director of the millennium

Chapter 63 Berlin Premiere (please read it!)
After the lively opening ceremony on February 2, the films that came to participate in this Berlin Film Festival began to be screened.

Most films come to Berlin for screenings to sell copyrights and negotiate distribution.

Approximately [-] film industry professionals attend the Berlin Film Festival every year, and one-third of them are distributors from around the world who come specifically to purchase films.

Films such as "The Big Shot", "The Man at [-]", "Dazzling Eyes" and "Happy Days" came to Berlin just to sell the rights, and each chose a date and theater screening.

Naturally, the crew of "The Undertaker" also received invitations from these crews to watch the movie, and everyone readily accepted and attended the meeting.

Wu Yuan was busy after the opening ceremony.

It was not just the Chinese Legion crew that invited him to the screening, but many American and European film crews also invited him to the premiere.

In particular, the other 22 films that were also shortlisted for the main competition unit all sent invitation letters to him.

In addition to the films of other major directors, from the 7th to the 16th, for ten days, he will participate in the Berlin screening of nearly 30 films, and he will watch an average of 3 films per day.

The most popular film at this year's Berlin Film Festival is "Bloody Sunday". This film was scheduled to be screened on the 10th, and Wu Yuan also went to watch it.

The theme of this movie is actually very simple, it is the story of a demonstration, based on the real history of "Blood Sunday" in Northern Ireland in 1972.

There is no doubt that this film came to Berlin at the right time. The judges of the Berlin International Film Festival always like this kind of political films and this kind of "resistance" story.

After the screening, the show brochure of Berlin Live gave the film a high score of 3.6 (out of 4.0)!
It was followed by "Spirited Away", which was screened on the 9th. This film also received a score of 3.4 in the show magazine. The media on the scene had a very good reputation, but everyone did not think that this film would win the Golden Bear Award. .

After all, this is an anime movie, and the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival has never been awarded to an anime movie before!
"Spirited Away" is indeed a classic animation film, but the journalists of the venue do not think that this film can break the precedent of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Wu Yuan went to see both movies, and they were both really good. But if he had to choose, he would prefer the movie "Spirited Away". After all, he has never been interested in political-themed movies.

It's a pity that Wu Yuan is not a member of the Berlin jury.

The time will soon come to December 2st.

This day is the second day of the Lunar New Year in China. Two nights ago, Wu Yuancai and other Chinese film crews celebrated New Year's Eve in a Chinese restaurant in Berlin and had a reunion banquet.

Today, the Berlin premiere of "The Embalmer" begins.

The Berlin Organizing Committee still attaches great importance to the film "The Undertaker", and the premiere was arranged at the CinemaxX cinema, which is the fourth largest in Berlin and next to the Berlin Film Palace.

This theater can accommodate 1500 spectators, which is enough for Wu Yuan to hold a grand premiere!
To this end, Wu Yuan also sent out invitations and also invited the other 22 shortlisted crews of the main competition unit to attend the Berlin premiere of "The Embalmer".

Not a single one of the Chinese Legion was left behind.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Wu Yuan, Han Dong, Chen Yuan, Zhang Guorong and others were busy welcoming the invited guests to the theater. The theater, which can accommodate 1500 spectators, was full in a short time.

Wu Yuan is no longer Wuxia Amon, there are many media and film critics in Berlin who want to see his first literary film!
The jury for this year's Berlin Film Festival was also present, but Wu Yuan did not have much communication with them, he just said hello.

The judges must be careful in their words and deeds during the film festival and are prohibited from discussing the shortlisted films with anyone who is not a member of the jury. The same goes for Wu Yuan.

After the jury arrives, the premiere of "The Embalmer" officially begins.

Wu Yuan has always done things without sloppiness, and he is not used to talking about film concepts, artistic thinking, and hard work during the premiere.

He took advantage of the time and walked on stage before the official screening of the movie and said in Chinese and English: "Thank you very much for coming to the premiere of "The Embalmer"."

"Hope you guys enjoy the movie."

After the words fell, the lights of the cinema dimmed, and with the dragon logo on the big screen lit up, "The Undertaker" began to be screened.

As soon as the movie opened, it was on a Peking opera stage, and several Peking opera actors in heavy makeup and costumes were singing the famous "Farewell My Concubine" on the stage.

The Peking Opera, full of oriental classical beauty, immediately attracted the interest of most of the guests present.

Sitting in the second row, Director Yimou looked at the familiar scene, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

He could see that in the opening scene of "The Undertaker", Wu Yuan borrowed the lens aesthetics used by Chen Kaige in "Farewell My Concubine".

Not only him, but also many directors and film critics at the scene could see it.

"Farewell My Concubine" is not a small movie, it is a work known as the pinnacle of Chinese art films.

Many movie-watching guests showed knowing smiles.

In the film industry, it is not an embarrassing thing to learn from and pay tribute to outstanding predecessors.

The [sliding zoom] lens language created by Hitchcock has been borrowed and imitated by countless directors for decades.

The classic shots of film masters such as Akira Kurosawa, Spielberg, lens master Yang Suo, David Lean, etc., have been borrowed by countless movies for decades.

If Wu Yuan is an old man in his 60s or [-]s and still borrows from others in his own movies, he will indeed be looked down upon.

But Wu Yuan is only 20 years old in half a year this year. He is an extremely young director!

His tribute to his predecessors in the movie will only make the audience feel interesting and moved, and even feel the power of film art inheritance.

What's even more interesting is that the scene quickly turned to the backstage, and the camera focused on Zhang Guorong who was playing with a suona.

The Peking Opera "Farewell My Concubine" is being performed at the front desk, and Zhang Guorong once played the leading actor Cheng Dieyi in the movie "Farewell My Concubine".

This kind of screen switching makes people laugh after watching it.

But to pay tribute, just click here.

Soon, the movie entered the feature film. Zhang Guorong, who had performed the play, received a notice that the troupe would be disbanded, and he would face unemployment.

The male protagonist, who has just bought a house in his hometown and has almost wiped out his savings, will find it difficult to stay in a big city like Beijing once he loses his job.

After looking for a job everywhere to no avail, he could only bring his wife back to his hometown, a safe haven.

In his hometown, by chance, he saw a job advertisement on a telephone pole and was tricked into going for an interview. He found a job that was not so acceptable to ordinary people and often faced scorn and rejection by others.

At the beginning, he didn't know what the job was about. As a new employee, he worked as a mannequin and played a dead person in front of the camera.

The boss and teacher touched his body and talked to the camera about how an embalmer should work, which made him understand that he had found such a job.

But in order to support his family, he had no choice but to keep going.

And in the work experiences that frightened him time and time again, he also realized the meaning and true meaning of life.

It's just that his hometown is just a small city, so it's hard to keep any secrets. Soon relatives and friends know about his work.

His childhood friends despised his work very much. Even his wife chose to leave him because she thought he was dirty and couldn't stand the person next to her pillow touching herself with the hand that wiped the body of the deceased.

Even so, he did not give up his job because of this blow, but insisted on the job of "let the deceased walk beautifully".

Facing the pressure from relatives and friends who do not understand him, and from his wife who left him, the male protagonist stands at the foot of the high snow mountain with a suona that he has played since childhood, and puts all his emotions into a sad song In "Big Funeral", music is used to express emotions and at the same time strengthen faith.

The plain camera work and Zhang Guorong's wonderful interpretation made the climactic plot prepared by Wu Yuan play its due effect!

Under the emotional outburst of the film, all audience members were filled with emotion and their backs were numb!
　Originally, the movie should be written in one chapter, but the editor asked me to update the word count under control, and try to recommend it for the next week, so I posted it in two chapters. Anyway, the two chapters were sent out in one go, so it shouldn't affect everyone's reading .

　　I implore everyone to try to catch up on it every day during this time. There will definitely be more updates on the day of the shelves, and there will be 8-10 chapters more guaranteed!
　　


(End of this chapter)