Made in Hollywood

The Toronto International Film Industry was established in 1976. After two decades of hard work, it has developed into an annual event for 400,000 people.

In recent years, the Toronto Film Festival’s transaction volume has been close to Cannes, and the number of movie viewers is almost as high as the Berlin Film Festival. Especially in the eyes of North American audiences, it is the world’s number one international film festival—Oscars are recognized as a Hollywood event— Cannes must all stand aside, and the hot films at the film festival always attract the attention of the entire North American market.

At the same time, this is the most useful and active film festival recognized by the industry.

"Useful and active", in addition to its lively market, which is a sweeping market with huge film turnover, it also lies in its organization and positioning-no jury is set up, and all audience fans vote for "Audience Choice" Grand Prize".

Therefore, the most important aspect of the Toronto Film Festival is the screening session. In ten days, there will be more than 300 films screened. Only the print schedule will have 200 pages. This is for anyone participating in the festival. It is catastrophic. Even if you go to bed late and get up early, you can only watch about one-tenth of it. Everyone has to make various plans and trade-offs in the massive movies.

There are two types of screenings at the film festival. One is media and film shopping malls. You can √ if you have relevant certificates. You usually have seats when you enter to watch. The goal is to sell the copyright of the film; the other is the public arena, where the audience needs If you buy tickets, the media and film studios can also enter, but they have to line up like audiences.

Because "Chicago" does not sell copyrights at all, it is only shown in public.

At this film festival, it seems that all the films shown have equal chances, but it is not.

Since there is no main competition unit, there is no star-studded red carpet, and the media's publicity role has also been largely cut off. With so many films participating in the show, and everyone's energy is relatively limited, why should the audience choose a movie?

Thus, in the long list of screenings, the films of famous directors and celebrities have become the most attractive places for the audience.

no doubt. The two names Duke and Tom Cruise are hard to come by.

The first screening of "Chicago" was held at 7pm on the second day of the festival. At about 6:30, Tom Cruise had sent his assistant to the theater to watch it, but there were a few lines at the door. The long queue of a hundred people is full of audiences and reporters from all over the world. Although these people waited anxiously, they did not enter the venue because the theater was full just after six o'clock.

Never doubt the enthusiasm of the audience at the festival. The influence of Duke and Tom Cruise's first collaboration is enough to achieve a sensational effect.

At the Toronto Film Festival, the audience has a bad habit, probably because there are a large number of newcomer works and some experimental films by some directors in the previous film festivals. No matter what kind of film ends, the audience will always give them extremely enthusiastic The applause will last for tens of seconds.

and so. "Chicago" is subtitled, which is the second largest theater in Toronto. When more than a thousand people stood up and applauded, Duke and the rest of the crew did not care too much. Even experimental films from Iran or South Korea would receive such applause after the screening.

Duke also stood up and applauded, looking back. Movie fans are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, which is also a major feature of the Toronto Film Festival, and it also has the title of middle-aged and elderly film festival.

Why is the final selection of the award-winning film selected by the audience at the Toronto Film Festival always close to the taste of Oscars? This may be one of the reasons.

"Chicago" to participate in the Toronto Film Festival is actually very targeted.

In the next interactive session. There was a very interesting scene. Several rows of middle-aged and elderly aunts formed an alliance tacitly. They praised Tom Cruise's performance and singing and dancing in the film. The way was enthusiastic and open. It seems that Liangtang has a trend of becoming a middle-aged and elderly idol in advance. .

Frankly speaking, Duke believes that Cruise's performance in "Chicago" has indeed made great progress, and he has gone beyond the low-level stage of being cool and handsome. After all, even a pig, it took more than half a year to prepare a movie. After shooting for nearly four months in the torment of repeating ng, there will be breakthroughs.

After the noisy audience interaction ended, Warner Bros. had arranged for reporters long ago and asked Duke and other crew members some questions. This was entirely for publicity.

"Director Rosenberg, what do you think of this collaboration with Mr. Cruise?"

Standing on the stage in front of the screen, after the reporter’s question, the microphone was passed from other people to Duke. He said, “I want to explain the situation first. Tom has been taking dance lessons for this film for more than half a year. In the vocal music class, his efforts are admirable, and the level of performance is obvious to all."

For the sake of need, Duke lied without drafts at all. "Tom is the actor I most want to work with. Any director who works with Tom will feel relaxed. I don’t know why. The outside world has always criticized Tom, but I think this is While spreading rumors, the Tom I saw was a serious, hardworking, humble, and extremely talented actor."

The reporter then asked Cruise again. Even if Liangtang would no longer be a human being, he knew what to say now, and he couldn't help but praise Duke and all the members of the crew.

After routinely asking Zeta Jones and Naomi Watts a few more questions, a reporter from a Warner-owned gossip media stood up.

"Duke, judging from the recent news in the media, you and Miss Zeta Jones are very close, are you dating?"

This is a pre-set question. Pani Kellys also worked out the answer. Duke turned his head and looked at Zeta Jones, who was looking to him, and said, "Kate is very beautiful and charming. The production process brought me a lot of help and inspiration. I was lucky to meet her. We are very good friends now."

Without waiting for the reporter to ask another question, Robin Grand, who presided over the interaction, declared it over, and the crew quickly exited.

The Toronto Film Festival has neither a formal opening ceremony nor a formal closing ceremony. The crews that come to the exhibition often leave Toronto soon after participating in a screening. The crew of "Chicago" will not stay here for long, but will still Staying for two more days, this is now a gathering place for media reporters, whether it is Duke and Zeta Jones, or Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, they can create some topics.

The next day, Duke and Catherine Zeta Jones took to the streets of Toronto hand in hand. In addition to the reporters from Warner who followed up, there were also many other reporters from Europe and the United States, especially from Fleet Street. , Seeing the two walking on the side of the road holding hands, they almost rushed to the front and patted them.

Duke turned a blind eye to these, just whispering a few words with Zeta Jones from time to time, and he was extremely intimate, and then when he was transferred to a movie theater, he bought two tickets and went into the theater and watched a South Korean show without an English translation. After the movie came out, the reporters were basically gone, and they randomly found a street cafe and sat down to drink coffee and chat.

There is almost no other entertainment in Toronto now. Apart from watching movies, the only option is clubbing.

"Do you understand?"

Drinking coffee, Zeta Jones talked about the movie just now, "I don’t understand the lines and the content is inexplicable. I really don’t understand what the director wants to say."

"I can't figure it out either." Duke shrugged.

Zeta Jones put down the coffee cup, "It's a bit boring, I should leave early."

Duke smiled and said, "Almost all of the movies we can see in theaters are commercial movies. The main purpose is to entertain the audience. This is the same everywhere in the world. Including France, which thinks movies are very artistic, actually The movies at the top of its box office charts are purely commercial films."

"Film is always diversified." He continued, "Always give niche art films and experimental films a certain amount of living space. In fact, film festivals are the only place where many films of this type have a sense of existence. We may never see it in theaters, only at film festivals."

"You always make sense."

There seemed to be a flashing light outside the glass window, and Zeta Jones took Duke's hand tacitly, making the two of them seem more intimate, while continuing the topic just now, "Actually, I understand that the audience is here to watch the film? At the Toronto Film Festival, hundreds of feature films are available in any genre, so you can watch them at will."

"So, the only important thing for the audience to come here is to watch the film." Duke gently scratched the palm of Zeta Jones's hand, and when she laughed, said, "The function of the film festival is not just to put the film and watch the film. ?"

Speaking of this, Duke suddenly remembered the few experience of participating in film festivals in his previous life. It was the second Capital Film Festival in a certain country. It was a large-scale national event with very political and cultural significance. It was held at the famous Square of Prayer for Good Harvests. It was raining that day and it was very cold. The domestic filmmakers who participated in the film festival stood in the cold rain and tormented...

They were pretty good, after all, they couldn't wait too long, and many viewers and reporters waited for three or four hours in the cold rain, and finally waited until the long-delayed event opened.

And everyone is exposed to the cold and rain together, not for the movie, nor to promote the film festival, nor to show the world a new look, just to wait for a leader to speak...

The most troubling thing is that there are no toilets for the audience, reporters and filmmakers. Many people are so cold that they want to pee, but once they go out, unless it is a celebrity face that the public knows, they will inevitably be stopped at the door and can't get in again.

The experience of holding back urine is truly incredible.

Many people on the other side fantasize that their country’s films can rush to the world as soon as possible, smashing Hollywood, but the backwardness of the film industry is not only solved by the film industry, it involves the industrial foundation and social environment. The issue of orientation. (To be continued...)

ps: This month until now, we have been insisting on the third watch. It is not easy for a part-time party. Although there are not many manuscripts saved, we will work hard until the end of the month and cheer for ourselves!