I’m a Director, I’m Not Bad

   Chapter 554 552. Praise

Small but complete.

  Although the audience was small, the applause was particularly enthusiastic.

  Everyone is applauding for this 109-minute movie.

  Everyone is paying for the 109 minutes of enjoyment.

  Amidst the applause, smiles appeared on the faces of all the people in Xiying Studio who were originally worried about the attendance rate.

In the melodious melody of the harmonica, including Liu Yifei and Lin Yuxin, their eyes were focused on the young man who had just woken up, and with the applause, they all crowned their admiring eyes on his dazzling invisible crown forward.

Then what…

  Xu Xin blushed.

   Buttoning my toes in my pair of Balenciaga sock shoes...

   Amidst bouts of uncomfortable goosebumps, he said:

   "Let's... let's go?"

  Hearing this, Liu Yifei suddenly stopped applauding.

   Instead, he opened his hand directly and gave him a big hug.

  A...the smell of cherries enters the nasal cavity.

  Xu Xin was stunned.

   Then an extremely trembling whisper sounded in my ear:

   "Thank you! Xu Xin, thank you! You are awesome!"

"Well…"

  Caught off guard by being hugged like this, hearing the thank you in his ear, he paused, smiled, put his hand on Liu Yifei's back and patted it.

  Well, the meat of the fairy sister is really tender.

  Unfortunately, my old Xu is married.

  Then, he took the initiative to break away from the other party's embrace, and waved to Lin Xunxin.

  Brother, don’t come here.

  I think you are dirty.

   Then, singing sounded in his ears.

   "BELLACIAO~BELLACIAO~BELLACIAOCIAOCIAO!"

  The audience hadn't left yet, but after the applause ended, someone took the lead and sang the song.

  All the people from the Celestial Dynasty looked at each other in blank dismay...

   But Xu Xin smiled again, and then quietly stood up:

"let's go."

  …

   "Director Xu, just respond to this, we definitely have this film!"

  By the trash can outside, Zhong Changyou looked at Xu Xin excitedly with a cigarette in his mouth:

"The Venice Film Festival doesn't look at the box office, it looks at word of mouth. Now that our movie has just been released, the ratings will be opened immediately, and the reviews will also be opened! If the ratings can be squeezed into the top ten, then the popularity of our movie will definitely make people Everyone has seen... this is the first game to have this effect! It will never be worse in the future! Really!"

"Uh-huh."

  Xu Xin nodded.

  Although he slept the whole time, he could see the contrast between before and after.

  The "examination results" have been sent out, and the results of the good and bad exams finally come out.

  He felt at ease.

   Smoking a cigarette, he glanced at the auditorium where there were still people queuing up to enter, and suddenly asked:

   "What's the next game?"

"Well…"

  Zhong Changyou took out his mobile phone, looked at it, and said:

"The forest in Norway."

   "...?"

  Xu Xin was taken aback:

   "The one about Murakami Muraki? The one shot by Director Li? Also shortlisted?"

  The director Li he was referring to was Li Pingdong.

  Norwegian Forest was directed and photographed by him, a Japanese film directed by French-Vietnamese director Chen Yingxiong.

"right."

"Well…"

  He looked around:

   "I want to see this, any of you interested?"

   "We can't, we have to go back and write the feedback to the factory... And, Director Xu, there will be interviews tomorrow. The movie is a three-day round, let's rest first."

   "This... okay."

  He glanced at the slightly tired Liu Yifei and Lin Xunxin, and nodded slightly.

   I explained in my heart that I have to find a translator, preferably a local in Venice, and pull myself to be a Mondo these days.

  Go wherever you want!

  So, a group of people walked outside.

  The small stall cart was still confiscated.

   Xu Xin had just walked a few steps when he saw the owner of the pizza truck wearing disposable gloves smoking a cigarette outside the car.

  He also saw Xu Xin.

   So he smiled and waved, chattering a lot.

  Zhong Changyou smiled and nodded:

   "He said friend, I wish you a happy time in Venice. You must also remember the taste of pizza~"

"…Ha ha."

  Xu Xin is happy.

  Xin said that this Italian buddy is really interesting.

   nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

   And this buddy also finished smoking, stubbed out the cigarette butt, waved to Xu Xin, took off his gloves and threw it into the trash can.

  Xu Xin realized belatedly... He was smoking with gloves on, as if to prevent his fingers from getting the smell of cigarette tar...

   Tut.

  Although he looks like a rough guy, he is unexpectedly careful.

  …

   Arrived at the hotel, everyone took the room card and went to rest separately.

  This old-looking hotel is said to be a hotel with a long history in Venice, where many film crews stayed.

  Xu Xin looked at these foreign faces, and estimated that they were all from various crews.

  Unfortunately, he doesn't know anyone.

   Followed the big team and went straight back to the room.

  Liu Yifei didn't follow.

  She and Wu Qiqi originally lived in the same room, so they booked a standard room.

  But when Liu Xiaoli arrives tomorrow, she will open a room for her mother.

   After returning to the room, the time has come to close to 12 o'clock.

   That is, 6 o'clock in Yanjing time.

  He didn't know if Yang Mi had woken up, but he still wrote nearly 300 words of what happened today on the computer like a job report, and sent it to her on QQ.

   Then he sent her a "Look at QQ" message by text message, and then went to take a shower.

  At night in a foreign country, after taking a shower, he sat on the balcony, looking at the peaceful city outside the window, his mind was a little empty.

   Not sleepy, don't want to sleep, and don't know what to do.

  I want to go for a walk...but I'm afraid it won't be safe.

  tsk...

   At this time, he especially missed his wife.

  If she was there...

   Don't say whether it is safe or not. If she doesn't look for work, she is contributing to Venice's security management.

   Fortunately, Su Meng's work efficiency is good enough.

   Soon came the call:

   "Brother Xu, the person has been found."

   "...? So fast? How did you find it?"

"There is a Chinese-speaking receptionist in the hotel. I asked them for a request. They helped me contact a girl named Emily Costard who just contacted me. She speaks Chinese very well. Now she is working as a bilingual teacher of English and Italian for us, isn't it summer vacation, and she is back in Venice. She is the person arranged by the hotel."

   "Well, Chinese is okay?"

   "No problem, take a bite of a Beijing film... I'm completely dumbfounded."

   "That's fine, then you can arrange the itinerary with her, and just call me tomorrow."

"Mmm Good."

  The phone hung up, and Xu Xin sat on the balcony for a while.

  It was really boring, so he started to use the computer to search the official website of the Venice Film Festival.

   As a result, after entering, I found...

  It's all in English, and I can't even understand it.

  After looking around but not finding where "The Hawthorn Tree" was, he had the rare thought that he should learn English accompanied by his helplessness. The first night in Venice was over.

  …

  He didn't sleep soundly this night. The unfamiliar environment and the soft mattress he wasn't used to made him sleep very tired.

   In the morning, in a daze, around 8 o'clock, his phone rang.

   Inside came Zhong Changyou's suppressed excited voice:

   "Director Xu, are you up?"

   "Um... woke up... Brother Zhong, what's the matter?"

   "Then Xu guides me to your room? Then call Liu Yifei and the others. In one night, domestic and foreign media news, including the evaluation of our film, has come out!"

"oh?"

  The last remaining drowsiness dissipated without a trace.

  Xu Xin responded:

   "No problem, come on."

  He quickly put on his clothes, and then saw several messages on his phone, all from Yang Mi:

"I just woke up."

   "See, hey, I just said you're fine."

   "Well, I see that the news from China is also praising your movie."

   "I sent you the link on QQ, please take a look."

   "My brother is awesome! MUA!"

   "By the way, don't forget the interview with Southern Weekly today."

   Seeing these messages, Xu Xin walked into the bathroom.

   Soon, when Zhong Changyou and his group arrived, Xu Xin had just taken care of his personal hygiene, and opened the door with drops of water on his face.

  There are not enough people yet.

  After Zhong Changyou came in with a notebook, he immediately said:

"8.7! Director Xu, 8.7 points! Currently ranked 15th in the 60th Film Festival's surprise films, screenings, screenings, and shortlisted films in various stages! 6th in the main competition unit! Now only "Sword Rain" ranks ahead of us! But they did not enter the main unit, so we are number one for Chinese-language films at present!"

  When he said this, he couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes.

  But Xu Xin's focus is on...

   "Who are the first five?"

  Zhong Changyou seemed to have expected that he would ask this question, looked at the form in the notebook, and said quickly:

"Currently ranked first is "Sorrowful Trumpet" with a score of 9.5. The second is "Silent Soul" with a score of 9.4. The third is "Road to No Fruit" with a score of 9.2. The fourth is "Necessary Killing" with a score of 9.1 .The fifth is "Black Swan" with 8.8 points! We are almost the same as "Black Swan"!"

   "...Mengmeng, write down all these films, let's go back and watch them one by one."

   "Alright Brother Xu."

  Su Meng nodded quickly, took out her notebook and copied the list on Zhong Changyou's laptop.

   Then Xu Xin asked:

   "His rating is not fixed, right? It's also the kind of rating given by the audience and then fluctuating? Or is it a professional rating given by film critics?"

   "Part of the film critics, part of the audience. Film critics have more weight..."

  After Zhong Changyou finished speaking, there was a sound of footsteps outside.

  In addition to Liu Yifei, Lin Juxin and the others are all here.

   "Where's Liu Yifei?"

   "I went to pick up Aunt Liu."

"oh oh."

  Hearing what Lin Gou said, Xu Xin nodded.

   After Lin Gengxin closed the door by the way, everyone sat or stood looking at Zhong Changyou.

  Zhong Changyou also knew what he needed to do now, holding the computer and coughing lightly:

   "Ahem, let me report the results. The first is the score. I have told Director Xu just now that we are currently sixth in the main competition."

   A look of joy overwhelmed everyone's hearts.

"However, our scorers, including film critics, have a total of 17 film critics and 72 audiences who gave a score of 8.7. Because the number of people is too small, the average is quite high. Although the quality of the film is absolutely No problem, but ... it is possible that this score will drop in the next few days ... this is also a trend, so everyone should take it easy."

  Everyone understands this truth and nodded subconsciously.

"Then let me read a few film reviews... Our film reviews are counted as short reviews on the official website of Venice, and there are 40 of them. In addition to the long reviews given by 17 film critics, 7 of the remaining 23 reviews exceeded 400. There are 4 long comments with more than 100 words, and the rest are such as "good movie, refreshing, I like this movie". I won't read it here, and you can read it later See for yourself."

   As he spoke, he operated the computer and continued:

"I have already sent all the long reviews to the factory for translation, so here is an excerpt... The Venice Film Festival is considered to be the most impartial and authoritative film critic, an excerpt of the long reviews by Eric Lusenwodak ...I think this paragraph of his description is the most fair to us."

   Taking a deep breath, he slowly recited:

"God Xu... is director Xu. Goe De Xu is an impressive director. As early as in Cannes, when he won the Golden Camera Award, I told my close friends. I said that he is definitely not only The smaller Zhang Yimou.

   But this time, his directing style made me feel that I was right.

   I don’t know when, I think a strange circle has appeared in the film industry. The directors desperately want to add their own ideas to the movie, and they try to influence the audience's thoughts in a very subtle way.

  The film no longer needs the audience's inner cognition, but instead has to follow the director's thinking to feel the uniqueness of this work.

  This is against the core concept of art.

Therefore, in the past few years, I have become more and more fond of the works of young directors... In fact, he stepped on "Necessary Killing" here, thinking that the movie "Necessary Killing" used the Afghan war as the theme, and it was purely for winning awards award works. It means that I really don't like directors doing this, but in recent years, more and more directors like to use this method to label their works as human rights...to create a golden body. "

  Zhong Changyou explained:

   "I didn't translate it, but it probably means this, so his next words will have some abrupt turns."

"Uh-huh."

  Xu Xin continued to listen there.

   "Compared with "Necessary Killing", "Under the Hawthorn Tree" has a high degree of completion, which gave me, a person who is getting more and more desperate for Chinese movies, a hint of redemption.

  Goethesh is a young director, but his works are very mature.

  I originally thought that Zhang's shadow could be seen everywhere, but it is not. This is a film that Goethe has allowed himself entirely.

  In terms of shooting technology, he gave the film various hints of shallow tones.

   But in fact, these hints are not as I said before, I hope the audience will follow the director's idea.

  No, in Xu's film, all the core concepts are serving the film.

  I know, this is the habit of many young directors. They have watched too many Cameron, Nolan and even Hollywood movies, and feel that the director is the only boss in the crew.

  So, when I didn't improve my directing skills, I caught this bad habit too early.

   This is also the main reason why directors who don't listen to persuasion quickly fall away after passing through the rookie period.

  They think they are above the movies, and it is this stupid idea that kills their talent and makes them mediocre.

   But Goethe is different. His films have a strong personal style, but the core is to tell every story well.

  Every technology he uses in this movie is to do this well.

Therefore, when other directors had to sacrifice their own works in order to highlight the core of the story, and turned it into a higher and higher reading threshold, but the story was as fragile as the spring ice floes, Goethic Xu, he found The most basic meaning that movies have been given since their birth-to tell a story well.

   It is precisely because of his path that runs counter to more and more directors that this work of his is like a pearl, shining with charming brilliance.

  So, friends who love movies, go watch it, it will definitely give you endless aftertaste, and you will never forget it tonight. The second part is highly recommended! "

   "..."

   "..."

   "..."

  In the silence of everyone, Zhong Changyou nodded:

"This is an excerpt from his long commentary. The previous part is all about evaluating the film's advantages in terms of technical details. Eric Luxon Wodak is also a director, and he is recognized as a director of the Venice Film Festival. A "worthy" film critic.

  The audience also believed in his words, and the content of this long review is second only to "Sad Trumpet Song" which he first promoted this year, and the last sentence at the end is exactly what it means. In his heart, "Sad Trumpet" is the first must-see movie, and we are the second! It can be said... this evaluation is already very, very high! "

   After finishing speaking, everyone including Xu Xin beamed with joy.

  Okay, this review sounds good.

but…

   "How about Liu Yifei and Lin Gou's performance evaluation? How is it?"

  Xu Xin asked.

   "This is exactly the second film review I'm going to read."

  Zhong Changyou hurriedly operated the computer again, and then muttered:

"Like Venus, she is astonishingly beautiful, and has a very restrained but very touching acting skills. Jing Qiu in "Under the Hawthorn Tree", she turned the restraint of an oriental into her sharpest weapon .

  If the director built the skeleton of this excellent work, then Jing Qiu made its flesh and blood extremely plump.

  The third child is the blood vessels that support the flesh and bones, continuously generating strong chemical reactions for everything in the movie.

   Throughout the movie, I was immersed in the sweet love of these two people most of the time.

  Jing Qiu's low self-esteem makes my heart ache.

  The smile of the third child, combined with the various images full of hints and metaphors created by the director, is like the little match that lights up a lighthouse.

  Without him, there would be no radiance of Jingqiu.

  This movie cannot find its way back.

  Ha~ Natalie Portman has a rival! Whether it's Jingqiu, or Arianne Labede, who made everyone see a rising star in "Attenborough" for the first time, their performances have penetrated into the soul of the characters. "

   After finishing speaking, Zhong Changyou said:

"This is the comment of another film critic, Daenerys Liasda, who is a member of the Italian Women Directors' Union and a very famous and fair film critic. She also gave a very high evaluation, and then just now When Liu Yifei left, I also typed a copy of these film reviews to her.

  In short, Director Xu, the words of these authoritative film critics are basically equivalent to the cognition of the judging committee. Of course... we can't be too optimistic, Venice has always had a tradition of death when it is hot. But... anyway, after the ratings come out, we can temporarily not worry about the pressure brought by other movies, especially domestic movies..."

   "When will "Tongtian Empire" be released?"

   "They are number 5, number 5 world premiere."

   "...Okay, then I know. Then just wait for the result. Is that what you mean?"

"It's not just waiting, in fact, we still have to build momentum. Domestic and foreign interviews are our main direction of attack. If the Europeans approve this film, the copyright price will be very high, and this is also our domestic film. One of the propaganda..."

   "Okay, I see."

   Xu Xin nodded in a relaxed state all of a sudden:

   "Let's get started, Mengmeng, what's the first interview today?"

"Southern Weekly, Sister Mi's arrangement is that Brother Xu, Brother Lin, and Sister Yifei will all appear. The time is set at 9:30. Then there will be "Entertainment Star Broadcast", "Movie", and two Interviews with Venice’s official media arranged in a factory. There are five interviews in total.”

   "..."

  Xu Xin's mouth twitched...

  Heart said this is going to exhaust me?

   But no matter what, since the publicity has already started, let's go.

   What else?

   "By the way, Brother Xu, our appointment with the translator of Emily Costard is at 8:30 in the hotel lobby...Look..."

   "Okay...that's just right, go out for breakfast? Brother Zhong, shall we go together?"

   "Okay, let's wait downstairs for Director Xu. Yifei should be back soon~ The coffee shop next to it tastes pretty good~"

"Um."

   A group of people left the house one after another.

   Soon, Xu Xin put on a tracksuit and went downstairs with a baseball cap.

   Then in the hall, I saw Su Meng chatting with a young girl with flaxen hair.

   But when she saw herself coming, Su Meng pointed and walked over with the girl.

   When we got close, before Xu Xin could speak, the girl smiled and stretched out her hand:

   "Hello Director Xu! I'm Emily Costard. My Chinese name is Ai Qing. You can just call me by my name or Xiao Ai."

  Ai Qing...?

  Xu Xin's mouth twitched...

   I don't know if this girl knows Huai Shi.

but…

  Indeed, Su Meng didn't lie, this girl's fluent Peking film cannot be faked.

   There is no pressure to communicate.

  So, he smiled and stretched out his hand:

   "Hello, Xiao Ai. I will trouble you in the next few days."

   "No, no, no, I should be thanking Director Xu for giving me this opportunity!"

  Ai Qing hurriedly said politely, and at the same time, her eyes suddenly lit up:

   "Can I ask a question, Director Xu."

"What?"

   "Are you really on good terms with Jay Chou?"

   "..."

   Hey, professional counterpart.

  So, at this moment, he was attuned with Ai Qing's soul and asked tentatively:

"sign?"

  Ai Qing's eyes brightened:

   "Thank you Director Xu!"

Um.

  Xu Xin nodded slightly.

   This is one of our own.

   Just an update today... I'm sorry, brothers, I almost overturned my car today. I woke up early in the morning and forgot that today is my wife's birthday...

   So people who are married should understand that... vibe.

   I went to celebrate my wife’s birthday with me.

  (end of this chapter)