Chapter 241 252 [The best movie in the world, this time it will definitely win the Golden Bear! ]

At the entrance of the “Firefox” exhibition hall.

Li Yishu did not meet director Wu Ziniu, but instead ran into a familiar face, the sketch actor Gong Hanlin, who shouted “One hundred and eighty yuan for a cup of palace jade wine.”

He didn’t expect that Gong Hanlin had actually starred in a film shortlisted for the Berlin Film Festival.

All I can say is that this movie “Firefox” is really not that popular, otherwise Gong Hanlin, a familiar face, would not be so unknown.

Gong Hanlin recognized Li Yishu and Gong Li beside him at a distance. He immediately stepped forward and greeted them warmly: “Director Li, hello, hello, I am Gong Hanlin. It’s our first meeting. Thank you for your guidance.”

“Haha, Comrade Gong, you’re too polite!”

Li Yishu smiled cheerfully and said, “This is the first time you meet me, but it’s not the first time I meet you. I often see you on the Spring Festival Gala.”

Although Gong Hanlin has not yet become truly famous with “Such Packaging”, he has collaborated with Zhao Benshan and Zhao Lirong on the Spring Festival Gala in recent years and has gained a certain degree of fame in China.

What is lacking now is a good sketch that can make people laugh. Secretary Li Yi is not quite sure when the sketch “Such Packaging” was performed on the Spring Festival Gala, but it should have been in the past few years.

“Director Li has also seen my skit?”

“Haha, I believe there are few people in the country who have not seen your skit.”

Li Yishu smiled and looked at Gong Li beside her: “Sister Gong Li, this is your family after all.”

Gong Li looked at him curiously: “Teacher Gong, are you from Shenyang too?”

“Ms. Gong Li, I am not worthy of being your teacher. Just call me Gong Hanlin.” Gong Hanlin waved his hands repeatedly, but also said, “Yes, I am from Shenyang.”

Gong Li was surprised and said, “Then we may really be from the same family! Although my ancestral home is in Jinan, Shandong, my ancestors went to Shenyang very early. It was not until I was a little over one year old that my parents moved back to Jinan due to work transfer.”

“Ah? Ms. Gong Li, my ancestral home is also in Shandong! My ancestors also went to Northeast China.”

Gong Hanlin was very surprised. He thought that he and Gong Li just had the same surname, but seeing that they were both from Shandong and their ancestors had settled in Shenyang, it might be possible that they were from the same family.

“Haha, you guys are even talking about distant relatives.”

Li Yishu was also amused by this scene.

But this is too normal. Back then, millions of Shandong people went to the three northeastern provinces, and many of them went together from one village to another. It was very common for people of the same clan and with the same surname.

“What relative?”

Just then, Director Wu Ziniu came over with a smile.

Seeing the main person coming, Li Yishu smiled and stretched out her hand: “Director Wu, I’m sorry for coming here uninvited.”

“Director Li, look at what you said. Your coming here will bring honor to me. I heard that you came to Berlin before, and I was thinking about how to get to know you.”

The two sides chatted for a few minutes and then walked into the theater together.

The two chatted quietly while watching the movie.

As they chatted, Wu Ziniu’s feelings for Li Yishu grew stronger.

He originally thought that Li Yishu became famous at a young age, and had previously clashed with Teng Wenji of Xi’an Film Studio, so he was somewhat arrogant.

But now it seems that Teng Wenzhi is just taking advantage of his seniority. Li Yishu is such a good young man!
Not only was he polite to his seniors, but most importantly he also offered to help sell the copyrights, which made Wu Ziniu very happy.

This was his first time attending one of the three major European film festivals. Even though he was accompanied by China Film Group and Xiaoxiang Film Studio, he was no match for Li Yishu, who had won many European awards, in understanding the ins and outs of copyright transactions.

the next morning.

The chess pieces that Li Yishu had laid out early on began to move.

The Berlin Daily was the first to speak out, and the front-page headline of that day’s newspaper was “A German architectural treasure standing tall in the Far East”!
After watching the movie “Central Station”, the author of the entire article found that the architectural style of the station in the movie was Germanic.

After some research, I found out that this is a German-style station building designed and supervised by the famous German architect Hermann Fischer in the late 19th century and early 21st century.

This building was supposed to be demolished at the end of 1992, but it was bought by director Art Lee, who shot a humanistic film full of redemption…

This article seems to be talking about architecture, but it is actually a deeper discussion of the content and humanistic aspects of “Central Station”.

At the end of the article, the author wrote: “You start from here and embark on a journey of lifelong search. This is a story about an old woman and a little boy. This is a film about searching. I think Germans now need to watch this movie!”

If the Berlin Daily launched the public opinion offensive, then many German newspapers and weeklies subsequently published a large number of related articles.

As time passed, the topic of “Jinan Railway Station” began to spread in Germany. After learning about this, the granddaughter of designer Hermann Fischer took documents proving her father’s information, contacted relevant media, and then got a ticket to the “Central Station” exhibition hall.

When the granddaughter saw the building in the movie, she burst into tears because it was exactly the same as the design recorded in her grandfather’s notes.

The Berlin Film Critics Weekly published relevant news, and the editor-in-chief of the Film Critics Weekly personally wrote an article titled “The Best Movie in the World”. His evaluation of the film was:

“The extraordinary thing about “Central Station” is that it is a film that talks to your brain when it touches your heart. Most of the story scenes of this film take place on the road, which can be regarded as an alternative road movie. Just like the name of the film, “Central Station” is just the place where the hero and heroine met. They met by chance in the crowd, and the story unfolds in this way…”

The public relations campaign has completely begun.

Li Yishu is not sure whether public opinion can influence the jury in Berlin, but if there is an insider like Xu Suo, he will more or less inadvertently mention “Central Station” and recent media reports.

This will easily deepen the judges’ impression.

There are a total of 22 shortlisted films, and the only way to make a lasting impression is to get as much exposure as possible.

Anyway, there are 9 tickets, and Li Yishu only needs to get 3 more.

The night of September 2th.

After dinner, the main creative team of “Central Station” all came to the living room of Li Yishu’s suite and began to wait silently for a call from the organizers of the Berlin Film Festival.

It has become a tradition for the three major European film festivals to call the winning crews in advance the night before the closing awards ceremony.

The reason for this is that many years ago, an uncontrollable situation occurred at a certain film festival. In order to avoid such a situation from happening again, informing the winning crew in advance can give them some psychological preparation. If you really feel unhappy, you can resolve it yourself after a night. You are not a child anymore, and you can’t hold a grudge overnight. This also avoids uncontrollable situations at the closing ceremony and awards ceremony.

It is now an unwritten rule.

It was still early and everyone was in no hurry, so they discussed their experiences in Germany.

We talked about the unpalatable German food and the new round of the Bundesliga that was about to begin.

Little Ye Jin followed his mother foolishly, listening to the adults chatting and eating German specialty snacks. He had been having fun almost crazy during this period. He was so happy to be able to travel abroad at such a young age, and to travel around Europe.

At this moment, Gong Li nudged Li Yishu beside her and motioned him to come into the bedroom to talk.

Soon the two of them walked into the bedroom one after the other.

When they got inside, Gong Li hurriedly asked in a low voice: “Yishu, didn’t Sister Xu tell you?”

When she went to the United States before, she went with Xu Suo and knew that Xu Suo was invited to join the jury of this year’s Berlin Film Festival as one of its members.

“She has been in a closed state during the past two days in the voting environment. She cannot make phone calls or contact the outside world. How can she tell me?”

Li Yishu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Why did she feel that Gong Li cared more about winning the award than she did?
“Oh, so that’s it…” Gong Li frowned, not knowing what she was worried about.

Li Yishu touched her eyebrows and smoothed them, then smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Sister Gong Li. Sister Xu told me before that she would fully support me. Besides, you know what I have been doing during this period, so it can be of some use to me.”

“But didn’t you tell me before that anyone who gets too hot will die?”

Gong Li hesitated and said, “You have promoted it so high-profile this time. Most of the newspapers and weeklies have reported on us these days. So many people came to see our movie. Film Critics Weekly even gave it a good score of 3.5. Is this a big hit?”

“Cough cough!!”

Li Yishu coughed suddenly and said, “Sister Gong Li, can we say something nice?”

“Puh, puh, puh!” Gong Li quickly spat a few times into the air and said awkwardly, “I’m just too concerned.”

“Don’t worry, there are definitely reasons why the hot favorites are hot. The so-called hot favorites must die, that’s just a dark horse. I’ve watched all the nominated movies this year, and there are only two movies that are truly competing with us.”

“Which two?”

Li Yishu’s eyes sparkled as she said, “One is In the Name of the Father, directed by Irish director Jim Sheridan, and the other is Blue, White and Red, directed by Polish director Krzysztof!”

“I remember that Blue, White and Red Trilogy won the Golden Lion Award last year, right?”

Gong Li didn’t know this director, but she knew his previous work because the name was a bit too sloppy, it was Blue, White and Red!
Li Yishu nodded and said, “Yes, his movie Blue won the Golden Lion Award, and this movie White is also very good. But I am not very worried about him, but about the movie In the Name of the Father.”

The movie “In the Name of the Father” hit the G-spot of the Berlin Film Festival. The story is based on the fact that the Republican Army in Northern Ireland was committed to opposing British colonial rule. Later, when the male protagonist angered the Republican Army in Northern Ireland, he was sent to Britain by his father.

However, Gary, whose behavior was strange, was framed as a terrorist by the British police. He was forced to admit that he was an accomplice in the bombing and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The loving father appealed everywhere to save his son, but he was also thrown into jail… Many years later, with the help of a British female lawyer, he and his father were cleared of the injustice.

The story of the movie is relatively old-fashioned, but combined with the social background and the years of conflict between Britain and Germany, it can be regarded as an alternative politically correct film.

The Berlin Film Festival itself prefers this type of political and social films. Li Yishu feels that the probability of this film winning an award is much higher than that of “Blue, White and Red”.

“Jingle Bell–“

Suddenly, the phone outside rang. Li Yishu hurried over, opened the bedroom door and came to the living room.

Qiu Fusheng had already answered the phone at this time. He saw Li Yishu coming out and was about to hand the microphone over when he saw Li Yishu shaking her head.

English was also heard from the other end of the phone.

Seeing that Li Yishu had no intention of answering the phone, Qiu Fusheng immediately replied in English: “Yes, I am from the crew of “Central Station”. OK, OK, we will attend the closing ceremony on time tomorrow.”

Qiu Fusheng put down the microphone in a panic, without even hanging up, and excitedly stood up and shouted: “The organizer notified us to attend the award ceremony tomorrow!”

Long before, Qiu Fusheng had already explained to those in the crew who had not been to the film festival that getting the notification meant they would at least win an award.

So when he shouted, the whole house cheered immediately!
“awesome!”

“Haha, I knew Director Li is the best and will definitely win the award.”

“I think it’s definitely the Golden Bear!”

“…”

A group of people congratulated Li Yishu.

“OK OK.”

Regardless of whether or not she can win the Golden Bear, at least she has a guaranteed prize. Li Yishu smiled and said, “Everyone, please stop talking. No one knows whether or not we can win the prize until the last minute. I don’t want to open champagne at halftime!”

Qiu Fusheng had long been accustomed to the strange words that occasionally popped out of Li Yishu’s mouth, but he could use them as an adjective very well. He nodded happily and said, “Director Li is right. The specific results will not be known until tomorrow. Now everyone should go back and rest early. We will be busy tomorrow.”

Upon hearing this, the crew members began to leave one after another, and soon only Li Yishu, Gong Li and Qiu Fusheng were left in the room.

“Director Li, it all depends on tomorrow.”

Qiu Fusheng was very excited at the moment. During this period, film producers came to him more than once to discuss buying copyrights, especially German film producers, who were extremely interested in this movie because the movie caused a public opinion storm in Germany because of a building.

Many German movie fans want to see this Germanic-style station building built in Far East China more than half a century ago through a movie.

Although many people have come to the film festival and bought tickets to watch the film, it is definitely a drop in the bucket compared to the entire German movie fans.

“Well, that depends on tomorrow.”

Li Yishu nodded solemnly. After more than a month of planning, it all depends on the award ceremony tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)