Millennium director

Chapter 63 Berlin Premiere

After the lively opening ceremony on February 6, the films that participated in this Berlin Film Festival began to be screened.

Most films come to Berlin for screenings to sell copyrights and negotiate distribution.

Approximately 10,000 film industry professionals attend the Berlin Film Festival every year, and one-third of them are distributors from around the world who come specifically to purchase films.

Films such as "The Big Shot", "The Man at 40", "Dazzling Eyes" and "Happy Days" came to Berlin just to sell the rights, and each chose a date and theater screening.

Naturally, the crew of "The Embalmer" also received invitations from these crews to watch the film, and everyone happily accepted and attended the meeting.

Wu Yuan was busy after the opening ceremony.

It was not just the Chinese Legion crew that invited him to the screening, but many American and European film crews also invited him to the premiere.

In particular, the other 22 films that were also shortlisted for the main competition unit all sent him invitations.

Including some other films by great directors, for ten days from the 7th to the 16th, he will attend the Berlin screening of nearly 30 films, and watch an average of 3 films every day.

The most popular film at this Berlin Film Festival is "Bloody Sunday". This film was scheduled to be screened on the 10th, and Wu Yuan also went to watch it.

The theme of this movie is actually very simple, it is the story of a demonstration, based on the real history of the "Bloody Sunday" in Northern Ireland in 1972.

There is no doubt that this film came to Berlin at the right time. The judges of the Berlin International Film Festival always like this kind of political films and this kind of "resistance" story.

After the screening, Berlin Live's catalog gave the film a high score of 3.6 (out of 4.0)!

It was closely followed by "Spirited Away", which was screened on the 9th. This movie also received a 3.4 rating from the venue. The media at the scene had a very good reputation, but no one thought that this movie would win the Golden Bear Award. .

After all, this is an animation film. The Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival has never been awarded to an animation film before!

"Spirited Away" is indeed a classic anime film, but the event reporters did not believe that this film could break the precedent of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Wu Yuan went to see both movies, and they were both really good. But if he had to choose, he would prefer the movie "Spirited Away". After all, he has never been interested in political-themed movies.

It's a pity that Wu Yuan is not a member of the Berlin jury.

The time soon came to February 13th.

This day is the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Two nights ago, Wu Yuancai and other Chinese film crews celebrated New Year's Eve at a Chinese restaurant in Berlin and had a reunion banquet.

Today, the Berlin premiere of "The Embalmer" begins.

The Berlin Organizing Committee still attaches great importance to the film "The Embalmer", and the premiere is arranged at the CinemaxX theater, the fourth largest theater in Berlin, right next to the Berlin Film Palace.

This theater can accommodate 1,500 spectators, which is enough for Wu Yuan to hold a grand premiere!

To this end, Wu Yuan also sent out invitations and also invited the other 22 shortlisted crews of the main competition unit to attend the Berlin premiere of "The Embalmer".

Not a single one of the Chinese Legion was left behind.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Wu Yuan, Han Dong, Chen Yuan, Zhang Guorong and others were busy welcoming the invited guests to the theater. The theater, which can accommodate 1,500 spectators, was full in a short time.

Wu Yuan is no longer Wu Xia Amon. There are many local media and film critics in Berlin who want to see his first literary film!

The jury for this year's Berlin Film Festival was also present, but Wu Yuan did not have much communication with them, he just said hello.

The judges must be careful in their words and deeds during the film festival and are prohibited from discussing the shortlisted films with anyone who is not a member of the jury. The same goes for Wu Yuan.

After the jury arrives, the premiere of "The Embalmer" officially begins.

Wu Yuan has always done things without hesitation, and he is not used to talking about film concepts, artistic thinking, and the difficulty of filming during premieres.

He took advantage of the time and walked on stage before the official screening of the movie and said in Chinese and English: "Thank you very much for coming to the premiere of "The Embalmer"."

"Hope you guys will enjoy the movie."

As soon as he finished speaking, the lights in the cinema dimmed, and as the dragon logo on the big screen lit up, the screening of "The Embalmer" began.

As soon as the movie opens, it is on a Peking opera stage. Several Peking opera actors in heavy makeup and costumes are singing the famous "Farewell My Concubine" on the stage.

Peking Opera, full of oriental classical beauty, immediately attracted the interest of most guests present.

Director Yimou, who was sitting in the second row, looked at the familiar scene and raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

He could tell that in the opening scene of "The Embalmer", Wu Yuan borrowed the lens aesthetics used by Chen Kaige in "Farewell My Concubine".

Not only him, but also many directors and film critics at the scene could see it.

"Farewell My Concubine" is not a small movie, it is a work known as the pinnacle of Chinese art films.

Many moviegoers showed knowing smiles.

In the film industry, it is not embarrassing to learn from and pay tribute to outstanding predecessors.

The [sliding zoom] lens language created by Hitchcock has been copied and imitated by countless directors over the decades.

The classic lenses of Akira Kurosawa, Spielberg, lens master Yang So, David Lean and other film masters have been referenced by countless movies over the decades.

If Wu Yuan was an old man in his fifties or sixties and still borrowed from others in his own movies, he would indeed be looked down upon.

But Wu Yuan is only 20 years old in half a year this year. He is an extremely young director!

His tribute to his predecessors in the movie will only make the audience feel interesting and moved, and even feel the power of film art inheritance.

What's even more interesting is that the scene quickly turned to the backstage, and the camera focused on Zhang Guorong who was playing with a suona.

The Peking Opera "Farewell My Concubine" was being performed at the front desk, and Zhang Guorong once played the leading actor Cheng Dieyi in the movie "Farewell My Concubine".

This kind of picture switching makes people laugh after watching it.

But to pay tribute, just click here.

Soon, the movie entered the main part. After performing the play, Zhang Guorong received a notice that the troupe was about to be disbanded and he was about to lose his job.

The male protagonist, who has just bought a house in his hometown and has almost wiped out his savings, will find it difficult to stay in a big city like Beijing once he loses his job.

After searching for jobs to no avail, he could only take his wife back to the safe haven of his hometown.

In his hometown, by chance, he saw a job advertisement on a telephone pole and was tricked into going for an interview. He found a job that was not so acceptable to ordinary people and often faced scorn and rejection by others.

At the beginning, he didn't know what the job was about. As a new employee, he worked as a mannequin and played a dead person in front of the camera.

The boss and teacher was touching his body and talking to the camera about how an embalmer should work. Only then did he realize that he had found such a job.

But in order to support his family, he had no choice but to keep going.

And in the work experiences that frightened him time and time again, he also realized the meaning and true meaning of life.

It's just that his hometown is just a small city, so it's hard to hide any secrets. Soon his relatives and friends knew about his work.

His childhood friends despised his work, and even his wife chose to leave him because she thought he was dirty and couldn't stand the person on his pillow touching her with the hands that wiped the body of the deceased.

Even so, he did not give up his job because of this blow, but insisted on the job of "let the deceased walk beautifully".

Faced with heavy pressure from relatives and friends who did not understand him, and a wife who left him, the male protagonist stood at the foot of the high snow-capped mountains with the suona he had played since childhood, and put all his emotions into a sad song. In "The Big Funeral", music is used to express emotions and at the same time strengthen beliefs.

The plain camerawork and Zhang Guorong's wonderful interpretation made the climax of this scene prepared by Wu Yuan have the desired effect!

All the audience at the scene were filled with emotions and their spines were numb under the emotional foreshadowing of the movie!

Originally I was supposed to finish the movie in one chapter, but the editor asked me to update the word count under control and try to make recommendations for next week, so I posted it in two chapters. Anyway, the two chapters were posted in one go, so it shouldn’t affect everyone’s reading. .

I urge you all to try your best to read it every day during this period. There will definitely be more updates on the day it is released, and a minimum of 8-10 chapters will be updated!