Li Tang adjusted his dress and walked quickly towards the stage.
Monica Bellucci on the stage presented him with an award certificate framed in walnut frames, and also said: "Congratulations, Chinese boy!"
Maybe in the eyes of Europeans, Asians have tender faces, but why does Li Tang sound so awkward! So he immediately opened his arms and gave the charming young woman a French kiss, and then whispered in her ear: "Thank you, Marlena!"
Monica Bellucci was obviously stunned, because the movie "Malena" had just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning of the year. Although it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography and the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, it was only It's just a nomination, but it's far from a sensation.
In other words, this film, which was later translated as "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily", only caused a sensation in China and had a mediocre international response. At most, it was just a relatively outstanding literary film, and it was based on the fact that the director was "Italian Zhang Yimou" "Based on Giuseppe Tornatore's huge reputation.
This is a bit like Zhang Ziyi in "My Father and Mother". She debuted as a newcomer, starred in a famous director's work and became an instant hit.
However, "My Father and Mother" won the Jury Prize at the Berlin International Festival that year, but this "Malena" did not win any awards.
In Asia, this film has just been released in Japan, South Korea and other places. Monica has never heard that China has also introduced the copyright of this film.
Of course, she would not have known that soon after "Malena" would be released in Hong Kong, China, and then all kinds of pirated copies would flood the Chinese market, making her famous among the huge Chinese audience.
In fact, Li Tang knew that this girl's development in Hollywood was not smooth. After all, at the age of thirty-six, her beauty was late and she was always wandering in the second line. But it didn't stop him from regarding her as the lover of his dreams when he was an adolescent in his previous life. Maybe no matter where they grow up, Chinese people have the same aesthetics in their bones.
This girl reacted very quickly. She was just stunned for a moment, and immediately asked in English: "Then who are you, Renaldo?"
"No, I'd rather be Nino."
Li Tang smiled slightly and released his embrace. He has rewatched "Malena" countless times in his previous life. If you look at it from a professional perspective now, the actor who plays Malena's husband Nino, who does not have much screen time, has the best acting skills.
At such a highlight moment, Li Tang certainly would not be blinded by lust. After exchanging a few sentences with the goddess in his previous dream, he turned to face the audience.
He held his award certificate high and accepted the applause of the audience.
"Wow, what a magical night. I really didn't expect that a movie with only the fifth-lowest rating in the program would have a chance to win. So much so that I didn't even prepare an acceptance speech."
Li Tang delivered his acceptance speech in English with a pure British accent. There was a burst of good-natured laughter at the scene. Complaining about the venue score easily resonated with the guests present.
"To be able to receive this award today, first of all, I must thank the organizers of the film festival for giving filmmakers around the world a platform to showcase, and secondly, thank you to the jury for recognizing my performance. Then I must thank this film Screenwriter and director Mr. Cheng Er, thank you for creating this great work! I would also like to thank our producer Ms. Nai'an, my colleagues Ms. Fan Binbin, and Mr. Xu Zheng..."
In the past, whenever Li Tang saw award-winning actors on TV, he would often be a little disapproving of the thank-yous given by Datong, always feeling that this was a routine. But only after you have truly experienced it, you will find that movies are a systematic project, both in front of and behind the scenes. As an actor, to be able to win an award, I really need to thank everyone who has contributed. It is sincere and not just polite.
This award is of great significance to Li Tang. It is the first truly authoritative international award he has received. But looking at the entire Venice Film Festival awards ceremony, it can only be regarded as a medium-sized award. What everyone really pays attention to is who wins the main competition award.
Later, as the awards in the main competition were awarded one after another, the love film "Monsoon Wedding Banquet" directed by Indian female director Meera Nair became the biggest winner, winning the Golden Lion.
This is the first time Ah San has won the top prize at the three major European film festivals. When the award was announced, everyone at the scene was in an instant climax.
However, the Austrian film "Dog Days", which always ranked first in the program ratings and received the highest response, only won the Silver Lion, the Grand Jury Prize.
The award for Best Actor and Actor, which attracted the most attention from the audience, was won by the leading actors and actresses in the Italian film "The Love Through Your Eyes".
This is probably the so-called host advantage!
Sitting on the stage, Li Tang couldn't help but imagine that one day he could become the best actor at the Shanghai International Film Festival, one of the international A-class film festivals. After all, as a Shanghainese, he should have this advantage. Even children like Hu Ge who can't act may have such an opportunity in the future.
One more thing, this little guy has been admitted to the drama department this year and officially became Li Tang's junior brother.
Then Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron won the Silver Lion Award for Best Screenplay for his self-written and directed film "Your Mother Too", and the two young newcomers in this film also won the Best Film Festival Award. Best Newcomer Award.
The only Chinese Hong Kong film shortlisted for the main competition, "Hollywood in Hong Kong" failed to produce any results. Zhou Xun, who was about to be blown up by the domestic media, naturally missed out on the actress.
In addition, this year's film festival has truly fully interpreted the slogan of "Down with Hollywood Imperialism", and American films also failed to win any important awards.
At the end of the award ceremony, everyone congratulated the winners, regardless of whether they won or not. No matter what you think in your heart, at least you still have to do the superficial work.
Li Tang, who won the Best Actor Award in the Against the Current category and is commonly known as the "Venice Little Movie King", was also very busy. He is handsome and speaks several foreign languages, so he can get along relatively well with foreigners.
"Li Tang, congratulations!"
At this time, Zhou Xun and several Hong Kong people also came over to congratulate Li Tang.
The loss of Best Actress did not leave much regret on Zhou Xun's face, he was still laughing and joking.
However, Cheng Guo's face didn't look good. He was already dark, but now he looked even darker.
"Mr. Li, congratulations!"
He walked over expressionlessly and shook Li Tang's hand.
Because Li Tang had previously said that he didn't like his movies and the Hong Kong media had them add insult to injury, Cheng Guo must have felt unhappy, so her tone was rather perfunctory.
Li Tang didn't apologize to him. Basically, good is good and bad is bad. Oh, you are allowed to make movies with all kinds of insinuations, but you can’t allow others to dislike it. There is no such truth at all.
So he just nodded: "Thank you, Director Cheng!"
Several other Hong Kong officials also congratulated Li Tang and Cheng Er as usual.
Zhou Xun on the side looked a little embarrassed and secretly said to Li Tang: "I'm sorry!"
"It's okay. They are them and you are you. You can't even hit them with eight sticks." Li Tang said with a smile.
He understood Zhou Xun quite well. After all, in this industry, many things were beyond his control and could not be determined by his own likes and dislikes.
Zhou Xun breathed a sigh of relief and asked again: "When will you return to China?"
"Tomorrow, I'll book a round-trip ticket when I come here. It'll be cheaper. What about you?"
"I will stay for two more days and leave the day after tomorrow."
"The crew of "The Condor Shooting" will have to wait impatiently."
"Oh, actually I would have gone back earlier, but there was nothing I could do."
Li Tang and Zhou Xun chatted for a while, but were soon interrupted by the enthusiastic Wu Shixian. Although this guy is only one step away from winning the Golden Lion trophy for the best short film, he still has a typical American mentality and is quite relaxed. In his words, it was an unexpected surprise to win the special award in the short film unit this time.
After experiencing today's award ceremony, Li Tang generally had some thoughts. Don't look at the so-called Venice International Film Festival, one of the three largest in Europe. If you want to win awards, in addition to the excellence of your own work, you also need luck and connections.
For example, this time the Indian film "Monsoon Wedding Banquet" was able to defeat the highly popular Austrian film "Dog Days", perhaps because there was no Austrian judge on the jury.
As for winning the award, Li Tang prefers to attribute it to luck. Perhaps out of balance considerations, the jury needs an Asian face to win this award.
When they walked out of the movie palace, the Chinese reporters who had been waiting outside rushed forward. A short, chubby young female reporter rushed to the front like a little piglet, and immediately took the recorder in her hand. Pass it to Li Tang.
"Teacher Li, I am a reporter from Nandu Daily, and my name is Yuan Lei. Congratulations on winning the Best Actor Award in the Upstream Unit. What do you think at this moment?"
"Of course I am happy. I am honored to win an award at a foreign film festival for the first time. Of course, this award is not mine alone. It would be inseparable from the help of our director Cheng, heroine Fan Binbin, and all the cast and crew. It was the hard work of all of us that made this award possible.”
Now when Li Tang talks about these scenes, he is like an old sow flipping through bras, one after another.
"You won the award this time. Do you have any new plans for your future work?"
Li Tang smiled and said: "I can only say that everything is business as usual. It's time to film and film. If there is no new book, then it's time to rest. There is no need to talk about any new plans."
This Nandu Daily reporter named Yuan Lei was a reporter from traditional media that Li Tang met during the film festival. In addition, he had previously been interviewed by Southern Weekend, and he had always had a good impression of this media. He knew that Nandu Daily and Southern Weekend belonged to the same company, and he didn’t mind chatting more.
Then he added: "Actually, for us, being able to go to Venice this time is already a victory. On the one hand, coming to Venice is to study. I watched many excellent movies and came into contact with many internationally renowned actors and directors. For me personally, it is a rare opportunity to improve. On the other hand, it is to sell the film and hope that our film can be seen by more audiences."
"How did the film sell?"
"We have reached a cooperation with the French MK2 company, the largest art cinema chain in France and even Europe, and will be represented by them in the global market except China."
Of course, Li Tang would not give up today's publicity opportunity, and added: "Our film was screened twice at the film festival and was quite popular. I think MK2 Company took a fancy to this and reached an agency agreement with us. Cooperation. "The Third Man" will be released in China on October 11, and I hope that domestic audiences will also like our film."
As soon as he finished speaking, the other reporters couldn't wait any longer. Immediately, a man wearing glasses and speaking awkward Mandarin asked: "I am a reporter from Apple Daily. May I ask Mr. Li, have you ever commented on "Hong Kong has a Hollywood story"? " raised criticism. Now that the only Chinese-language film shortlisted for the main competition has failed to win the award, can it be considered that it was your inappropriate negative remarks that caused it?"
Wow, what a big hat.
Li Tang glanced at the glasses guy who asked the question. He knew very well that the Hong Kong reporter obviously had bad intentions. His question was a provocation. But if you get angry because of this, you will play into the opponent's hands and you will lose. .
With a calm expression on his face, Li Tang glanced around, and sure enough, all the reporters looked at him with expectant eyes. The more sensitive the issue, the more newsworthy it will undoubtedly be.
"First of all, I want to make it clear that I have not criticized the movie "Hollywood in Hong Kong" directed by Cheng Guo. I just said from my personal perspective that I don't like this movie..."
Halfway through his words, the glasses guy couldn't wait to speak again: "Are you denying it?"
He had also dealt with reporters in his previous life, and he knew very well that whether they were American reporters or Hong Kong reporters, they were all taught by the same ancestor.
Their ancestors, the British reporters from Fleet Street, were notorious for being very good at arousing the emotions of the interviewees, and then bringing the interviewees step by step into the rhythm they set, and then taking quotes out of context.
Li Tang was not fooled at all, and just said calmly: "Please let me finish my words. If you have this attitude, then there is no need for me to answer the question."
The reporters at the scene certainly hoped that Li Tang could answer this question, and they all turned their blaming eyes on the glasses guy. Brother Glasses didn't dare to offend the public, so he opened his mouth and finally fell silent in anger.
Li Tang then said: "As an audience, I think I should have the right to express my own opinions. If you like it, you like it, if you don't like it, you don't like it. There is no need for me to tell lies. Secondly, I want to say that just because I don't Like, it is defined as inappropriate negative speech by you. I would like to ask where is the freedom of speech that you have always said? Can I understand that saying what you want to hear is freedom of speech, and saying what you don’t want to hear is not Appropriate negative remarks?”
The guy with glasses was completely unable to refute Li Tang's rhetorical question. The purpose of his question was to try to anger Li Tang, create antagonism between the two parties, and pin the blame on the other party for "Hong Kong's Hollywood" not winning the award. on the head.
It's just that he didn't expect that Li Tang would not follow common sense, and while giving a reasonable and evidence-based rebuttal, he would also throw the question back to him. It was obvious that the other party was trying to control the interview, so he had no choice but to shut up.
Seeing that the other party gave in, Li Tang smiled disdainfully, and then said: "I think as a newcomer participating in the Venice Film Festival for the first time, I don't seem to have the ability to influence the judgment of the jury just by saying something I don't like. So. Unfortunately, the movie "Hollywood in Hong Kong" failed to win the award this time. The only reason may be that the story, aesthetics, and values conveyed by the movie itself were not recognized by the judges, or the film was not recognized by the judges. In the eyes of these judges, this movie is not comparable to the award-winning movies tonight!"
It's hot, I'm sleepy, and I'm not in good condition. I went to bed early and will try to update more tomorrow.
(End of chapter)
