In the movie palace on Lido Island in Venice, "Focus" has begun screenings. Everyone's eyes are staring at the big screen, wanting to see what this very topical film looks like!

The story of the film began in 2001. The Boston Globe welcomed a new editor-in-chief Marty Baron. The new official took office. Marty Baron suggested that the "focus" group start to investigate the case of sexual assault of a priest who had previously reported, because in the view of the calm and steady appearance, the case is not over yet.

So, the four reporters from the "Focus" group began to sweep away the dust from the dusty case again and start investigating the deeper truth behind the case again.

The result is of course amazing. The priests involved range from several to dozens of people, civil victim groups, important evidence of the court's unblocking, everyone knows the secret truth...

In the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI is still standing in front of the window, as if looking down at the crowds of people coming and going in the small square below, facing Hollywood, a community of interests worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and facing modern media and viral hype in the Internet, even the Catholic Church, even as the current Pope, he has a deep sense of powerlessness.

After all, this society is no longer a Catholic society.

"Your Mightiness……"

The middle-aged pastor suddenly said, "If Murphy Stanton's film has a very wide influence, it will be difficult for an Archbishop of Marquez Costello to satisfy everyone in the church."

Benedict XVI stood there without saying a word, as if he was trapped in thinking.

"Some of the things reported by the American media have flowed to all parts of the world."

In today's society, it is undoubtedly very difficult to block news, especially in the West, so the middle-aged pastor said, "The impact is very bad! If this video is successful, I'm afraid..."

"I know." Benedict XVI sighed.

The middle-aged pastor continued, "Your Excellency, an archbishop of the Central South Diocese of California, USA, will probably not be able to calm down the various emotions that appear in the believers and the church."

Benedict XVI didn't say anything. He knew that the middle-aged pastor was telling the truth. He just waved his hand to the back and asked the middle-aged pastor to leave on his own. After the sound of opening and closing the door sounded, he turned around and looked at the pope's office and fell into thinking again.

In Lido Island, in the Venetian Movie Palace, the screening of "Focus" is approaching its end.

The screening hall was always very calm. During the two hours, there was neither applause nor laughter nor discussion. Everyone was just watching the video in shock.

Among them, there are many judges of this Venice Film Festival.

They had long known that the Catholic Church had encountered a series of criticisms in the United States since last winter, but it has not yet subsided. The scandals exposed by the American media appeared one after another, and seemed to have never ended, but they were just watching it as a good show.

But when they saw this video, they were a little silent, some didn't know what to say, and some were a little lucky.

Many of the judges have children, and they also believe in Catholicism...

Alexander Displatt, the Frenchman who served as chairman of the jury, is such a person.

"Maybe it's time to remind the children." He murmured in his heart, "You can go to the church, but you must not get along with those priests alone!"

Compared with those words, the film and television images have brought too much impact to Alexander Displatt!

As the chairman of the jury of this Venice Film Festival, Alexander Displatt quickly put the Catholicism and children aside, and all his energy was put on the movie itself.

There is no doubt that Murphy Stanton has brought a masterpiece! Even though he is a French film practitioner who doesn't like Hollywood much, he admits this.

The first feeling that "Focus" gives him is a classical film. This view comes partly from Murphy Stanton's calm narrative style, partly from the rhythm that does not pursue dramatic, but more, perhaps from the story itself, the nostalgia for traditional paper media.

On the one hand, this kind of emotion is reflected in the display and expression of the daily work of the newspaper. During the entire investigation, the most important thing the "focus" group does is to interview the parties, collect information, and screen news. The videos tirelessly display this repetitive and monotonous process, cutting into small pieces of preserved newspaper clippings, piled up like mountains of pieces, cost notes, and phone calls over and over, making people almost doubt how far such a work is from the core of the real case.

The most representative one was when the investigation team discovered the list of priests in the area. They found that priests who had sexually assaulted were transferred from their original parishes by the church under various excuses. When the details of their appointment in the new parish were met, facing the voluminous information, it was tantamount to finding those priests who had committed illegal acts from it.

From this perspective, Alexander Displatt discovered that the delicate balance that Murphy Stanton achieved between the shocking story itself and the professional spirit that the simple and simple style tried to show is really rare.

Even though he had known that this story came from a real event and had known that all the crimes would eventually be announced to the world, he was still shocked when the priest involved went from the case reported to the 13 cases in the group statistics of the victims, to the 90 estimated by folk researchers, and until the "Focus" group finally determined the list, the 87 displayed on the computer screen was still shocked.

This movie has neither Hollywood mode, no action scenes, no love and sex, and no big scenes. It will inevitably become an excellent work, or even a classic!

Whether it is Murphy Stanton or the Stanton party members who have turned gorgeously from comedy and commercial films, they have repeatedly given the best shortcuts to realize their ideals in and out of the play, perhaps to maintain their original intentions and firmness.

The big screen suddenly turned dark and the subtitles fell. Alexander Displatt was the first to stand up from his seat and slapped his palms with the greatest strength. Even if the filming hurts, he never thought of stopping!

Immediately afterwards, all members of the judges on both sides of Alexander Displat stood up and applauded warmly.

Standing ovations from everyone behind, including hundreds of journalists and ordinary audiences sitting in the back!

Alexander Displatt was not surprised at all when he heard the landslides and cracks coming from behind. It was completely imagined what attitude the reporters would have when facing such a film that praised the power of the media.

As for those ordinary movie fans...

For "Focus", adapted from real events, in the face of the scandal of Catholic priest sexually assaulting children, the indignant audience had long seen the development of the entire story in succession of reports. While buying tickets to enter the theater, they might have already preset the scene of revealing the darkness of the church in their minds, thus standing on the same front as the protagonists of the film.

Just to the left hand of Alexander Displatt, the famous Chinese female director Joan Chen applauded and sighed in his heart that Murphy Stanton's "Focus" is simply the best movie textbook!

From her many years of directorial perspective, this "Focus" is very suitable for learning the most basic and general audio-visual methods of film. However, Murphy Stanton chose to complete the narrative with rich scenes and emphasis on dialogue.

The whole film consists of a carefully designed script with simple scenes; huge lines, rich scene switching, and strong character initiative make the rhythm of the film unhindered, and the viewers are very smoothly to follow the reporters of the Boston Globe to investigate. There are basically no particularly prominent or emphasized scenes. All creative emotions are tightly suppressed under the story, allowing the torrent of emotions to be released in the narrative.

So, all the characters in this movie are constantly talking, they talk in the office, at home, outside the home, in the office corridor, in the kitchen, in the baseball field, in the golf course, on the roadside, in the cafe, and at parties... In fact, from a certain perspective, isn't this a norm for media workers?

She has lived and worked in the United States for a long time and knew that Murphy Stanton was not an academic director, but the techniques used this time were very academic and the shooting techniques were very traditional. Every conversation scene was compact, exquisite, stable and plain. No scene had particularly strong conflicts, no one performed too much, and no shots were particularly out of order.

It is this seemingly ordinary technique that completes a beautiful story with calmness on the surface and turbulent inner waves; Murphy Stanton has no novelty in film skills, but it is precisely because of this that it seems more solid. The whole film is very exciting, with prominent contradictions, compact rhythms and distinct characters.

In fact, Qiong Chen knew very well that making such a film that almost covers the director's personal style to the deepest is more difficult than having a strong style on the surface.

How to tell a wonderful story honestly? This requires Murphy Stanton to have strong self-confidence and steady control skills

Now, she looked back and thought about the story of this film, and it is probably impossible to shoot it in other ways.

This solid and steady academic approach used by Murphy Stanton is also the most suitable method for "Focus".

The applause continued, and it had not calmed down for several minutes. This film may be a bit dull, but it is the Venice Film Festival, not the summer season in North America.

Murphy and the main members of the crew also walked to the stage in front of the screen with applause.

Later, there is also a very important press conference, and the impact of "Focus" has just begun!
Chapter completed!