new kung fu king

Chapter 643 Oriental Joan of Arc, Stunning Cannes

After entering the 80s, the Cannes Film Festival has become more complete in terms of activities than before, but generally speaking, it is still divided into two parts: official competition and non-competition.

There are two groups of jury members to judge feature films and short films respectively. The formal competition part is composed of people from the film culture circles of various countries. Their rigorous judging votes will result in big prizes.

The non-competition part is mainly about promoting newcomers. After the establishment of the "Directors' Fortnight" and "A Kind of Concern", many directors with great potential or achievements have been discovered.

Although Wang Xiaohu has not participated in the Cannes Film Festival, he also has a relatively wide influence in the world film circle. Winterdur directly skipped the two units of "Director's Fortnight" and "Weekly Focus" when signing up.

After the battle of "Film Critics Week", "Mulan" and "The Great Disappearance", "A Woman's Identity", "Road to Freedom", "Nights in San Lorenzo", "Fitzcarrado", More than a dozen films including "Another Line of Sight" have entered the stage of formal competition.

What this shows, it shows that "Mulan" is now qualified to compete for the Palme d'Or, Best Director, Jury Prize, and Best Actor and Actress.

Could it be that Winterdur would be so excited? His old face had a smile like a blooming chrysanthemum, and he kept waving his hands back and forth, "Boss, as I said a long time ago, your strength is definitely capable of entering this In the link, haha, I admire my foresight more and more. If I knew this, I should have taken "Myth" to participate in the Cannes Film Festival back then, and I might have won some awards!"

"Come on, "Myth" is a standard commercial film!"

Wang Xiaohu still has no specific idea about the awards at the Cannes Film Festival, not to mention that Lao Wen also said that now it is only a shortlisted unit, and there are more intense battles waiting for "Mulan".

"Being shortlisted is already the biggest victory!" Winterdur rubbed his hands happily and said, "It's much better than MGM who returned empty-handed!"

"That fellow Kerkorian won't be using "Casino Royale" to participate in the film festival?" Wang Xiaohu asked in amazement.

Winterdur nodded strangely and said, "Yes, if it wasn't for his background in the mafia, it would have been even more difficult to sign up. Unfortunately, he was just going through the motions."

Mafia, the corner of Wang Xiaohu's right eye couldn't help twitching. Hearing this name gave him a subconscious sense of disgust. He thought of Fat. That's right, it was the one who deliberately used prohibited drugs first, and then used muscle oscillators to kill him. Brother Xiaolong's scum!

According to Fart's recording, he was probably hired by the Mafia or other organizations to murder Bruce Lee, but unfortunately their conspiracy was discovered and disintegrated by Wang Xiaohu in time.

After confirming the cooperative relationship with Kerkorian, Wang Xiaohu quickly learned that Kerkorian was a key member of the Mafia. Imagine if he wasn't a key member of the Mafia, how could he become a gambler in Las Vegas? king?
So for a long time, Wang Xiaohu maintained a close relationship with Kerkorian, and was always on guard against him.The strange thing is that Kerkorian did not have the slightest precautions in this regard. In other words, he may not have participated in the plan to murder Bruce Lee. A good partnership, at least in terms of film development, he has to rely on Wang Xiaohu as a cash cow.

Just when Wang Xiaohu was wandering in vain, he felt that his arm was twisted severely, and after he yelled, he found his wife was looking at him with dissatisfied eyes.

"what happened?"

Zhao Yazhi said with a stern face: "Just now, Old Wen asked you if you want to go to the screening to see the release of "Mulan" at night, but you are here in a daze."

"Uh, do you want to see the release of "Mulan"? Of course!" Wang Xiaohu shrugged.

What Wang Xiaohu didn't know was that at this time, the entire Cannes Film Festival had a strong interest in the film "Mulan".

On the one hand, this interest comes from the fact that mainland China has entered the development stage of reform and opening up. The French believe that China has gradually embarked on a trend of becoming stronger, and thus express a very friendly attitude towards China.

So when the judges saw that a Chinese film was registered, they all watched the film immediately.

On the other hand, it is because of the trailer of "Mulan", which is quite unfamiliar to most people in the film industry. The trailer of "Mulan" is very short. Chow Yun-fat, Stephen Chow, Xiong Xinxin, Yu Rongguang and other "green leaves" " Almost flashed by, and the rest were all shots of "Mulan" Brigitte Lin.

The scenes are almost all war scenes, Brigitte Lin is wearing armor and fully armed, majestic riding or fighting, powerful and cruel war scenes, accompanied by Brigitte Lin's melodious dubbing: "Behind us is our hometown, we will desperately protect her, today We will die in battle, generals can betray me, soldiers can deceive me, but I, Hua Mulan, will never betray my country!"

Every word is paused, full of solemnity and excitement, and the series of high-spirited repeated questions at the end is even more shocking.

"Are you afraid of death?"

"Are you afraid of death?"

"Are you afraid of death?"

"Not afraid!"

"Not afraid!"

"Not afraid!"

The soldiers of the Northern Wei Dynasty in the Battle of the Trapped Beast raised their long swords and shields and responded neatly and loudly. That kind of formation, that kind of momentum, almost made everyone who watched the trailer feel excited!

Coupled with the "mysterious" posters posted by the staff of Concorde International in the exhibition area, it makes people even more curious about "Mulan".

The jury gave high praise to the film.

An elderly judge said: "It's hard to believe that Tiger King, who has always been shooting commercial films, showed his talents in this film, and even filmed a wonderful woman in a turbulent era with such climaxes, exciting!"

"As far as the film is concerned, the commercial value may be stronger, but the artistic achievements are also unmistakable, and these are not only brought by the oriental beauty, the whole film is more like a discussion of the deep thinking caused by the war."

"I see the shadow of Joan of Arc in Mulan!" A French judge said excitedly: "Yes, this feeling becomes stronger and stronger in the middle of the film!"

In France, Joan of Arc is hailed as a heroine and saint, and even four centuries after her death, various records about her will never fade.

Napoleon had a high opinion of Joan of Arc and considered her the savior of France.After the death of Joan of Arc, French nationalism was on the rise, and there were many historical materials and researches on Joan of Arc. The French Patriotic Movement (French right-wing political organization) promoted her with her great image.And she has been sung by a host of writers and composers, including Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht, and a plethora of Her films, plays, and music continue to develop to this day.

In England, out of fear and resentment towards Joan, the British called her a witch.Including Shakespeare in the first part of "Henry VI", a historical drama describing the corruption of the French royal family, Joan of Arc is portrayed as a witch.However, in modern times, "if Britain won the Hundred Years' War and annexed France, then today's liberalism would not exist in Britain, and in the end Joan of Arc also rescued Britain" also emerged.

In short, the French have planned "Mulan" into their own ranks, and regard it as the Chinese version of Joan of Arc. should be respected and admired.

As soon as it was hyped by the French judges, more people paid attention to "Mulan".

So when Wang Xiaohu, Zhao Yazhi and Brigitte Lin came to the screening, they were a little surprised.

"There are quite a lot of people." Wang Xiaohu muttered, and Zhao Yazhi, who was holding his arm, said with a smile: "Of course, it seems that Lao Wen is not lazy, and the publicity effect is good."

It is crowded with people of all colors, including tourists, film workers, film producers from all over the world, even beauties, handsome men, and of course media reporters.

The three of Wang Xiaohu sat down in the last few rows, surrounded by a few young people holding notebooks and other things, writing something.

When the lights in the screening hall dimmed, the group of people stopped working and raised their heads to stare at the big screen.

It is still the abstract Yin-Yang Tai Chi fish logo of Concorde, but at this time the audience in the screening room felt a very oriental sentiment.

When the screen is dark, it does not directly enter the theme of the film, but shows the small flowers blooming in the melodious and elegant music. The color of this flower is slightly pink, slightly blue and yellow, and it is blooming from all directions of the screen. Gather in the middle, and when the petals are arranged neatly according to the law, there are three big characters of "Mulan" on the screen, and next to these three big characters is the English film title "mulan".

At the same time as the film title was formed, several children's voices were still singing "chirp, chirp, chirp, Mulan is weaving", and then the voice gradually faded away, and batches of fast horses flashed on the screen, and the men on horseback rushed past with solemn expressions. A series of checkpoints came to Wei's palace.

"Report! Rouran's army is overwhelming, the border is at high risk"

The picture changed again with a soft montage technique. In an ordinary thatched house, Hua Mulan was sitting in front of the spinning wheel. When her beautiful face appeared on the big screen, there was a burst of exclamation in the screening hall.

"What a beautiful oriental woman."

"Is she the Joan of Arc in the trailer?"

"Oriental Joan of Arc."

The young people around Wang Xiaohu were talking in low voices, and the voices reached the ears of Wang Xiaohu and Zhao Yazhi. The latter tilted his head and explained to Lin Qingxia, who was not very proficient in English: "Qingxia, they are praising you."

(End of this chapter)