Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 292 Coppola's Interview
In the end, Ronald agreed with Universal, ignored the follow-up work of the two Israelis, and insisted on not changing his release time.He believes his films are far superior to those of the Israelis.

Israel Go-Go brothers, very happy to hear this news.They spent a lot of money to buy the right to use well-known bands such as U2 to make movie episodes.

Two fat Israelis think they have found the "blockbuster code" for the American film market.

That day Ronald received a call from Helen Slater.

"I'm coming to Los Angeles."

"Really, when are you coming?"

"No, the agent has arranged everything for me. I came to Los Angeles to audition, and I will call you when the time comes."

"That's great, what role are you auditioning for?"

"It's the role that every actress in Hollywood wants."

Ronald called his agent to find out what role Helen was auditioning for.

"It should be the movie "Once Upon A Time in America (Once Upon A Time in America)" that the Italian director Leon has been preparing for ten years." Richard answered his question.

Almost all actresses aged 30 to [-] have auditioned for this movie.Leon even turned down the directorship of "The Godfather" for this movie.

From the younger Debra Winger to the older Susan Sarandon.There are also former actress Sissy Spacek and Best Supporting Actress Mel Streep, who have all gone to audition for the leading actress.

And he is more familiar with, and has worked with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Lane, Brooke Shields and other younger generation actresses, and they all went to audition.

After calling Diane and Brooke, Ronald found that the following actresses had also auditioned.Both Diane and Brooke auditioned for younger versions of the heroine, Deborah.

The director has great ambitions, raised 3000 million US dollars, and will shoot scenes in America, Italy, Canada and other places. It is a masterpiece that surpasses "The Godfather".

But this has nothing to do with Ronald, it is impossible for him to come into contact with this kind of big production.

In addition, through Nisita's operation with Coppola, Ronald was able to enter the final round of interviews for the director's apprenticeship qualification of "The Urchin in the World", and he was going to watch the film directed by Coppola on the spot and learn from the master.

"Francis is a proud man, I have no way to influence his decision-making, it depends on your interview performance in the end.

But I think you should have an advantage. The other directors who went to the interview mainly made small productions of small companies. There are not many theater films like you that have made movies for the seven major studios. "

Nisita is giving Ronald a face-to-face instruction.Because they are apprentices with the top three directors in Hollywood today, many descendants of the second-generation stars and production company executives were also included in the final interview.

"Coppola's 'Diorama' company is in dire financial straits, and he hasn't even paid the screenwriter and author of the original novel, Ms. Hinton.

Therefore, Coppola does not only use this project where the directors' union pays wages as a trainee, he will request it as a requirement for the selection of assistant directors.Someone like you with actual shooting experience is just what he needs. "

"There are five interviewees in total, and you are the last one."

I came to the place where I interviewed the trainee director, which was in the office of 'Diorama Studio' in Los Angeles.This studio is where Coppola filmed "Old Love, New Love".

The movie failed at the box office and was withdrawn by theaters within a week of its release. If the studio fails to pay the rent after a while, it will be taken back by the owner.

"I'm Ronald, Ronald Lee, here for an interview."

"Okay, Mr. Li, you can go in."

"I'm not the last one in line?" Ronald looked at his watch, he wasn't late, why did Coppola interview people so quickly?
When the door was pushed open, there was a small screening hall inside. The first two rows of seats were full of interviewees, with Coppola sitting in the first row, and Ms. SE Hinton, the author and screenwriter of the novel.

Ronald was about to go up to say hello, only to hear an assistant come over and announce the start of the interview.

"This? Is that how Coppola conducts interviews?" Ronald said inwardly, "I thought we had to call one by one for a separate interview. If we do the interview together, all the candidates participating in the interview can hear the answers of others."

"Why did you apply for the position of trainee director?" Coppola adjusted his big black-rimmed glasses, and casually began to ask the first candidate a question.

"I want to learn from the greatest director in the world."

"You like my movies? Which one is your favourite?"

"'The Godfather' is my favorite."

"What about you?" Coppola asked the second candidate.

“My favorite is 'Rain Clan'”

At first glance, this is a die-hard fan of Coppola, and he has even seen the niche movies shot by Coppola.

"Oh why?"

"Because..." The second candidate said a lot about his favorite acting methods and narrative methods.

"What about you? What do you like?" Coppola asked the third.

"I like 'The Godfather 2' the most, because he has an unparalleled use of flashbacks throughout the film." The third candidate has learned to rush to answer the original meaning of his favorite.

Coppola looked to the fourth candidate, a girl who was the niece of a high-ranking Warner Bros. official.Coppola knew of her existence in advance.

"I like your 'Godfather' and 'Apocalypse Now' the most. Because the Godfather uses the auteur's film approach to make Warner Bros. traditional gangster films.

And Apocalypse Now is a profound anti-war film, you were the first to film the theme of the Vietnam War... At that time, only Chinese people could accept your anti-war themes, and they deservedly awarded you the Palme d'Or..."

The girl talked about Coppola's movies so well that she couldn't stop once she started.

Francis Coppola had to raise his hand for her to stop. "Apocalypse Now" was the movie I wanted to make, but it was also the culprit that caused Diorama's financial troubles.

It took a whole year to shoot the film, and experienced the main character’s heart attack, a typhoon destroyed the studio, government forces took away the helicopter to counter the rebellion, and the actors encountered real tigers in the jungle... and so on.

Compared with "The Godfather", Coppola spent a lot more effort on "Apocalypse Now".

"What about you? What do you think? You liked my movie?" Coppola looked at the last candidate, flipping through the names on the list, "Ronald?"

This is also the candidate recommended by the new agent.However, there is only one place paid by the directors' union, and I can only choose one of them who can give me an idea.

Young people always have some wild ideas, this movie is about young people, it is better to have young people on the crew.

Ronald didn't expect Coppola's interview to be so casual. After thinking about it, he replied:

"Apocalypse Now."

"Do you like it also because it's anti-war?" Coppola looked at Ronald, who remembered the name.

Tanin, a senior executive at Universal, once let himself see a film he made, a typical Roger Corman-style exploitation film.I don't know if his preference for making movies is as boring as Roger Corman's.

Is "Apocalypse Now" anti-war? Where does it start?I don't see any anti-war tendency, but Coppola himself said that movies are anti-war in Cannes, no one knows what he thinks, if what he said doesn't meet his wishes...

"Ronald?" The chubby Hinton sitting next to him called his name, reminding himself not to think too long, Coppola had already shifted his attention to the script.

"I don't think 'Apocalypse Now' is a war-themed movie"

Regardless, Ronald expressed his true opinion.

"Oh?" Coppola raised his head, which was an unexpected answer.All film critics are praising Apocalypse Now's anti-war thinking, and some people think it is praising war, but none of them got rid of the theme of war. This young man has his own ideas.

"So what kind of movie is it?" Coppola asked.

The niece of the executive next to him looked at Ronald a little pity for his situation. This person spoke surprisingly. At first, it was because it was the last one to answer the question, and the answers were all finished by the people in front.As a last resort.

Fortunately, I answered in front of him. I prepared in advance the newspaper and magazine columns, all the film reviews of Coppola's movies, and studied for a long time before I could talk about it.If it also falls to the last answer, it is probably not much better than him.

"I think it's essentially a psychological thriller."

"Huh?" The executive's niece was also quite surprised.

Thriller (Thriller) is a genre.He is different from horror movies. Horror movies often use monsters that jump out suddenly to scare you, while thrillers scare people through pre-set suspense.

The classic representatives of thrillers are those classic movies of Hitchcock.The suspense is set in advance, and the audience knows from the beginning what kind of opponent the protagonist will face, but the protagonist himself often does not know.

"I think 'Apocalypse Now' is really about a man wrestling with the beast in his subconscious," Ronald continued.

"What nonsense are you talking about? 'Apocalypse Now' is obviously a war movie, so what does it have to do with a thriller?" An interviewer who came with him couldn't help but scolded Ronald.

"No, it's not a war movie." Ronald said his thoughts, but his thoughts became clearer and clearer.

"War movies must have war scenes, and every war scene gets bigger and bigger, and the final scene is the biggest.

And the scale of war in "Apocalypse Now" is getting smaller and smaller.From the helicopter battle at the beginning, to the steamboat attack and defense, and finally to the territory of Colonel Coates, it became a cold weapon war.

And the last scene..."

When Ronald said this, he glanced at Coppola and found that he was looking at him with great interest.

"In the climax of the last scene, we only saw the duel between Willard, the main character in the weak light, and Colonel Coates, the villain in the dark. Finish."

"But isn't this the theme of anti-war? War has caused indelible trauma to people's hearts." The niece of a high-level Warner Bros. executive was also attracted by Ronald's statement and refuted it.

"Anti-war films have a lot of traumatic depictions of people and soldiers that 'Apocalypse Now' doesn't have. In fact, I think the scene at the climax says a lot about what a film is. It doesn't describe the effects of war on soldiers. Damage to normal human feelings such as family affection and love."

"Of course, this is just my personal interpretation. The charm of classics is that they can be interpreted from different aspects." Ronald added at the end, he did not want to argue with his interview opponents, and ended his speech.

"Okay, that's it for the interview. My assistant will inform you of the result tomorrow."

Coppola stopped looking at a few interviewees, and the assistant next to him came to ask them to go out.

"Is what Ronald said right?" Hinton, the novelist, was very interested in the issues they just discussed, and asked after seeing Coppola circled the names of Ronald and the executive's niece.

"There are always many interpretations of classics." Coppola replied with a smile.

(End of this chapter)