Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 173

The Cannes Film Festival officially opened the following day.

There will be an opening ceremony red carpet at the film festival opening.

However, Fan Binbin will not be on stage, which is related to the Cannes red carpet rules.

There are many types of Cannes red carpets.

Red carpets for the opening ceremony, the premiere of the main competition, the non-main competition, the screenings, and the closing ceremony.

The non-main competition red carpet and the screening red carpet are all done together, which is not very commercial.

The most commercially viable and attention-grabbing event was the red carpet premiere of the main competition section.

The opening ceremony red carpet sounds like the most important thing, but it's not.

The opening ceremony red carpet is merely a ceremonial event, announcing the opening of the film festival to the world, not the films themselves.

Only members of the jury, the creators of the opening film, and special guests, such as brand ambassadors and figures from the French cultural scene, are allowed to walk the red carpet.

The creators of the competition films were explicitly instructed not to attend the opening ceremony in order to maintain the "mystery of the competition section."

If someone is both a judge and a creator of a competition film, then they are forced to choose one.

Therefore, unless the opening film has extremely high visibility, the spotlight and commercial value of the opening ceremony red carpet are generally not as great as those of the premiere.

This year's opening ceremony film was Woody Allen's "The End of Hollywood," which didn't garner much attention, so naturally, the opening ceremony red carpet also received only moderate attention.

After the opening ceremony's red carpet event, Lu Jiang and the others went into the theater to watch "Hollywood Ending." When they came out, apart from Lu Jiang, the translator, Situ Zhaodun, Fan Binbin, and a few others who understood English and looked normal, everyone else was somewhat bewildered.

The movie was mediocre, and without Chinese subtitles, the viewing experience was far from good.

However, everyone was unanimously impressed by the atmosphere of the movie screening.

I love clapping so much.

More than 2000 people clapped together, and the clapping lasted for several minutes.

The unique character of Cannes truly lives up to its name.

After the opening film screening, the exciting premiere red carpet event followed.

In the official Cannes Film Festival definition, the red carpet for a premiere is a competition.

All films in the main competition must hold an official premiere, complete with a full red carpet ceremony.

Even the least popular films in the main competition, even if only one of their main creators walks the red carpet, will receive the same level of red carpet treatment as those in the Lumière Hall, a rehearsal ceremony, the same length of media photo opportunities, and official live broadcast coverage.

This is the core rule of Cannes, which has remained unchanged since its inception in 1946.

The purpose is to ensure that each film in competition receives ample media exposure and artistic respect.

Meanwhile, compared to the usual media coverage of the opening ceremony red carpet.

During the premiere red carpet, various media outlets will focus on specific topics such as celebrities and the film.

This means that the performance of the main cast and crew on the red carpet at the premiere will, to some extent, influence the attention paid to the film by various media outlets, thereby increasing their competitive advantage.

Therefore, any film that aims to compete for awards will put a lot of effort into its premiere red carpet.

Various brands will also add all sorts of embellishments and endorsements.

This is also why the Cannes main competition premiere red carpet had such a strong commercial appeal, overshadowing all other Cannes red carpets.

Even so, the premiere schedule will greatly affect the exposure rate.

The Cannes premiere schedule is fixed at 7 pm every night, which is prime time for popular films. At this time, stars gather, and the media and jury can focus on the film, making it the main battleground for the competition.

Secondly, there's the 3 PM showing, which often features niche art films; this showing receives less media attention.

If the schedule is tight, an additional match will be added at 11 a.m., which is a pure upset time with the highest media absence rate.

This year, 22 films were selected for the main competition at Cannes, and they all had to hold their premiere red carpet events within 10 days. As a result, there will be three premieres on two separate days.

Of the 22 films, the one that garnered the most attention on the red carpet was Monica Bellucci's "Irreversible".

The film that garnered the most attention was Michael Moore's "Bowling of Columbine," a Palme d'Or favorite at this year's Cannes Film Festival. This film directly confronts gun violence in the United States and has received a great deal of media attention.

Lu Jiang's "Lobster" received the least attention among the 22 shortlisted films.

This is normal. She's a Cannes newcomer, making her feature film debut, working on an art-house film, and her main profession is singing. She's not very well-known in Europe yet.

With all the debuffs stacked up, how much more attention do you want?

As a result, Lobster unfortunately became "cannon fodder" and only got one of the two noon screenings.

Interestingly, another film that got a midday screening was Roman Polanski's "The Pianist," which was famous but at the time also considered a "niche film."
Regarding the fact that the show was scheduled for noon.

Apart from Fan Binbin and other Chinese filmmakers, the rest of the Chinese film industry didn't think it was that bad.

For example, Master Zhou.

Zhou Gongzi is actually extremely envious of Fan Binbin and Dong Xuan now.

She's a regular in art-house films, and as an actress, she also dreams of walking the red carpet, but despite her efforts over the years, she hasn't been able to achieve it.

The 00 film "Suzhou River" was quite famous and was selected for screening at the Berlin Film Festival.

But that wasn't the main competition section, much less Cannes.

This year, Zhou Xun brought her new work, "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress," to the Cannes Film Festival, but only to the screening section.

The red carpet for the screening section received the least attention; it was practically a formality.

Let's look at Fan Binbin and Dong Xuan.

The first film went straight to the red carpet for the main competition premiere.

This truly proves the saying, "Choice is more important than effort."

However, she found it strange that Dong Xuan still looked sullen.

Dong Xuan's reply made her frown again: "What's there to be happy about at the midday show?"

"Hey, that's not a nice thing to say. So what if it's a midday screening? It's still a proper Cannes premiere red carpet event. Others can't even get on it if they want to!"

Zhou Gongzi's impression of Dong Xuan suddenly turned sour.

But Dong Xuan added, "You don't understand. Bingbing spent over a million yuan on the red carpet this time. The media exposure at noon was the worst, so that million yuan might just go down the drain!"

Upon hearing this, not only Zhou Gongzi, but also Chen Kun and Liu Ye beside her turned their heads to look.

"Wait a minute!" Young Master Zhou's brows furrowed even more. "Millions? Did I hear that right? It's just walking the red carpet, and it costs millions?"

No wonder she was so surprised.

At that time, domestic celebrities knew almost nothing about the Cannes red carpet.

In people's minds, the red carpet is merely a means to enhance one's domestic or even international reputation.

My impression of the Cannes Film Festival is basically that of a "temple of cinematic art" and a "trading platform," rather than a super platform that combines product trading, artistic competition, and cultural display.

Therefore, people don't pay much attention to the various non-film-related commercial activities involved in the premiere red carpet, such as fashion value and brand endorsement deals.

Or more precisely, because no one has pioneered this field, people are unfamiliar with it and would not believe that such a thing would happen to an ordinary Chinese celebrity.

After all, these luxury brands haven't really entered the Chinese market, and currently, no Chinese celebrity has been able to collaborate with top international brands, including Gong Li.

Maggie Cheung has won awards, but can you compare to her? She's won several Best Actress awards already!
Therefore, people tend to assume that only those with exceptional status and prestige can win the favor of these high-end brands, and that it is definitely not enough to simply rely on a beautiful red carpet appearance.

Dong Xuan was well aware that her understanding differed from that of Zhou Gongzi and the others. However, she didn't offer much explanation, as she felt the money was now being wasted and any further explanation would be futile.

So she changed her tune: "I mean, the film cost millions to shoot, but they only gave us this many screenings. I feel sorry for Bingbing and Director Lu."

“You don’t know this, do you?” Young Master Zhou accepted this explanation and then comforted him, “Let me tell you, the red carpet is just a formality, don’t take it too seriously. What’s important is the film itself. Now that your film has been nominated, let me put it this way: as long as your company’s negotiation skills are up to par, even if you don’t win an award in the end, you can still break even on the one or two million RMB cost, and maybe even make a big profit!”

Dong Xuan then stepped in to play the straight man, asking, "What do you mean by that?"

"Because the three major European film studios are basically places that sell pornographic films, and I've witnessed this kind of thing with my own eyes once!"

"Really!"

"How could that be fake? Back then, 'Suzhou River' sold for $40, and most of that was thanks to me, okay?"

Young Master Zhou acted like a seasoned veteran, and the others listened intently, making him wish he could light a cigarette and have a good talk with them right then and there.

Unfortunately, smoking is not allowed in the hotel lobby, and Lu Jiang has also returned.

"Hi Lujiang!"

Upon seeing Lu Jiang, Young Master Zhou immediately greeted him.

"Young Master Zhou, you've arrived too!"

The two sides met and introduced Liu Ye and other creators of "The Little Chinese Seamstress".

Liu Ye and Lu Jiang had met before; he had come to the set to watch the MV shoot. This was the first time he had met Chen Kun.

Lu Jiang's first impression of him was that he was "dark-skinned"—his skin was indeed very dark.

Chen Kun, Liu Ye, and the others were focused on the huge suitcase behind Lu Jiang.

"what is this?"

Young Master Zhou was immediately curious.

It was a huge black box, guarded by two men in black, and a very effeminate man holding the handle. Most importantly, his wrists were handcuffed to the handle.

Good guy.

Could this be some kind of priceless jewelry?
"Oh, you'll find out the day after tomorrow at noon."

Lu Jiang didn't explain much, and immediately told people to go upstairs first.

And that was the end of the story about the mysterious box.

For the rest of the day, everyone's conversation revolved around the movie.

The premiere that evening was Michael Moore's "Bowling of Columbine," and after the premiere, it made headlines around the world: "Director Moore publicly criticizes American politics at a press conference."

The controversy surrounding the topic was so great that the afternoon screenings that day and the following day saw a significant drop in attention.

However, the film that premiered the following evening also generated a great deal of buzz.

This performance was of Monica Bellucci's "Irreversible," in which Bellucci contributed a 9-minute long rape scene. Combined with the film's violent scenes, this caused hundreds of audience members to walk out.

The two films have sparked heated and controversial discussions, which at first glance seems to put "The Lobster" in an even more unfavorable position for its midday screening the following day.

But this is not the case.

Because the Cannes premiere red carpet does not necessarily mean that the film was actually screened after the red carpet event was held.

Instead, the film is screened from day one, and the premiere red carpet is simply a fair opportunity to bring together the media and critics to give the film proper exposure.

So, at the moment, "The Lobster" has actually been showing for two days.

The Lobster magazine's current ratings are also very encouraging, ranking 6th!

Everyone thought that this Chinese director's work would be similar to all the previous works by Chinese directors, focusing on local Chinese themes and having an inescapable "underground film" flavor.

As it turns out, people are now discovering that "The Lobster" is actually quite absurd and imaginative.

Its sharp satire of modern society's obsession with marriage and intimate relationships is practically a description of contemporary social contradictions in Europe.

One is a local Chinese story that explores the exotic, and is relatively niche; the other is a new work that subverts stereotypes, is highly immersive, and is more mainstream.

It goes without saying which one is more memorable.

As a result, this very un-Chinese film garnered praise from many avant-garde European media figures and critics.

Its popularity has jumped from the bottom to the top.

This can already be considered a dark horse!

In any competition, the emergence of a dark horse will always attract a lot of attention.

With the attention he received, Lu Jiang's "hidden identity" was also exposed.

It turns out that this director named Lu Jiang is actually the composer of the currently popular song?
Although pop singers are not so popular in Cannes.

But it's interesting that a pop singer directed a decent movie!

As a result, Lu Jiang became the third hot topic at this year's Cannes Film Festival, after Moore and Monica Bellucci.

Although this topic isn't as popular as the previous two, it's still enough to draw a lot of attention to the premiere.

Lu Jiang and "The Lobster" have garnered increasing attention at film festivals, and Cannes, already known for its commercial atmosphere, has given Lu Jiang even more media attention.

So the red carpet for the premiere of "The Lobster" the following day was far from as quiet as expected, with media attendance matching that of the afternoon screenings and even approaching that of the evening's main event.

After learning about the situation ahead, Dong Xuan took several deep breaths.

Two days ago, he was indignant about the lackluster show, feeling that Fan Binbin and he were being treated coldly.

Now that attention has returned, people are incredibly nervous.

For a moment, she was unsure which leg to step with.

But looking at Fan Binbin, who is now possessed by a flower fairy, her eyes are filled with fierce fighting spirit.

Today is the day to outshine Cannes!

"Are you ready?" Lu Jiang asked at that moment.

"Ready!"

Fan Binbin smiled and nodded.

Then the Lobster crew departed from the hotel.

A dozen minutes later, the car arrived at the red carpet.

The door opened, Lu Jiang got out of the car, and the flashbulbs went off.

People are curious about this talented Chinese man who is both a singer and a director.

But soon, all the shots shifted to the side by a few centimeters.

Then, the flower fairy stepped out of the car, holding Lu Jiang's hand.

This year's Cannes Film Festival saw the highest frequency of camera shutter clicks.

"click"

"Kakakakakaka"

For a moment, the more than one hundred regular photographers on site created an atmosphere resembling a massive army.
(End of this chapter)