Acting school started in 1998

Chapter 466 Return to Beijing

"Brother, Sister Lingling just told me that they canceled tonight's air tickets and wanted to ask us how to arrange it." Zeng Jia said to Li Tang as she entered the door.

"Did the organizing committee retain him?"

Li Tang was overjoyed when he heard this. If the organizing committee retained him, it would mean that "Purple Butterfly" would win the award.

Compared with the high profile before the premiere, after "Purple Butterfly" premiered last night, the most common reactions were that the camera was too shaky, the story was too complicated, and that it was incomprehensible. The venue magazine "Purple Butterfly" that was just released this morning only ranked seventh, and overall it was not favored.

Zeng Jia shook her head and said: "The organizing committee did not persuade me to stay. It is the overseas distributor who hopes that the crew can persist until the end of the film festival. In addition, they also want to arrange several activities today and tomorrow."

"That's it..."

Li Tang is inevitably a little disappointed. Although he is now a frequent visitor to Cannes and Venice, he has never before been able to win an award in the main competition for a film he starred in.

The two times I was shortlisted for Venice were in the upstream section that was parallel to the main competition section. Although I won a minor Best Actor in Venice, the parallel section was always a level lower than the main competition section.

"Heroes," which was shortlisted for the main competition at Cannes last year and the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, came up empty-handed. Although I won a prize in Cannes this time, the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes is the same as the Upstream section in Venice. They are both competition sections at a lower level than the main competition section. And this time it was Ning Hao who won the award, which was more of an honor on behalf of the company and himself.

Originally, "Second Brother" and "Purple Butterfly" were both shortlisted for the main competition in Cannes this time, so I thought they might have a chance to win a prize. The movie is a collective creation, so even if he gets an encouragement award, he is still honored as the main actor.

"Second Brother" is completely out of the question, with ratings in the program as low as the third from the bottom. After attending "Purple Butterfly" last night, Wang Xiaoshuai took a train to Paris overnight. According to him, since he came to France, he would go to Paris for two days. After the film festival, he would meet up with producer Jiao Xiongping and fly back to Wanwan to discuss the release of "Second Brother" in Wanwan. As for the Mainland, not being punished in the end is already a blessing, and there is no need to think about releasing it.

The only good news is probably that "Second Brother", as a Bay Area film, can apply for this year's Golden Horse Awards. Again, if the movie wins an award, he will be honored as one of the main creators. As for the Golden Horse Best Actor, he didn't even think about it. After all, the film "Second Brother" does not have high performance requirements for the actors. It is difficult to win the award just for such a role.

Li Tang thought about it for a while and then said: "There is no need for us to stay, let's go according to the original plan. I will say hello to Brother Ye and Sister Lingling later."

Overseas publishers' efforts to retain her are nothing more than trying to leverage Zhang Ziyi's popularity overseas to sell copyrights in a few more countries.

One more thing, the sister Lingling mentioned by the two of them is Ji Lingling, the agent of classmate Xiao Zhang. She is a Lijiapo native who has worked hard in the American film and television industry for many years. This can also be understood as the stylist and makeup artist of classmate Mao Xiao Zhang. The teachers were specially invited from Lijiapo.

In fact, classmate Xiao Zhang’s first manager was her brother, so the wealth should not go to outsiders, just like Xiao Yanzi’s manager after the contract with Aunt Qiong Yao’s company was terminated was her sister-in-law.

However, as the saying goes, there are many people who are famous for their right and wrong.

From "My Father and Mother", classmate Xiao Zhang became a blockbuster, to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to enter the international film industry, and then to "Rush Hour 2" to enter Hollywood with brother Cheng Long, and suddenly became an international movie star.

With its astonishing rise in just a few years, it will naturally attract all kinds of criticisms, such as picking up grapes and drinking heavily in the street. After all, International Brother has little experience and doesn’t know how to help his sister with public relations. However, the reporter deliberately dug a hole and said, "Cheng Long still needs to rely on our Ziyi family for hype!"

One sentence caused an uproar. In order to be able to catch up with Brother Cheng Long, his younger sister did everything to be a lowly person, and even was ridiculed in public by a loser who was trying to make it in Hollywood. However, with one word from Brother International, Xiao Zhang's efforts were greatly reduced. All previous efforts were wasted.

Although Xiao Zhang was young, he was determined to kill. After this incident, he decisively fired International Brother and hired Ji Lingling, an experienced Li Jiapo senior agent, as his agent.

Ji Lingling is indeed very capable, and Xiao Zhang's reputation has obviously improved in the past two years. As for the previous scandals, it was Brother International who took all the blame in the end, deliberately creating an arrogant and domineering persona, diverting attention and taking the blame for his sister at the same time.

Li Tang had been in contact with Brother International twice before. Apart from being a braggart and a big talker like most people in the capital, he was actually a pretty good person, quite enthusiastic and cheerful.

Having said that, overseas publishers are interested in the influence of Xiao Zhang, so it is of little use for him, the male lead, to make up the numbers. Besides, he has also won the award, so he should leave as soon as possible.

Ning Hao and Diao Yinan naturally had the same idea as him. Since the boss said he was leaving, no one would want to stay and see.

Especially Ning Hao, holding the framed award certificate in his hand, was eager to go back and show off as soon as possible. A Nortel student can win awards from three major European film festivals, especially the Cannes Film Festival. He is the scorpion daddy - the only one!

At noon, Li Tang said hello to Lou Ye and Zhang Ziyi and said goodbye to them in advance. Of course Lou Ye didn't care. In fact, he couldn't help himself and had no choice. Otherwise, he would rather take his wife and Naian to Paris to visit the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, or sit in a daze on the Place de la Concorde and feed the pigeons. Even watching the crowds on strike and marching on the streets of Paris is a beautiful scenery.

On the other hand, at Xiao Zhang’s place, I heard that Li Tang had not changed his itinerary and would be returning to China this evening. He quickly ran over and hugged his arm. He said angrily: "Oh, Teacher Li, we have agreed to come together." Why are you in such a hurry to go back together again?"

"Who told you that the crew is still waiting for me to go back and start work?" Li Tang looked disdainful.

I had agreed to invite him to have a drink with me in the evening, but he only invited me once and then there was no sound. There was no sincerity at all, so I was too lazy to accompany him.

Of course the above is all a joke.

Although he didn't win the award this time, Xiao Zhang's trip to Cannes was full of rewards. During this period, not only did she attract attention in the domestic media, but she also received a lot of praise from many overseas media, which laid a good foundation for her to enter Hollywood in the future.

In the afternoon, we had afternoon tea at the Baril Hotel. It cost 120 euros per person, which is absolutely staggering if measured by domestic prices. But since I'm here, I have to experience the atmosphere here. It can be regarded as a small internal celebration party for Ning Hao's award last night.

In addition, the main reason is that we are about to leave. Our flight here is at 8pm, and we have to wait until midnight to transfer to Paris, so I need to have some food before departure.

It is said to be afternoon tea, but of course it is for coffee at such an expensive price. However, for such an expensive price, you get what you pay for. The specialty white chocolate caramel coffee cake here tastes quite good. There are also the iconic bow-shaped vanilla peach mousse cake, the chocolate petal-shaped caramel macaron and the pure chocolate-flavored hazelnut chocolate tart, all of which are exquisite, compact and delicious.

In addition to these sweets, the savory ones include red wine foie gras butter bread, salmon asparagus mousse, mascarpone cheese fig orange rolls and local lobster sandwich bamboo charcoal bread, which are also unique and delicious.

Because it was an international flight, the pre-boarding procedures were cumbersome. After having afternoon tea, we departed from the hotel at five o'clock in the afternoon. As a result, when everyone pushed their luggage out of the hotel and prepared to board the car, they were surrounded by a large group of reporters waiting at the door of the hotel.

Tomorrow night is the closing ceremony and awards ceremony. What these domestic media reporters are most concerned about is whether "Purple Butterfly" will win the award.

"Li Tang, if you leave now, does it mean that "Purple Butterfly" will not be eligible for awards?"

"How is it possible? Director Lou Ye and Zhang Ziyi haven't left yet. They have to stick to it until the end of the film festival. I'm mainly still filming. I asked for leave. The crew is still waiting for me. So when I just I already booked my return ticket when I got here.”

"How do you feel about coming to Cannes to attend the film festival this time?"

"Of course I am happy. I saw that "Incense" won an award last night. It is a huge encouragement for us at Tang Film and Television and director Ning Hao."

"The audience for the re-screening of "Purple Butterfly" this morning was very small, and the audience generally complained that the movie was too obscure and difficult to understand, and the character relationships were too complicated, making the story difficult to understand. What do you think of this?"

Regarding this obvious digging problem, Li Tang responded quickly: "No, I don't think the story is difficult to understand at all. Maybe I am too familiar with the story from reading the script, so when watching the movie, I don't care about the story. Wherever I go, I think of all the background descriptions associated with this scene.”

As he spoke, he paused again, glanced at the reporter who looked harmless on the surface, and said seriously: "Lou Ye is a very good director, and his ideas and techniques are all good. Maybe "Purple" "Butterfly" is not as clear-cut as a commercial film, but it is still worth a closer look."

"I'm sorry, please give way, we have to catch a flight."

After answering this question, Li Tang was about to get on the bus under the cover of Zeng Jia, Xiao Zhao, and Du Hua. At this time, another young girl stood on tiptoes outside the crowd and asked loudly: "Teacher Li, may I ask? What are your expectations for "Purple Butterfly" winning? Does Zhang Ziyi hope to win the Best Actress?"

Li Tang saw that the girl was pitiful and could not squeeze in. Thinking that it was not easy for everyone, he paused as he was about to get in the car and said loudly to the girl: "Just wait, we will know tomorrow night If you have it, just take it. If you don’t win, it’s no big deal. How old is Zhang Ziyi? I think with her acting skills, she will win an award one day.”

After saying that, he ignored the reporters' questioning and hurriedly got into the car. Ning Hao, who was behind, quickly followed. As the winner of the "Special Attention" award in the Un Certain Regard category, he was also a hot topic and was surrounded by reporters asking questions.

In fact, this guy is quite a thief. When reporters asked him about his thoughts on winning the award, he had a series of thanks, thanking his parents, thanking the crew, thanking the actors, thanking the school and teachers for cultivating him, and especially thanking Teacher Li for his strong support. Thank you to the party and the government.

When faced with sensitive questions, he would just keep grinning like crazy, until the reporter who asked the question felt embarrassed. He just managed to get by without offending anyone.

We flew from Nice Airport to Paris and then transferred directly to Beijing. Because the flight was delayed for two hours during the transfer in Paris, the return trip took two hours longer than the original trip, which took a total of twenty hours. It was already ten o'clock in the evening on the 26th when we arrived at the Capital Airport in Beijing.

It is conceivable that when they set off from the Cannes Hotel, the domestic side had already received the news, so as soon as they got off the plane, they were once again surrounded by media reporters waiting at the airport.

There was no way, because the flight was delayed, these reporters had to wait at the airport for more than two hours, and they had to deal with it both emotionally and rationally.

The questions were basically the same old ones. They were just asking about my thoughts on this trip to Cannes and predicting whether "Purple Butterfly" would win the award. As for the other film "Second Brother", on the one hand, it may be that the relevant departments requested that it not be reported, and on the other hand, it may also be because the film's screening ratings were so poor that almost no one cared about it.

I was stuck in traffic for almost half an hour before I finally got out.

"Yao Yao, you don't have to follow me. Jiajia, you guys should go back and rest early, just in time to get back the jet lag. Let's talk about anything tomorrow."

Li Tang said goodbye to everyone, and especially told Ning Hao not to forget to send the electronic version of the script to his mailbox.

The driver Shen Lin sent him back to the small courtyard.

Although Zeng Jia went to Cannes with him this time, she must have given instructions in advance and the house had been cleaned up in advance.

I took a shower, and even though it was almost midnight, I was still very energetic and not sleepy because of the jet lag. So I went to the kitchen and ordered a pack of frozen dumplings. The more I drank, the more dumplings there were.

These quick-frozen dumplings are not the ones bought in supermarkets, but ones that Xiaopang brought from home. They were made by Aunt Zhang. There are various kinds of fennel and pork fillings, leek and egg fillings, mackerel fillings, etc., divided into small bags and small bags. Put it in the refrigerator for quick freezing. The outside of the bag is also marked with what kind of filling it is. It is very convenient to take another bag when eating.

Li Tang specially picked a bag filled with leeks and eggs. He was tired of eating Western food in nearly half a month.

During this period, he and Xiaopang basically had a phone call every two or three days. Xiaopang has also been very busy recently. With the popularity of "Jade Guanyin" in the country, she finally tasted the popularity again.

Unlike a few years ago when she was the foil for Xiao Yanzi and Lin Xinru, this time she completely occupied the C position, and with that, she became soft-hearted in various commercial performances and endorsements.

　It’s the end of the month, double the monthly pass, I’d rather ask for it!

　　

　

(End of this chapter)