When I first arrived in your country, I was still jet lag for a while. Since I couldn't sleep, I might as well do some physical and mental exercises.
Li Tang squinted for a moment, feeling that the time was short, but when he opened his eyes again, he saw bright light filtering through the gaps in the curtains.
I glanced at the time and saw it was already past eight o'clock local time. Daylight saving time is implemented here in Europe, which is six hours different from the domestic time. It should be about two o'clock in the afternoon.
Little Fatty was still sleeping soundly. Li Tang knew it was time to get up and adjust to the jet lag as soon as possible.
"Hey, don't sleep, get up."
"What are you doing? I'm so sleepy. Let me sleep a little longer."
The little fat man hummed twice and refused to open his eyes. Finally, he simply stuck his head into the quilt and pretended to be dead.
"Then you can sleep for two hours at most, otherwise you won't be energetic tomorrow."
"Um!"
Xiaopang nodded repeatedly under the quilt.
After Li Tang washed up, he went out for a walk.
The hotel is located right next to the Slavic Embankment, not far from the ferry terminal, which leads to Lido Island, where the film festival is held in the southeast, just across a shallow lagoon.
Although Venice is said to be a city on the water, the publicity says that there is a river right outside the door, and transportation relies on gondolas and the like, which are all gimmicks. There are roads extending in all directions in the city. They used to be accessible to carriages, but now as a tourist city, they have all been converted into pedestrian streets.
There were very few tourists on the road at this time, and many shops were closed. According to the schedule of Italians, people here usually start work at ten o'clock, take a lunch break at half past twelve, go to work at three o'clock in the afternoon, and get off work at six o'clock. After hundreds of years of plunder since the Age of Discovery, Europeans have lived a much happier life than the Chinese, who have been weak for a long time.
Walking through the ferry terminal is the famous Bridge of Sighs. After crossing the bridge, you will find the open square in Venice's iconic Piazza San Marco. Surrounded by the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's Library, St. Mark's Campanile, Princess Sissi and The famous St. Mark's Basilica where Francis I was crowned here.
Returning to the old place, there is nothing new. Because many shops and restaurants were closed, Li Tang had to return to the hotel restaurant to have breakfast.
The hotel is officially designated by the film festival to host filmmakers from all over the world. There are not many people in the restaurant who get up early for breakfast, and most of the people who hear it are French, Italian and Spanish.
Li Tang glanced around and saw a familiar figure.
"Sister Hong, morning!"
Chang Jihong, who was happily munching on a croissant, looked up and saw Li Tang and smiled hurriedly: "Li Tang, you're so early too, come on, come on, let's sit together!"
Li Tang sat down opposite her and ordered a cup of coffee and a croissant.
"The breakfast here is nothing, and the bread is not fresh and looks like it was left overnight." Chang Jihong wiped his hands after finishing the bread and complained.
"People here eat dinner very late and don't much eat breakfast. At most they just have a cup of coffee or milk or something."
Li Tang knows this very well. Dinner in Italy is similar to late-night snacks in China. It usually takes place at nine or ten o'clock in the evening. If you don't feel too hungry when you wake up the next morning, you can wait until lunch, which is the first meal of the day. meal.
If you want to have breakfast, then a cup of hot milk or a cup of coffee is good with a croissant that is not too fresh.
"Hey, Li Tang, you know this place quite well. Have you been here before?" Chang Jihong asked curiously.
Few Chinese people go abroad these days. Even if Chang Jihong has been to Europe twice before, he still doesn’t know the customs and customs in Italy.
Li Tang shook his head and smiled: "No, because I am coming here, I learned some information about the situation from the Internet and did some homework in advance."
"I didn't expect you, a boy, to be so attentive."
The boy said something that made Li Tang feel a little embarrassed. He quickly picked up the cup and took a sip of coffee to cover up the embarrassment on his face.
Although Chang Jihong is Xiaopang's agent, Li Tang was not familiar with her before, so attending the film festival together this time was their first face-to-face interaction.
She has short hair and looks kind-hearted. The first impression is that this person is quite kind. She doesn't have the sharp-eyed aggression of her ex-girlfriend's manager Hua Jie, nor does she have the condescension of Zhou Xun's manager Li Xiaowan.
Moreover, when they arrived at the hotel early this morning to share a room, Xiaopang offered to share a room with Li Tang. Sister Hong's expression did not change at all, but she only told Xiaopang to get up early and reverse the jet lag as soon as possible.
Seeing Li Tang's shy look at this time, Sister Hong smiled and asked, "Bingbing hasn't gotten up yet, has she?"
"Well, let her sleep a little longer."
Sister Hong said with a smile: "Young people are good. They can sleep anywhere. It's not like me, who is older and still recognizes the bed, and couldn't fall asleep after struggling for half a night."
Saying that, Chang Jihong said seriously again: "Li Tang, speaking of this, I really want to thank you for giving Bingbing this great opportunity. And Bingbing often said that you have given her a lot of help. If it hadn't been for you, she might not have been able to get the role of An Xin."
Li Tang smiled and said: "We are all friends, and we should help each other. Besides, when we were filming "The Third Man", Bingbing acted for free. Speaking of which, I should thank Bingbing and your support. .”
friend?
Hearing this word, Chang Jihong glanced at Li Tang in surprise. Seeing the calm look on his face, he paused and smiled meaningfully, nodded in agreement, "Yes, friends should help each other."
The two chatted for a while, and as the number of people in the restaurant gradually increased, they got up and left knowingly. Before leaving, Li Tang packed a box of milk and a croissant, a croissant stuffed with jam and custard. The bread, although not very fresh, at least satisfies hunger.
…
"Not tasty at all."
The chubby kid took a bite of the croissant and said with a dissatisfied look on his face: "You're just going to let me eat this?"
"Where can I eat in this place? Just make do with it."
As he said that, Li Tang scratched his scalp regretfully and said, "I forgot to bring some instant noodles."
In fact, he didn't say anything just now. As a tourist city, Venice certainly has no shortage of food, but it is extremely expensive. It's not just a day or two here, it's more than ten days. I can save a little bit.
“It’s better to eat instant noodles than this.”
Xiaopang used to eat enough instant noodles when he first came to Beijing, but now he feels a little nauseous when he smells it. She took another bite and asked, "Have Director Cheng and Sister Nai'an eaten?"
"I don't know, let them figure it out on their own."
In fact, they came early this time, and there was basically nothing else to do this afternoon except going to the Film Market to set up the booth.
"Hey, if you have nothing to do this afternoon, why don't we go to Lido Island to explore some places together?"
Xiaopang's eyes suddenly lit up and he nodded hurriedly: "Okay, okay."
When we set off in the afternoon, seven people actually acted together. Instead of staying in a hotel with nothing to do, why not go out for a walk.
Li Tang had participated in film festivals in his previous life, such as prestigious film festivals in North America such as the Toronto Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. Of course, he always went to see movies to join in the fun, and he had also seen the booming film trading market.
I originally thought that as one of the three major film festivals in Europe, the trading market of the Venice Film Festival must be unprecedentedly grand. However, when I went to see the venue, I found that the entire exhibition hall was about the same size as the canteen of the theater. It was estimated that it could only accommodate two or three people at most. Hundreds of people. For such a small area, the booths are still sparse, and almost half of them are empty.
"That's it?"
Not only Li Tang, almost everyone was shocked.
Even Cheng Er, who is usually taciturn, couldn't help but be shocked: "Is this the trading market of the Venice Film Festival?"
At any rate, he went to the Rotterdam Film Festival at the beginning of the year to see it. Compared with here, the trading market where thousands of people poured into the Rotterdam Film Festival was definitely an unprecedented event.
Nai'an said with a slight embarrassment: "There is no way, this is the situation here. After the film festival opens tomorrow, there may be more people here, and most European film producers will still come."
In fact, the Venice film market is deserted. To put it bluntly, the date of the event is awkward. At the end of August and early September, Cannes took away most of the excellent films, and then the Toronto Film Festival took away the North American market, making the three major European film festivals. Venice, for one, found itself in an awkward position.
The so-called booth is very small, just like a stall selling small commodities in a farmer's market. It has movie posters on it, and then a small TV and a DVD player play the trailer of the movie repeatedly, and someone is hired to distribute brochures on the spot to promote the movie.
After Nai'an briefly introduced the situation to everyone, he said to Li Tang: "Don't be too anxious. Usually this is a publicity window before the movie premieres. Through this, we can attract more film producers to watch our movies." , check the quality, and then we can talk about selling the film."
Li Tang nodded, feeling a little relieved from the blockage, but in any case, he was disappointed by the deserted trading market here. He hoped that the movie he had thought about before could be sold at a good price, and he could sell a few more national copyrights. It cannot be said that the fire is completely extinguished, it can only be said that the flame of hope is already very small.
There is strength in numbers, and the exhibition hall is covered with posters. Cheng Er personally connected the DVD player to the TV show, and put up the trailer in just a short time.
According to Li Tang's wishes, he would hire a student here to help look after the stall and hand out brochures and so on. He just asked, and there were a lot of people in the exhibition hall, most of whom were college students attending the film festival. My financial conditions are limited, so I can use the exhibition hall to make some money during the day and buy tickets to watch movies at night.
It is said that movie tickets at the film festival are not cheap, and they often cost twenty or thirty dollars in US dollars. It is difficult for ordinary college students to afford it, but helping to read and distribute brochures at the exhibition hall costs almost one hundred dollars a day, which is enough for them to watch two movies and solve their food problems.
As a result, Zeng Jia volunteered to stay. Although she did not speak Italian, her English was okay and she could barely communicate with others. And in her words, being idle is idle anyway, so why not stay here to learn more and see the world.
Second update!
(End of chapter)
