.

When Li Yishu returned to Emei Film Studio, Han Sanping had already told him that he would definitely go to Yanjing Film Studio as the director by the end of this year.

As a result, the time for Han Sanping to join China Film Group is getting closer. With this relationship with Han Sanping, Li Yishu will be able to find a way to get a share of the ten imported films each year in the future.

“If that’s the case, then I think we can give it a try.”

Amy thought for a moment and said, “But I think I should try to choose small-budget films.”

Li Yishu nodded and said, “Well, you guys discuss it among yourselves. Study hard during this period of time. If you have any questions, ask Zhang Jie. He goes to Europe every year.”

After staying in Cannes for a few days, Li Yishu bought a plane ticket to Città di Castello in the Umbria region of Italy to look for Monica Bellucci.

Monica’s home is in the city and the environment is very nice.

The entire city has extremely rich vegetation, which is evergreen all year round, a beautiful natural environment, and is located in the center of the Italian map, so it is known as the green heart of Italy.

Monica Bellucci was naturally ecstatic about Li Yishu’s arrival. She enthusiastically and proudly introduced her boyfriend Li to her family.

Ever since Monica learned that Lee Yi-su’s film was shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival, she has been mentioning her boyfriend many times in front of her parents and family.

Now that he has appeared in person, Monica’s father greeted him warmly. However, Monica’s family only speaks Italian and not English, which means that Li Yishu can only rely on Monica to help translate when communicating with them.

On the table.

Monica’s father asked, “Li, I heard that you have a lot of delicious food in China. How does it compare to our Italian food?”

Li Yishu put down the knife and fork in her hand and said with a smile: “They are all different. Italian food is great and I like it very much, especially pizza and pasta. The taste is really great.”

Pizza, pasta, and steak can be said to be the most accepted Western dishes in China.

Monica’s mother asked, “I heard that you Chinese also live together as a family?” “Yes, most families live together. Unless they are separated by work, parents and children always live together.”

“Is it the same after the children get married?”

“Most of it is the same.”

“It’s great, it’s the same for us Italians, we all live together as a family, it’s a great feeling, we can take care of each other.”

Monica’s mother nodded with satisfaction. She was a typical Italian woman who might often complain about having endless work to do and never cooking for the children at home.

But this is just a complaint. Most Italian women at that time were happy to be housewives at home.

Especially seeing children, husband and parents living together, the family sitting around the dining table, eating and chatting about the day, this kind of family atmosphere is really great.

This is actually similar to contemporary urban families in mainland China. The children work during the day and the family gathers together for dinner at night. The children who have jobs will pay for the food every month… The family is very happy.

Of course, this will only happen in the next few years. After the wave of layoffs comes in a few years, China will gradually enter a period of rapid development for 20 years.

With the intensification of inflation, the money earned locally is no longer enough to support a family. A large number of people will choose to work outside the home, and migrant workers from rural areas will move to cities. Such scenes of happy families will become less and less common, and the situation of families living together will also decrease.

Monica’s sister blinked and asked, “Do you have anything delicious in China?”

“There are so many delicious things to eat. Tanghulu… It’s hawthorn wrapped in syrup, sour and sweet. And…”

Perhaps because Monica had said before that her boyfriend would come to Italy to find her, Monica’s family also found out a lot about China through different channels early on.

This also resulted in Li Yishu not eating much during the dinner, but instead kept answering questions from Monica’s family.

But he didn’t care. After all, any parent would have all kinds of questions when they found out their children had a foreigner.

Monica’s family is also very kind.

Li Yishu stayed at Monica’s house for three days, and followed her to visit many local scenic spots. She also drove Monica’s father’s car to the nearby suburbs for fun, allowing Li Yishu to truly experience Italy’s real field combat techniques.

When Li Yishu returned to Cannes from Italy.

The time has come on January 5st.

As the opening day of the Cannes International Film Festival draws closer, a large number of media reporters, filmmakers, film critics, movie fans, etc. from all over the world have set off to Cannes to attend the international film festival in May this year.

There are a total of 26 films shortlisted for the Cannes International Film Festival this year, including three Chinese films: “Farewell My Concubine” by Lee Yi-su, “Tree” by Chen Kaige, and “A Piano Duty” by Hou Hsiao-hsien.

It can be said that this year is the year with the highest probability of Chinese films winning major awards in history.

One in nine chances.

Therefore, this year’s Cannes International Film Festival has attracted considerable attention from both China and Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In fact, regardless of the number of films nominated, from a political perspective alone, this year is indeed the most promising year, because starting from next year when China proposes to introduce American blockbusters, European film festivals will begin to treat domestic films normally and will no longer be intentionally biased as in recent years.

Some people in Hong Kong and Taiwan have already analyzed the past works of the three directors.

Hong Kong is more optimistic about Li Yishu because the movie stars Anita Mui.

If nothing unexpected happens, Taiwan will definitely support Hou Hsiao-xian’s “A City of Sadness”.

In mainland China, Li Yishu has not received much support, even though he has won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. However, most film critics, including film magazines, are more optimistic about Chen Kaige’s “Tree”.

This is because this is Brother Chen Kai’s masterpiece that he has been working on for seven years. It took more than five years to polish the script. Then he started to build the team at the end of 5 and started filming in early 1991. It took more than a year until the beginning of 1992 to complete the film.

It took more than seven years in total.

Compared with Lee Yi-su’s work which was completed in less than three months and this time-consuming and labor-intensive film, it is self-evident which one the public is more optimistic about.

Nice Airport.

Li Yishu looked at the crew members of “Farewell My Concubine” who walked out of the exit one after another, and waved with a smile: “Sister Gong Li, Qinqin, this way!”

Jiang Qinqin came to Li Yishu’s side lively and energetically, took his arm, and said excitedly: “Brother Yishu!”

“Be good~”

Li Yishu touched her little head, and the little girl squinted her eyes in enjoyment.

“Let’s go!”

Li Yishu looked at Gong Li, Zhang Guorong, Zhang Fengyi and others, and said with a smile: “The hotel has been arranged. Have fun these few days. The opening ceremony will be in a few days. Everyone should gather their energy and wait for the award!”

(End of this chapter)