Prevent terrorist attacks and avoid political and religious themes
In view of the potential for terrorist attacks that permeate every corner of Western Europe, the Venice Film Festival, which used to be loose and loose, has significantly increased its police presence this year. Four sets of iron fences were placed around the film festival area consisting of the Cinema Palace, Casino and Supreme Hotel. Military and police officers armed with live ammunition would indeed stop reporters and spectators from time to time and carefully open bags and inspect them. One time, when I thought it was just a formality, I pulled open a corner and rushed in as usual. Unexpectedly, I was pulled back by the police, who forced me to open layer by layer and take out my computer, power bank, film scheduler and water bottle.
The staff who compared the documents were much more serious than before, especially for Orientals who are prone to face blindness. They looked up and down at the documents. Among them, there are those who are lucky enough to get through, and there are also those who are unlucky enough to admit defeat. Once, I brought five girls from a certain movie studio into the theater smoothly. "The guard looked at them very seriously and nodded very firmly," one of the short-haired men who took Rapunzel's ID said proudly. When entering the theater, this group of girls, who were missing three IDs, simply lied to the card scanner: "We are the crew of this film, this is an actor, that is an assistant, and she is a producer." But when I conveyed these experiences of bravely entering the screening room to another friend who took someone else's ID, he was unfortunately tricked. The police came over, compared his passport, and confiscated the movie viewing pass.
Corresponding to the multiplexed security checks, the film festival is extremely conservative in its selection of sensitive political themes. Carefully avoiding any sensitive religions and conflict areas, there is only a very inconspicuous collection of Italian short films, which are essays on the refugee issue. In the main competition section, the only ones that barely touch on war are François Ozon's "Franz" and Kusturica's "Milk Road", and almost all of them are about post-war events (World War I and the Bosnian War). Among the films on display, there is only one film that has been directed by the Vatican, "The Young Pope." In this TV series directed by Paolo Sorrentino for the first time, Jude Law plays a new pope who strives to show off his exaggerated leadership style. Finally, there is a documentary about the Syrian civil war, "The War Show", which is very inconspicuously hidden in the corner of the "Venice Day Section".
If you can't afford to provoke him, you can still afford to hide. On the principle issue of life safety first, any bold and free artistic creation has to be temporarily avoided.
The first Oscar outpost didn’t do so well
This year's Water City has almost become a colony for the American team, and it is the kind of Hollywood movie that has the artistic aspect of winning awards. The Venice Film Festival, which opened with Damian Chazelle's musical "La La Land" and ended with Antoine Fuqua's remake of the western "The Brave Seven," has attracted superstars such as Emma Stone, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Michael Fassbender, Tom Ford, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mel Gibson, Natalie Portman, Denzel Washington... to the red carpet. Together, they turned Lido Island into a showcase for Hollywood genre films. In addition to the extremely attractive opening and closing films, there are also war films ("Hacksaw Ridge"), thrillers ("Nocturnal Animals"), biopics ("The First Lady"), science fiction films ("Arrival"), and love ethics films ("The Light Between Oceans")."Light") and so on.
This momentum allowed it to defeat the Toronto Film Festival, which was stealing the spotlight, and turned itself into the first outpost of the Oscars. Film practitioners who are bidding for the Olympics may even consider moving forward the awards season to early September. The film industry and art critics have seen this grand occasion, and coupled with the new works of three masters who have long been confirmed, such as Kusturica, Wim Wenders, and Terrence Malick, people can’t help but exclaim that the quality of the films in Venice this year is really satisfying.
But in fact, except for Raf Diaz's Golden Lion Award-winning work "The Woman Leaving", which carved time in four hours, and Tom Ford's "Nocturnal Animals", which proved that he is far more than a casual costume designer, other films are suspected of being over-rated by imagination and expectations. In particular, "La La Land", which has been exaggerated by major media outlets as "a blast of word-of-mouth with zero negative reviews," is at best a good-hearted and pleasant masterpiece. Director Damian Chazelle tried to compose a four-season song for Los Angeles and the golden age of musicals, but he did not have enough music, choreography, and scenery to support his dream. As for the three masters mentioned above, they have already won enough awards in their artistic lives to be recorded in history. The film festival is just a playground for playing with their own style. Since they can ignore the awards, the judges have the right to avoid these dinosaurs and make room for young talents.
The most disgusting hype about Chinese carpet stars
Except for documentarians like Wang Bing, who are sure to win awards at every film festival, Chinese-language films are once again absent altogether, and it has become something that media reporters are embarrassed to complain to Chairman Barbera. It can be regarded as an acknowledgment of the fact that we are a major film country rather than a powerful film country. Anyway, there is a lot of money in this industry, and how many people want to compete with the niche and experimental established film festivals.
However, there are still Chinese celebrities who are familiar or unknown on the red carpet. The most exaggerated hype this time is undoubtedly the news that an N-list actress fell out of her breast pump while walking on the carpet. Since I know that any article that mentions, criticizes, ridicules or satirizes this film and this actress is a disguised form of hype for them, I simply won’t mention her name. In short, after this red carpet incident that no one knew about, the Chinese media reporters in Venice collectively received a notice, "Tomorrow at 7:30 pm Venice time, on the outdoor terrace on the first floor of Hotel Exceisior on Lido Island, XX has something to say to the media about yesterday's accidental fall on the red carpet." Then at the press conference where he had something to say, the director proposed on the spot and forcefully kissed the actress who fell down. The actress cried until she burst into tears and simply used another revelation that her fiancé had hit and run to prove that their relationship was stronger than ever.
So why would Venice invite such a movie and these two hype figures? In fact, this film cannot be seen on the official website or any official promotional materials, and it has never been screened in the film festival area. They did set up a venue near Lido Island Pier and held a grand "premiere" as "the only movie against Hollywood".
A friend met a young woman from Liaoning holding a mixed-race baby on the ferry back to the train station. She admitted that she and her Italian husband acted as brokers and helped some of China's 18th-tier celebrities come to Venice to walk on the red carpet. They provided resources for an Italian fashion magazine and arranged through the magazine. Then he complained that he had just been tricked by a Chinese brokerage company. He signed the contract but didn't show up. The hotel he booked for Blanket Star had to be canceled and he failed to get the commission of 25,000 yuan.
Those who are notHow a familiar face steps onto the red carpet in many red carpets every day can give some clues about market pricing.
