Looking at the blue sea, as soft as silk, slightly rippling, the refreshing and wet sea breeze with the smell of the sea, although she was not very adapted to the smell of the sea, Li Yange saw the men and women and children around her laughing and playing, and gradually integrated into this joyful atmosphere, sweeping away the haze of her previous rehearsal in Beijing due to long-term rehearsals.

Li Yange leaned on the beach chair, drinking a cold beer leisurely. Thinking of the orchestra that was still in Beijing, he couldn't help but say to himself: "Maybe after I go back this time, it's time to give the orchestra two days off and have a good rest."

"Li Yange, see who is coming."

At this time, Liang Leshu, who accompanied Cheng Shaojun to buy juice, suddenly came over with a man and a woman.

Li Yange looked up and saw that it was Zhang Yimou and Gong Li. While being shocked, he quickly took off his sunglasses and said in surprise: "Director Zhang, Miss Gong, why are you here?"

Zhang Yimou, who hadn't seen for a long time, had a deeper wrinkle on his face than before and his skin became much darker. I don't know if it's been a while since he was still there, but he just heard him say, "Teacher Li, we've been in Cannes for almost a month."

"It's been a month?"

Li Yange raised his eyebrows and immediately remembered Director Zhang's "Red Sorghum" and asked, "Is "Red Sorghum" here to participate in the exhibition?"

"Good. I brought the movie to the exhibition this time. I originally wanted to see if I could get one or two nominations, but you also know the result."

Zhang Yimou squeezed out a helpless smile. He finally convinced the leaders of Xi'an Film Studio to bring the movie to the Cannes Film Festival to see if he could win one or two awards, but he was willing to do so, not only did he not win the award, but he did not even have the qualification to be nominated.

This undoubtedly hit Zhang Yimou's confidence!

In March, Zhang Yimou took "Red Sorghum" to participate in the first Marash International Film and Television Festival in Morocco and won the "Director's Atlas Gold Award", which also made Zhang Yimou's confidence multiply.

In the subsequent "5th Zimbabwe International Film Festival", he also won three awards: "Best Film Award", "Best Director Award" and "Famous Novelty Award in Feature Film".

Although almost no one knows what these two film festivals say, they are overseas awards after all, so after Zhang Yimou proposed to lead a team to Cannes, after some discussion, the superiors approved 50,000 yuan in funds to Zhang Yimou and asked him to lead a team to Cannes.

50,000 yuan may be a lot in the mainland, but according to the current exchange rate, it is only more than 10,000 US dollars. This time, the Cannes Film Festival is another month, and it costs money to fly in a hotel to eat, drink, and defecate. There is no way to go. Zhang Yimou had to pay out of his own pocket and find someone to get together for 100,000 yuan. Then he brought the two starring actors, producer and photographer Gu Changwei to Cannes together.

Perhaps because he won two consecutive foreign awards, Zhang Yimou had very high expectations for this movie. He thought that even if he could not win the award in the main competition unit, there should still be expectations for the unit award. (The latter is an award that encourages new directors around the world, and it is like a waste of money if you don’t have any choice)

But in fact, Zhang Yimou was overthinking. Although he had a record of winning twice, he won the Best Actor Award at the 2nd Tokyo International Film Festival for "Old Well" in 1986, becoming China's first A-level International Film Festival winner. However, the scale and influence of the Cannes Film Festival are far from those two small awards, and the Tokyo Film Festival that has only held two sessions.

Hundreds of movies that have come from all over the world to participate in the exhibition include "The Last Emperor" with an investment of more than 20 million US dollars, and "The King of Children" directed by Chen Kaige, who is also a competitor in China.

You should know that the movie "King of Children" not only won the nomination for the "Best Education Contribution Award", but also won the "Palme d'Or" in the main competition unit.

It can be said that in terms of starting conditions, it is far superior to Zhang Yimou.

Therefore, this is also the reason why Zhang Yimou looked melancholy at this time.

Although his relationship with Chen Kaige is OK, the two have been working for the Western Film Studio for the past two years. Under the view of outsiders and leaders, they have more or less the idea of ​​treating each other as competitors. Now Chen Kaige has been successfully selected for the Golden Palm Tung Award in the main unit with "King of Children", while Zhang Yimou himself has lost his soul and returned empty-handed.

Looking at Cheng Shaojun, Liang Leshu and Gong Li not far away playing with the sand, Li Yange was wondering whether the two of them had already had a hookup at this time, while thinking about what Zhang Yimou said just now.

After a while, Li Yange patted Zhang Yimou's arm, pointed to Dahai and said, "Director Zhang, do you know that the direction I'm pointing?"

"The sea?" Zhang Yimou raised his eyebrows, a little confused.

"No, it's Germany!" Li Yange said: "I have watched your videos many times and they were very good. Whether it is colors or light and shadow, they are absolutely impeccable. Next month is the opening day of the German Berlin Film Festival. The Berlin Film Festival is also one of the three major European film festivals. You might as well take the movie to try it out."

"This..." Zhang Yimou knew that next month was the Berlin Film Festival, and he also wanted to give it another try, but the 100,000 funds he had collected had already been spent. If it weren't for knowing Ning Ying, he would have often taken everyone to the wealthy "The Last Emperor" next crew, and occasionally went to the crew of "Kids" to play Qiufeng. I'm afraid that after the nomination was announced, they would have bought air tickets and returned to China.

"There is nothing to hesitate. Believe me, there must be a director Zhang in the Berlin Film Festival." Li Yange looked confident, but in fact he was very confident, because "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, which made Zhang Yimou become the gods in one battle.

To be honest, if Chen Kaige's "King of Children" won the Golden Palm Award at Cannes, Zhang Yimou would probably have nothing to do.

After all, the difference between winning the three major film festivals for the first time is still very big. Although it is only a short month apart, the first person is always the first person. In the future, whether it is news media reports or well-known to the public, they will always be the first person to win the big prize!

After listening to Li Yange's firm words, Zhang Yimou wanted to speak but stopped. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said shamelessly: "Teacher Li, it's not that I don't want to go to Berlin to try again, but Xi'an Film Studio only gave me 50,000 yuan in funds, and I made another 100,000 yuan. After coming to Cannes, the 100,000 yuan was already spent."

"Why did I give 50,000?" Li Yange frowned. The 50,000 yuan is a lot in the mainland, but it is really too little to go abroad. If it is a short trip, it would be said that the Cannes Film Festival will last for nearly a month.

It would be too difficult to live here for more than 10,000 US dollars.

Li Yange, who had been here for almost two days, knew very well that the consumption level in Cannes was not low, and Zhang Yimou had to go to film festivals to promote it frequently, which was not enough.

"Oh, I signed up for Cannes by myself. It would be great if the factory could give 50,000 yuan in funds. But I didn't expect that it would disappoint the factory's expectations." Zhang Yimou sighed.

Seeing this, Li Yange pondered for a while and said, "Director Zhang, I personally sponsor you to participate in this Berlin Film Festival."

"Teacher Li, are you saying true?" Zhang Yimou's eyes lit up, his breathing became heavier, and he looked very excited.

"Of course it's true. Can I still lie to you?"

Li Yange smiled and said, "The Last Emperor also participated in the Berlin Film Festival. If I get nominations, I guess I will have to go there too. You just think it's a good match for me."

"No problem!" Although Zhang Yimou felt a little embarrassed, he was determined to prove himself and didn't care much about it. He couldn't afford to pay back the money now, and at worst he could just pay it back slowly in the future.
Chapter completed!