Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 441 Cannes Film Festival Selection Results

Despite mediocre box office numbers, Fight Club received very positive reviews after its release.

Many film critics have praised the film as a classic thriller, noting its style and narrative approach are similar to several of Link's thrillers. Director David Fincher has also been called "the next Link," and if he continues to learn from Link's filmmaking methods, he may achieve the same success as Link in the future.

As the film's producer, Guess What Pictures has received much praise for the film's quality.

The magazine *Complete Film* commented that Guess Movies is different from the Big Seven studios. It is not a film company entirely driven by box office revenue. When producing films, Guess Movies also pays great attention to the artistic quality of the films, producing many high-quality art films, including *Fight Club*, *Girl, Interrupted*, *Boogie Nights*, and *Smoke*. Other film companies should learn from Guess Movies.

By early May, after more than two months of intensive filming, "Tomorrow Never Dies" was completed.

Before Link could even begin editing, the 50th Cannes International Film Festival opened. As the president of the jury, Link was required to attend the opening ceremony and the subsequent award selection process.

As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, the number of films participating far exceeds previous years, with 726 films from 78 countries and regions.

Guess what? Film Studios has three films participating in the festival: "Evita," "The Ice Storm," and "The Legend of 1900." The latter film is only being exhibited and will not be considered for awards.

Also participating in this year's film festival are "L.A. Confidential" and "The Fifth Element," co-produced by Guess Movie Studios and Columbia Pictures.

After a week of exhibition and judging, 21 films were shortlisted for the main competition.

Including films such as *Evita*, *The Ice Storm*, *L.A. Confidential*, *Taste of Cherry*, *The Eel*, *Happy Together*, *Don't Swallow*, *Forbidden Woman*, *Love Storm*, *Funny Games*, *Aftermath*, and *Zheng Chenggong*.

The first round of selection was mainly organized by media, film critics, audience members, and the Cannes jury.

After the list of films shortlisted for the main competition was announced, Link and the jury members gathered together to watch 21 films and score them on the spot, ultimately selecting 10 awards including the Palme d'Or, Special Jury Prize, Jury Award, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

This year's jury consists of 10 members, including French actress Isabelle Adjani, Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung, American director David Lynch, American author Paul Auster, and British director Mike Leigh.

After three rounds of voting, the Iranian film "Taste of Cherry" and the Chinese film "Zheng Chenggong" won the Palme d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Shohei Imamura's "Eel" won the Jury Special Prize.

The Argentine film "Evita" won the Jury Prize.

Wong Kar-wai won Best Director for "Happy Together," Sean Penn won Best Actor for "The Storm," and British actress Kathy Burke won Best Actress for "Never Eat."

"The Ice Storm" won the Best Screenplay Award, "The Fifth Element" and "Love Storm" won the Special Technical Award, and the Egyptian film "Destiny" won the 50th Anniversary Award.

There were no problems when the awards were announced, but after the news reached the United States, many American media outlets questioned the selection results, believing that the selection was unfair and that the participation of films under GuessSee Pictures on the list of winners was too high, including films such as "Zheng Chenggong", "Evita", "The Ice Storm" and "The Fifth Element", which were all films invested in and produced by GuessSee Pictures.

Link is the owner of Guess the Movies, and having him as the chairman of the jury meant that all the winning films were from his company. This was extremely unfair to the other filmmakers.

Some media outlets believe that the Cannes Film Festival organizers made a mistake by inviting Link to serve as the jury president, and that Link's failure to maintain objectivity and impartiality during his tenure was disappointing.

Media outlets large and small, including the *New York Post*, *Entertainment Today*, and *Weekly Star News*, began sensationalizing the 50th Cannes Film Festival's judging results as rigged, claiming that jury president Jimmy Link had failed in his duties, and even declaring it the "darkest moment" in Cannes Film Festival history. These media outlets used various methods to smear Link. In response, Link stated in a media interview that the awards were determined through multiple rounds of voting, and that the winning films were deserving of their awards. He denied any individual influence over the judging process or any behind-the-scenes manipulation, and advised certain media outlets to stop spreading misinformation.

What Link said is true. During the selection process, apart from campaigning for "Zheng Chenggong", the selection of other awards proceeded normally without any interference. Therefore, the selection process of this year's Cannes Film Festival was generally fair and just.

The Cannes Film Festival organizers also acknowledged the result, believing that there were no problems with the award selection process and results. They noted that the number of participating films, the level of attention received, and the activity of the film trading market all reached record highs.

This film festival was a great success; hopefully, the American media won't stir up trouble.

After a few days of hype, the American media realized that the attention was not high and gradually gave up on the hype.

After returning from Paris, Link came to the studio to edit the film. He used to edit as he shot, and then do a final cut after filming. This final cut was more detailed and troublesome. It took him two weeks to finish editing all the shots.

During the filming of "007", Rie Miyazawa, Norika Fujiwara, and others called him many times to ask when filming would be finished and when he would come to Miami to see the six of them.

After finishing editing the film, Link flew directly to his Palm Beach vacation villa in Miami, where he spent time fooling around with Rie Miyazawa, Izumi Sakai, Norika Fujiwara, Shizuka Kudo, Yasuko Sawaguchi, and Akina Nakamori.

Rie Miyazawa and the others are typical Japanese women, petite and delicate, with fair, soft and smooth skin. The tallest among them, Norika Fujiwara, is only 171 cm tall, while Yasuko Sawaguchi is the shortest, at only 158 cm.

Even with six people working together, they couldn't budge Link by just one arm, and they also had a strong tendency to admire the strong.

When the first six were sent to Link as gifts by Nobuyuki Idei, some of them were unwilling and always had a long face and were in a bad mood. For example, Izumi Sakai and Akina Nakamori almost never smiled at him.

However, after living together a few times, the six women's attitudes changed drastically. Even the most willful Izumi Sakai became obedient to him. Sometimes she would take the initiative to sit on the beach with her guitar and sing and perform for him. Akina Nakamori also began to like to snuggle her petite body into his strong and warm embrace, and she would not resist no matter how he made love to her.

The other women would cook delicious Japanese food for him, dance with fans for him while wearing kimonos, and even kneel down to change his shoes, saying "Thank you for your hard work" in cute Japanese.

She behaved very gently and virtuously.

Link also had the rare opportunity to experience authentic Japanese culture.

They were very satisfied with the girls' performance, considering that they had grown up in Japan and lived and worked there, and would not be used to living in Miami long-term.

He arranged for his subordinates to buy three luxury houses in a wealthy area of ​​Tokyo to house the six women and provide them with a comfortable life.

In addition, he called Nobuyuki Idei, saying that he would be going to Tokyo for vacation when he had time, and asked Idei to help take care of them and give them more resources. He also said that Guess Movies would continue to cooperate with Columbia Pictures.

Nobuyuki Idei readily agreed, promising the girls more opportunities for development in the Japanese entertainment industry and that no one would harass them.

After learning of his arrangements, Norika Fujiwara, Shizuka Kudo, and the other girls became even gentler with him. They said that they would come to live in the United States when they were not working, and would return to Tokyo when they were busy with work. They also hoped that he would come to Tokyo to stay often, and that they would work harder to serve him well.

Link did not refuse. As long as the women were willing to stay, he would take on the responsibility of a man and try his best to take care of their lives and meet their needs.

(End of this chapter)