This director is so innocent.

Chapter 94 Taking Down Cannes

Gao Yuanyuan was having a conversation with her agent.

Su Jin looked at her, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

He sat down next to Gao Yuanyuan, his hand naturally resting on her shoulder, and then slowly—

Gao Yuanyuan noticed Su Jin's subtle movements, and a blush rose to her cheeks, the color spreading all the way to her ears.

At the same time, a strange thrill and a touch of shame welled up inside her.

She didn't stop Su Jin. Instead, she closed her eyes tightly, trying to suppress the rising heat in her body, and continued talking to her agent.

She suddenly let out a muffled groan. Her manager sensed something was wrong and said, "Yuanyuan, you—"

Gao Yuanyuan glared at Su Jin, hurriedly said she had something to do, and hung up the phone.

Immediately afterwards, she sent another text message to her agent to prevent them from calling again.

Looking at Su Jin's ambiguous smile, Gao Yuanyuan was furious. She immediately mounted her horse and began to take charge of the battle.

As the saying goes, "A moment of spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold, flowers have fragrance and the moon casts shadows."

The next day, the sun shone brightly.

Su Jin opened her blurry eyes, looked at the person in her arms and smiled slightly. Her sister was indeed her sister, with strong fighting power and rich experience.

The time that followed was wonderful; we filmed during the day and exchanged ideas about art at night.

After a week, Su Jin got scared. In the end, there were only oxen that died from exhaustion, not land that was ruined by plowing.

If we continue this conversation, I'm afraid we'll die from exhaustion.

Time flies, and it's already mid-May; time to go to Cannes.

In the past two weeks, Huayi Brothers' blockbuster film "The Forbidden Kingdom" started filming in Dunhuang and also announced the two female leads, Ya Hua Zi and Li Lianhua.

Many people say that the female lead in "The Forbidden Kingdom," Golden Swallow, was a gift from Huayi Brothers to secure a contract with Ya Hua Zi.

Just like the leader of the cult back then, Huayi Brothers gave him the role of Yang Guo before signing him.

The media had previously unanimously believed that Ya Huazi was going to join Huayi, and the news was quite popular.

After all, a female lead in a blockbuster with a budget of 7000 million US dollars shouldn't be given to an outsider.

However, both Huayi Xiao Wang and Chen Jiaofu denied the matter in person when interviewed by reporters before filming began.

Do you believe that Ya Hua Zi earned director Minkoff's approval through his own efforts?

Xiao Wang stated directly that there was no such thing as a franchise.

This is the kind of claim that fans of the "tooth flower" brand would believe.

Look at what happened after "The Forbidden Kingdom": Ya Huazi didn't get any acting offers for two whole years. That's the consequence of breaking a verbal contract.

Also, these past two years have been the two years in which the "tooth flower" (a nickname for a person) has been most unfairly criticized.

On May 13th, Lin Daiyu passed away in Shenzhen due to breast cancer. She was 41 years old.

Many people online mourned her, and Su Jin also posted a long blog to commemorate her.

The Cannes Film Festival was founded in 1946 as a countermeasure to the Venice Film Festival, which was controlled by the fascist regime.

It is divided into two units: the formal unit and the parallel unit.

Films that make it into the main competition section can have the "Palm of Gold" logo added to their posters, while films in the parallel sections do not receive this honor.

There are six official sections: the main competition, the non-competitive section, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Classics, the Film Foundation, and the official short film competition.

There are two parallel sections: Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week.

-

The main competition segment is what we commonly refer to as the Admiralty Palm.

The non-competitive screening section is where films are screened and sold at the invitation of Cannes.

On the evening of May 13th, Su Jin handed the film crew over to Wang Ying and led the main creators of "The Coffin in the Mountain" to Cannes to participate in the film festival.

Zhang Guoli, Guo Tao, and Fan Wei are all very interested in Cannes and want to walk the red carpet and become international superstars.

Sister Xia also went; her scenes have already been filmed.

She said that the filming of "Sheep Without a Shepherd" went very smoothly and it was estimated that filming would wrap up by the end of May.

Huang Jiaqiang and Zhong Li also went. The former wanted to broaden his horizons, while the latter was asked by Su Jin because none of the employees at Jianmu Media had experience selling films overseas.

While waiting at the airport, I ran into Feng Xiaogang and his group. They were on their way to Cannes to sell "Assembly".

Zhang Guoli introduced Su Jin to Feng Kuzi, and after a few polite exchanges, it was time to board the plane.

I flew for 12 hours to Paris, then transferred to Nice, and finally took a bus to Cannes.

As expected of an old revolutionary base, we even saw a "workers' strike" parade when we left Nice.

Around 2 PM, the bus arrived in Cannes.

Cannes is not a city, but a small town located on the Mediterranean coast.

It used to be very poor, but after the Cannes Film Festival settled here, the area gradually became wealthy.

It was during the film festival, and countless overseas tourists flocked to the town to experience the influence of art.

Everywhere you look, there are all sorts of movie posters plastered on the street corners, especially those for Hollywood blockbusters, which are incredibly extravagant.

Hollywood blockbusters like "Pirates of the Caribbean 3", "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", and "Transformers" have incredibly large posters, some even over ten meters long.

"They're damn rich," Su Jin thought to herself.

According to Chung Lai, it would cost $200 million to hang such a giant poster during the film festival.

Liu Shishi sat by the window, looking out the window, excitedly chattering away.

The bus continued its journey, passing through the town, and finally stopped in front of the Carlton Hotel, where they would be staying during the film festival.

This place is not cheap at all; it's ridiculously expensive.

This group of people, along with a few staff members, cost 9000 euros per day for accommodation, and that's for a mid-range room.

I booked a week in advance, and if I don't receive an invitation, I'll just go back to my home country.

Receiving an invitation means you're guaranteed to win a prize.

After a long day of flying and driving, Su Jin was exhausted. She was about to take a shower and lie down to rest when her energetic sister dragged her out shopping.

But as soon as he opened the door, he saw Zhong Lilao and Huang Jiaqiang standing at the door.

When Liu Shishi saw the two of them, she was so startled that she quickly let go of Su Jin's arm, her face flushed red, and she lowered her head shyly.

"Boss."

Upon seeing this, Huang Jiaqiang revealed a sly smile.

Zhong Li, on the other hand, seemed perfectly normal; she simply smiled and asked, "Are you going out?"

Su Jin showed no embarrassment and replied, "Shishi wants to go out for a walk. Did you need something from me?"

"Okay, let's go inside and talk!" Zhong Li said.

After they returned to their room, Su Jin handed two bottles of mineral water to the two of them.

Zhong Li took the water and said, "Su Jin, we just inquired about the event program magazine, and it ranges from 6 to 50 euros."

"So expensive?" Su Jin asked in surprise.

At that time, 1 euro was equal to 10.4 red banknotes, so 50 euros was 520 million red banknotes, which was faster than robbing a bank.

"It's a bit cheaper this year; I heard that last year's cover guy sold for 60 euros."

"Then let's just buy an inside page! We've made it into the main competition, we don't need such a good spot."

The two nodded, and Huang Jiaqiang said, "Boss, should we make our booth bigger?"

"How big were the gifts the organizers gave us?" Su Jin asked.

"Seven or eight square meters."

"Buy another 12 square meters."

"How about a cocktail party? Should we have one?"

"How much?"

"The usual price is $50, but there's no upper limit for the expensive ones. I heard that a few years ago, the party for the movie 'The Promise' hosted by Xiao Daren cost $100 million."

"How can a cocktail party be so expensive? Is it made of gold?"

"I'm not sure, but I heard there's a castle in 'The Promise'."

"Do you have anything like two or three hundred thousand US dollars?"

"Yes, but it's a beach party, and it's already all booked."

"Never mind then, let's go crash the party."

Huang Jiaqiang nodded in agreement. "The Coffin in the Mountain" isn't a big-budget film; holding a whole reception for it would be a waste.

"Su Jin, if we're not holding a banquet, we'd better rent a few private rooms. Each private room costs about 8000 per day."

"Oh," Zhong Li said.

"Yes, yes, many large international companies are based at our hotel, and sophisticated buyers are more accustomed to this model of transactions between individual companies," Huang Jiaqiang chimed in.

This is great value for money!

Economical and affordable.

"Okay, I'll rent it for five days first." Su Jin immediately nodded in agreement.

dong dong dong ——

A knocking sounded suddenly.

Liu Shishi quickly got up to open the door.

A short while later, Zhang Guoli, Guo Tao, Fan Wei, and Liu Hua walked in.

"Su Jin, President Huang and President Zhong are here too!" Zhang Guoli said with a smile.

Zhong Li and Huang Jiaqiang smiled slightly at him as a greeting.

"Brother, is there something you need?" Su Jin asked, standing up.

"The four of us want to go out for a walk, but none of us understand English," Zhang Guoli said awkwardly.

"Liu Ye, don't you understand either?" Su Jin said, looking at Liu Hua.

Liu Ye has been to Cannes before; he has always made art films and has been nominated for Cannes three times.

"Blue Rain" was shortlisted, but he didn't go; Hu Jun did.

"Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" was shortlisted, but he still didn't go; Zhou Xun and Chen Kun went instead.

"Purple Butterfly" was nominated, and he went there this time, along with Zhang Ziyi and Li Lianhua.

Liu Ye scratched his head, looking embarrassed, and said, "I don't really know much either, I only know a little bit."

"Where's Yu Nan? Why isn't she with you?" Su Jin asked.

Yu Nan is the queen of art-house films. She's very familiar with France; she speaks not only English but also French.

"She's not feeling well and is resting," Zhang Guoli explained.

"Then you should call your translator and go out together!"

They came with a translator this time, a translator who speaks both English and French.

"We took the translator with us, what are you going to do?" Zhang Guoli asked.

"We don't need it. I speak English, and so does Mr. Chung."

"Thanks, brother."

After the four of them went outside, Zhong Lilao said, "Let's go take a look at the trading market!"

"Um.

""

The film market is located on the basement floor of the cinema palace.

The Palais des Festivals is the main venue for the Cannes Film Festival. Built in 1982, it can accommodate 3 people.

Red carpet events, film screenings, awards ceremonies, film markets, copyright transactions—almost all the activities during the Cannes Film Festival.

Everything revolves around this building.

Besides, there is another place for the film market, which is in the several large hotels opposite the cinema.

This is a more high-end place; only large international companies conduct transactions here.

Film company owners, producers, copyright companies, and film sales agents finalize "business deals" here while drinking coffee.

Many big film deals are negotiated and finalized in hotels, and only industry insiders can participate in the lively atmosphere there.

The Palace of Cinemas is located right across from the Carlton Hotel.

It only took eight or nine minutes to get there.

There were quite a few people inside, all talking and chattering.

Buyers and sellers can be seen everywhere with furrowed brows and serious conversations.

It is said that more than 70% of the world's film transactions take place here.

The booth provided by the organizer is right here, and Zhao Shan and her staff have already put up the poster for "The Coffin in the Mountain".

After strolling around for a while, Su Jin and her two companions returned to their own booth.

"Boss," Zhao Shan greeted.

Su Jin nodded slightly and asked, "How many people have asked?"

"It's alright. People are quite interested in our film since it's in the main competition. We've sent out hundreds of business cards and brochures."

"So many?" Su Jin was a little surprised; the booth had only been set up in a little over half an hour.

"Anyone interested in buying?"

"There are more than a dozen, but they are all quite cautious and said they want to see the finished film before they can talk about anything else."

"Fine!" Su Jin said helplessly.

Caution was all because of Xiao Daren's "The Promise". Before that, overseas audiences were very interested in Chinese period dramas.

Zhang Yimou's "Hero" sold its overseas rights for $5800 million.

Then, Xiao Daren's "The Promise" ruined the lives of overseas film companies with just a 20-minute trailer.

After that, overseas film companies became cautious not only about domestic period dramas, but also about other types of domestic films.

Su Jin sat there for half an hour, receiving many film businessmen, but few of them expressed interest in purchasing films.

After telling Huang Jiaqiang and the others, I went shopping on Rue Menardier with Sister Xia.

Menardier Street is situated between the new town and the old town.

The road wasn't very wide, and both sides were lined with shops, mainly selling specialties and food from the south of France.

There were also items from the East, but mostly porcelain and the like.

My sister loves shopping and bought a lot of things: clothes, jewelry, scarves, cosmetics —

Her own money.

Su Jin secretly noted it down and estimated that it cost five or six thousand euros, of which five hundred euros were for sunglasses for him.

As they strolled around, they ran into Zhang Guoli and his group of four, all empty-handed and wearing sunglasses.

"Brothers, didn't you buy any local specialties?" Su Jin asked with a smile.

"Things here are ridiculously expensive; a bottle of Coke costs 8 euros," Guo Tao complained.

Let alone Coke, even stir-fried dishes in China have gone up from twenty-something euros to forty-something euros.

"Su Jin, did you go to the trading market? How was it?" Zhang Guoli asked.

"Generally, there are about twenty people who have expressed interest in purchasing," Su Jin replied.

"Twenty-odd? That many?" Liu Hua said in surprise.

"Is that a lot?" Su Jin had no idea. He had always thought that twenty or so was a small number, after all, he had made it into the main competition, so it was a natural GG.

"Of course there are many. Do you know how many copies of 'The Purple Butterfly' were released on the first day? Just a few."

"Isn't Zhang Ziyi quite famous here?"

"Forget it! She's called Zhang Ziyi, but she's really just average. She's nowhere near as good as Gong Li."

"Brother, you're wrong about that. He's still a junior colleague, after all," Fan Wei suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.

When Zhang Ziyi first debuted, she was labeled as "Little Gong Li," but she stopped using that label after she became famous.

She is indeed far inferior to Gong Li.

For example, for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, the organizing committee specially invited Gong Li to attend.

>