The opening ceremony red carpet was held at six o'clock in the evening. In the afternoon, Li Tang returned to the hotel and started to pack up.
The brand that endorses suits this time has prepared five sets of dresses for him. Today he chose a traditional black dress, a white shirt with a black bow tie, and a slicked-back hairstyle.
Zeng Jia helped him clean it up, looked at it carefully, and said with satisfaction: "Not bad, the whole thing looks like a beach."
In fact, that's all it takes after walking too many red carpets. Li Tang has long lost the nervousness he felt when he first stepped on the red carpet in Venice and looked very calm. As an actor, you show off your skills and your face. He now plays the role of a product salesman, showing his best side in front of the cameras of reporters around the world. Just like the packaging of a product, it first attracts everyone's attention, and then makes them pay attention to your work.
At about 5:30, Zhang Ziyi, who had been in the room all day, finally appeared. The moment he saw her, Li Tang couldn't help but his eyes lit up. It is said that women are three-thirds of their appearance and seven-thirds of their dress. Perhaps she is used to Xiao Zhang’s plain face. At this time, she changed from her past simple style, with bright red lips, just the right crescent eyebrows, red lips and white teeth. The appearance is bright and attractive.
The long hair that was originally shawl has now become a neatly tied bun, and with exquisite makeup, the whole person looks very capable. She wore a seemingly simple black off-shoulder evening gown, but she couldn't ignore the bright and bright diamond earrings on her ears, the luxurious sapphire ring on her right ring finger, and the exaggeratedly designed bracelet on her wrist.
All of these combinations easily highlight the sense of luxury, and with the blessing of these accessories, they are elevated and suppressed, which just right balances the simple design and single color of this black sloping shoulder evening dress, without appearing exaggerated and complicated.
The pair of silver fish-mouth high heels on her feet were designed with stiletto heels and high waterproof platforms, making her originally petite figure suddenly look taller. This pair of high heels looks a bit high, but when paired with the sloping-shoulder black evening dress, it really looks perfect, giving it a particularly feminine feel.
Seeing Li Tang's reaction, Zhang Ziyi showed a hint of amusement on her face, as if she was saying: "Small, hum, I invited you to drink last night and I didn't even give you face. Now you must be stupid!"
At this time, Zeng Jia, who was next to her, fully demonstrated her super high emotional intelligence and said with an exaggerated expression: "Wow, Ziyi, you are so beautiful today! When you step on the red carpet, you will definitely blind the eyes of those foreigners."
Since I came to Cannes, I wanted to show my most beautiful side to the world. After the disappointment of the last Oscar, today Zhang Ziyi has already held back her energy.
Hearing Zeng Jia's praise, she looked shy at first, then smiled like a spring breeze and said, "Sister Jiajia, you are also very beautiful."
Zeng Jia also tidied up a little today and wore a champagne-colored dress. The slim cut perfectly outlined her figure. The skirt was cleverly designed with layers of tulle, which was both elegant and mysterious.
Wearing a necklace inlaid with pearls on her white neck, although it is not as luxurious and high-profile as what Xiao Zhang wears, it still fully displays her elegance.
It is said that beauty is not in the skin but in the bones, and these two women in front of me are both beautiful women. It's just that today, Xiao Zhang's makeup is more refined and elegant, while Zeng Jia, as a producer, prefers elegance and low-key.
"Let's go, the floor director and Sister An are already downstairs."
When a group of people took the elevator down to the ground floor, the originally large and empty hotel lobby was already crowded with people, all dressed up in costumes.
The moment he walked out of the elevator, Xiao Zhang naturally held Li Tang's arm. Coincidentally, both of them were wearing black dresses today. At this time, they were walking arm in arm together, just like a pair of beautiful lovers. It attracted a lot of people's attention.
"Wow, it's Zi Yi Zhang. I recognize her from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Jackie Chan's Rush Hour 2. She's so handsome! But today she looks even more beautiful!"
"Then who is the buddy next to her?"
"I don't know, who knows!"
"Maybe he's an actor too. He looks familiar."
Along the way, Li Tang heard some whispers from the crowd. This is probably the difference between commercial films and literary films. Commercial films create stars, and Xiao Zhang is indeed an international star.
It's just that Li Tang is still a little unhappy. Unfortunately, "Hero" is currently only released in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is not scheduled to be released in Japan and South Korea until May this year. In the North American and European markets, because of the agent distributor Mira The release date of Max's Sexy Maneuver is still far away. Otherwise, with the wonderful fight scene between my buddy and Li Lianlian in "Hero", I wouldn't be reduced to a passerby, right?
Classmate Xiao Zhang didn't notice, maybe because she can only speak average English. She was looking around in the crowd.
Suddenly Li Tang felt his arms tighten, and then he heard her exclaim in a low voice: "Wow, Meryl Streep is here too!"
Li Tang followed her gaze and saw Aunt Mei in the crowd. Aunt Mei is now younger than he remembered, in her early fifties, with her signature blond hair tied back, and wearing a rose-colored off-the-shoulder dress. This look is easily reminiscent of her look in "Sophie's Choice" when she won her first Oscar as Best Actress, but it's a pity that she is already old.
Seeing the excited look on Xiao Zhang's face, Li Tang couldn't help but ask: "Have you not participated in the Oscars twice? Haven't you seen it?"
"I saw it once, when I attended the Oscars ceremony for the first time, but I was too far away that time and couldn't see clearly. I didn't attend this year's Oscars." Xiao Zhang said with a look of regret.
It seems that Aunt Mei is her idol, so Li Tangchao said, "Would you like to go over and say hello?"
"..."
Classmate Xiao Zhang looked confused. He hesitated for a moment but shook his head and said, "Forget it, maybe she doesn't even know who I am?"
She is currently only labeled as a hit girl, and it is inevitable that she feels a little inferior in front of Aunt Mei, who has won two Oscars, the Best Actress at Cannes, and the Best Actress in Berlin.
Li Tang rarely saw Zhang Ziyi as a young woman and couldn't help but smile.
"Why are you laughing?" Xiao Zhang raised his head and asked dissatisfied.
"You're not smiling. Since you don't dare to go over and say hello, then don't stand there and let's go!"
At this time, they saw Nai An waving to them in the crowd.
Today, Nai'an rarely wore a dark green cheongsam that showed the Chinese style. It complemented Lou Ye, who was wearing a black tunic suit next to him.
That is to say, Lou Ye, who has a hairy head, is shorter. If he were taller, he would really look like a combination of Chang Gong Kaishen and Song Meiling.
"Wow, Ziyi, Li Tang, you guys have agreed upon this, right?" Nai'an couldn't help but be surprised when he saw the two of them wearing black couple-style dresses.
"No, it was made by a stylist from Li Jiapo. It is said that several plans were prepared. I just dressed it up casually. I can only say that it makes sense." Li Tang glanced at classmate Xiao Zhang and said with a smile.
Upon hearing the teasing, classmate Xiao Zhang immediately threw away the hand holding Li Tang's arm, pretending to be angry and ready to hit him, and then said coquettishly to Nai'an: "Sister An, look at him, he always bullies me!"
"Look at you, don't always bully Ziyi, don't forget that you are still taking advantage of Ziyi today, be careful not to take advantage of you!" Nai'an also pretended to vent his anger for classmate Xiao Zhang.
Even though Li Tang has participated in the Venice Film Festival twice, this is also his second time in Cannes, but I have to say that his popularity overseas is far less than that of Zhang Ziyi. Just like when they heard the discussion in the crowd, everyone would only marvel at the little Classmate Zhang, and Li Tang are just familiar faces.
Moreover, the movie poster of "Purple Butterfly" hanging in the movie palace also focuses on classmate Xiao Zhang. As the male lead, Li Tang can only be the man behind her.
The key is that due to the dual impact of the epidemic and the war in Iraq, the opening ceremony of this film festival was dim. There have long been rumors that many Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Zeta Jones, and Uma Thurman, who were originally invited by the organizer as early as half a year ago, are all absent. Even Nicole Kidman, who was shortlisted for the main competition with "Dogville" and is a popular actress, was absent from the red carpet of the opening ceremony of the film festival due to scheduling reasons. She would not attend the film until the premiere on the 21st. will come.
To put it bluntly, Americans are causing trouble everywhere, and under the threat of Ben Lamp, these Hollywood stars are afraid.
The good thing about the dim starlight is that newly rising international celebrities like Xiao Zhang can attract a lot of media shots at any time, and Li Tang, who is standing next to her, will naturally benefit from it.
While several people were joking, Lou Ye kept watching with a smile. It could be seen that he was very satisfied with the outfits of Li Tang and Zhang Ziyi. As long as it can attract attention on the red carpet, the movie "Purple Butterfly" will also attract more attention.
But when Li Tang saw that there were only Nai'an and Lou Ye, he couldn't help but ask: "Then Xiao Baga really didn't catch up?"
"I arrived in Paris this morning and couldn't make it in time." Nai'an sighed.
Originally, Hiroshi Nakamura was also going to attend the opening ceremony red carpet, but this guy was too heavy and flew to Paris for a connecting flight, just in time to catch up with the general strike, so he was trapped in Paris and might not be able to come over until tomorrow.
Speaking of which, the elements of Japanese films at this year's film festival are quite strong. Among the twenty films shortlisted for the main competition, there are two Japanese films, namely "Sara" by Japanese female director Naomi Kawase and "Sara" by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. bright future".
The Baril Hotel is right next to the Cinema Palace, and it only takes two or three minutes to walk there. Many filmmakers are not in a hurry to go to the Cinema Palace, so the hotel lobby has become a large social place at this time. Everyone greeted each other and talked about movies, and the atmosphere was extremely relaxed.
Many people also took the initiative to say hello to Lou Ye. As the winner of the Golden Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the Paris International Film Festival, the director whose film style is closest to the French New Wave film, Lou Ye is very popular among French filmmakers. Popular and often treated as one of our own. Moreover, Lou Ye himself likes France very much. He often goes back to France to visit when he has nothing to do. Even though he was robbed twice, his love for France has not diminished at all.
But Lou Ye is indeed a sociopath...well, it's not actually a sociophobia. He just talks too little and only smiles. When faced with French people who talk incessantly, the most he can say is out of his mouth. A bad French word or two. I wouldn’t say it’s like someone who established a “social terror” persona in China, but when he went abroad, he seemed like a different person, chatting and laughing everywhere.
Of course, Diao Yinan and Ning Hao, who came to Europe for the first time, had gained a lot of experience this time. Although they were wearing straight formal clothes, they were always tense, with a look of embarrassment and stiffness on their faces.
At around 6:30, everyone went out in twos and threes to the movie palace. After all, those who can stay at the Baril Hotel are not small celebrities, and the order of appearance on the red carpet is relatively low.
Li Tang and his party also went to the Movie Palace at this time. Theoretically speaking, Li Tang can walk on the red carpet four times this time, as the star of "Purple Butterfly" and "Second Brother" and the producer of "Uniform" and "Incense". It's just that he's not the kind of star who shows off his face on the red carpet, so there's no need to go there again and again. And except for the blessing of classmate Xiao Zhang in "Purple Butterfly", he himself may not have much camera attention.
But what surprised him was that when he and Zhang Ziyi walked on the red carpet hand in hand, they actually heard someone in the crowd of movie fans shouting the names "Ma Dan" and "Huo Wei".
It seems that this generation of movie fans is quite impressive, but they still remember Ma Da in "Suzhou River" and his role as He Wei in "The Third Man".
Art films are shown for a long time. Both of these films sold quite well in French art theaters, but after all, they are niche and it is very rare for movie fans to recognize him.
Europeans pay attention to tradition, and the red carpet and opening ceremony of each film festival are similar. Perhaps the only thing that made Li Tang excited was that the host of the opening ceremony of this year's film festival was the Italian sexy goddess Monica Bellucci. These sisters are old acquaintances with him. It was she who awarded him the award when he won the Best Actor Award in the Against the Current category in Venice.
These sisters are also considered late bloomers. They became popular in the new millennium with "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily". Last year, they starred in the movie "Irrevocable" starring French "Guillot" Vincent Cassel, which was very popular in France. They also participated in competed for the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival.
The opening ceremony was lackluster, and this year's opening movie "Tulips" was equally boring. This is the 17th remake of a French classic costume film. People may be more willing to talk about the heroines Penelope Cruz and Ahmet. Tom's romance, rather than the legendary French heroine she displayed on the big screen.
The red carpet of the opening ceremony, the opening ceremony, the opening movie, and then the large-scale reception held by the organizer at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel. After the busy work, it was already close to midnight.
Li Tang, who was half full from the cocktail party and still in good spirits, was still thinking about it on the way back to the hotel with classmate Xiao Zhang. Will classmate Xiao Zhang invite him for another drink tonight? Should I go or not?
But it was a pity that Xiao Zhang, who looked tired, said good night to each other at the door of his room and went straight in.
With a slight "click", Li Tang stood at the door of his room with a look of regret.
Alas, as expected, there is no such store after passing this village.
Nasal congestion, headache, the old stomach problem has returned, and my condition is extremely bad!
(End of chapter)
