New Age Artists

Chapter 658 It’s a big deal!

The origins of the three major film festivals are more or less related to the Cold War.

Time can dilute many things, and the media is in the hands of the West.

If you do something that is against the will of heaven and earth, the media can glorify it and cover it up.

Although it's exaggerated, controlling the media can modify many memories, even history.

Judging from the past 13 years, the actual controller of the Berlin Film Festival is the festival’s highest management body.

It is run by the non-profit organization Berlin International Film Festival GmbH, which is jointly managed by the German federal government, the Berlin city government and film industry representatives.

Its highest decision-making body is the Supervisory Board.

The core members of the Supervisory Board include the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media representing the German government, the Berlin City Senator for Cultural Affairs representing the Berlin City Government, and the head of the German Film Foundation representing the German film industry.

The apparent actual controller is artistic director Dieter Kosslick, who is also the core planner of the Berlin Film Festival.

Dieter Kosslick has a background in sociology and political science and studied at the University of Hamburg.

He worked at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) in his early years, promoting the Young Directors Program.

Since the 80s, he has been involved in the formulation of German film industry policies and served as the head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Film Foundation.

He took over as artistic director of the Berlin Film Festival in 2001, a position he has held for 2001 years.

During his tenure, he expanded the scale of the film festival, added a "New Generation" unit, and pushed the festival to pay more attention to political films and social issues.

The festival emphasizes its political and social critical nature, and often screens films dealing with issues such as refugees, gender equality, and globalization.

I like to promote the participation of films from non-Western countries, such as focusing on Middle Eastern, Latin American and African films.

Film is an important tool of the Western media machine, and the Berlin Film Festival is a link in the evaluation of the "art" of film.

Being able to work for 12 years, Dieter Kosslick must also be a container of Western ideology.

It’s just that the film festival has passed its initial stage and has long been institutionalized, and many things are hidden under the surface.

The 2012 Golden Bear Award was given to the Italian film "Caesar Must Die", which tells the story of serious prisoners in an Italian prison rehearsing Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar".

The tendency to deconstruct prison reality in dramatic form, ostensibly stems from support for artistic innovation, is in fact a direct application of deconstructionism.

The directors of "Caesar Must Die", brothers Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani, talked about their creative concept: "We hope that after the movie is shown, the audience will say to themselves or the people around them that even if they are felons or life prisoners, they are still human beings."

Human nature argument.

Using universal human values ​​to downplay the criminal facts of the crimes, whether it is "The Flowers of War", or some directors from Tokyo University, they habitually find humanity in bad guys and call it "art". To a large extent, the source of the narrative comes from this.

This narrative serves the present by downplaying class and collective narratives and strengthening the individual.

Another one that serves history and has Western characteristics is the "Three Unifications", which is used to circumvent the blood debts of the pre-colonial period - criminals may also be good people and should be forgiven.

But for the non-Western world, Koslik has a different set of standards.

During his tenure, he screened films from former colonial countries or those that explored colonial history on many occasions.

It is still a postcolonial framework, using culture to serve invisible colonization.

On the surface, "postcolonial theory" has never been explicitly used as a curatorial framework, but it goes without saying.

The films in the main competition unit in 2012 include the Indonesian film "Postcards from the Zoo", "Destruction" set against the backdrop of the Syrian war, the Turkish film "Wounds" about identity, and "White Deer Plain" from the University of Tokyo.

"White Deer Plain" needs no introduction.

Pick out the most disgusting fragments and present them, euphemistically calling them "true colors" to criticize feudalism.

In fact, it is the same technique used in later generations to shoot rural themes, putting together several unfortunate real cases to create a character.

Do you think it is true? Yes, it is true. Maybe it exists in reality.

Take "Postcards from the Zoo" as an example.

The film revolves around an old zoo in Jakarta that is on the verge of closure. From the perspectives of zoo managers, zoologists and residents of the surrounding communities, it explores the ecological contradictions in the process of urbanization and the alienation between humans and nature.

The zoo was eventually destroyed and turned into a commercial complex.

The main competition unit also includes the German film "Barbara", which tells the story of a female doctor named Barbara who, with the help of her boyfriend, managed to escape from East Germany to West Germany during the Cold War.

The contrast is too stark.

Western films are also deconstructive.

But deconstruction itself still serves a certain subject, a kind of grand narrative.

Non-Western movies, on the other hand, are house-destroying.

For example, "Postcards from the Zoo" is a non-Western "model" under a typical Western narrative - no development.

The reason why the Berlin Film Festival gave a sweet treat is that the film caters to the idea that non-Western countries cannot develop and would be better off maintaining their primitive jungle scenes forever, remaining backward from generation to generation.

The zoo in the movie is a good symbol. It would be best if non-Western countries could forever be the "zoo" of the "civilized" and "righteous" world.

"Postcards from the Zoo" tells a story about demolition. It would be difficult for a Tokyo University director to make such a film and get it shortlisted for the main competition.

In 08, at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, Wang Xiaoshuai's "Left and Right" directly deconstructed all morality.

The story tells about He He, the daughter of a divorced couple Mei Zhu and Xiao Lu, who is diagnosed with leukemia. The only hope for treatment is a transplant of umbilical cord blood from her siblings.

After Mei Zhu and her current husband Lao Xie failed in their attempts to have a child, she came up with a crazy plan to have "another child" with her ex-husband Xiao Lu.

Driven by maternal love, Mei Zhu breaks the moral boundaries, while Xiao Lu is torn between anger towards his current wife Dong Fan and guilt towards his ex-wife.

Lao Xie is the silent and tolerant current husband, who finally convinces himself to accept the absurd reality by saying "to save the child".

Dong Fan, the ex-husband's current wife, was the most innocent outsider. She went from fierce opposition to being forced to compromise.

This movie is also adapted from "real events".

The use of autologous umbilical cord blood to treat leukemia is extremely rare, and there are only a few public cases in the world. The treatment method is controversial, but the director told a real case, that is.

The director uses the suffering of others to embellish his own "artistic" image.

Drag the audience into the gray area, into the "trolley trap (problem)", let the audience suffer, and reconstruct moral ethics.

Such a film, adapted from "real events" and which corrupted all ethics and morals in the name of "art", was only awarded the Silver Bear Award.

Considering that Wang Xiaoshuai is similar to Cannes to Jia Zhangke, he is an "insider" of the Berlin Film Festival.

This movie, which has modern scenes, also considerately downplays the cultural background of the University of Tokyo.

Even if you do this, you still can’t get the highest honor.

"Tuya's Marriage" by Wang Quanan, which won the Golden Bear Award in 07, tells the story of Tuya, a Mongolian woman who, due to the hardships of life, goes to look for a husband with her disabled ex-husband Bater.

Wang Quanan himself said that his motivation for filming "Tuya's Marriage" was that brutal industrial development had led to severe desertification of grasslands, and forcing local Mongolian herdsmen to move out of the pastoral areas was the initial motivation for filming "Tuya's Marriage".

It is still a "true story", with a true story of "finding a son-in-law and supporting a husband" that took place in Gansu as the main line of the film, and the location of the story is transferred from the Loess Plateau in the northwest to the Mongolian grasslands.

Stop development, minorities suffer xx, original picture.

This taste is just right.

So I won the award.

It’s clear that the Berlinale is not just about Western, non-Western standards.

Outside the non-West, there are standards.

Under this standard framework, the status of Southeast University is lower than that of countries such as Indonesia.

Of course, with the economic development of the University of Tokyo and the spending of real money, sponsors from the University of Tokyo can also step on the accelerator hard to make the "noble" "lady" of the international film festival behave like a human being.

In other words, the actual decision-making power of the Berlin Film Festival is ostensibly held jointly by the German federal government and the Berlin city government, with the artistic director at the outermost level, and the chairman of the festival jury from the media's perspective.

Although it seems that there is no actual controller, there is actually still a line.

The Berlin Film Festival is unabashedly political, stemming from its Cold War and German public cultural policy orientation.

It’s just that many people don’t know the hidden operations and mistakenly think that it is just a simple artistic evaluation.

Shen Santong thought for a moment and said, "If No Man's Land goes to Berlin, it might win the Golden Bear."

Guangtou Xu was surprised: "Ah, the Golden Bear Award?"

I never thought I would win the Golden Bear.

It would be great if I could win the Silver Bear Award. There is only one Golden Bear Award, but there are six Silver Bear Awards. I can also compete for the Best Jury Award, Best Director Award, and Best Screenplay Award. Shen Santong said: "It is quite possible to win the Golden Bear Award."

There is no doubt that Tokyo University has a relaxed culture. There are reasons why "No Man's Land" couldn't be shown.

People later thought that we started working with Citibank in 16 or 18, but in fact, those were only the second or third round.

Or rather, the struggle never stops.

It was just that the situation eased for a few years after 911/911. Starting from after 09/, the first round began in .

That is the frontier.

From this point of view, Shen Santong didn't know what to say. The film industry could play no positive role in national affairs, but at least it would be good enough if it didn't cause any trouble.

Shen Santong had a chat with Xu Guangtou and talked about the tricks involved.

Xu Zheng's face turned pale, and he didn't dare to look at Shen Santong for a moment. He hesitated and said, "If this matter is involved, I'm afraid Ning Hao won't agree. He will be banned from directing in the future."

Shen Santong didn't quite understand what Guangtou Xu was talking about: "What does it involve?"

Xu Zheng whispered: "That border"

Shen Santong saw that he had misunderstood, and explained: "Of course we can't use this to make a fuss. Is it meaningful to use our suffering to win an award and then ridicule them?"

If you want to write an article, from a purely inhuman perspective, you can do it.

There are several levels of writing articles.

Of course, a direct collision would be a ban, but Ning Hao could also make a good show of allegiance by using the "Flower of Evil" and being weird.

It can increase the probability of winning the Golden Bear Award by 30% to 40%.

When an international film festival gives a major award to a director from the University of Tokyo, it must be based on international trends and serve the direction of Western policies, and it cannot be done out of thin air.

It is very "timely" to submit this letter of allegiance at this point in time.

Actors can all get in, and the director has even less connections. He can pretend to be famous and then look for the director later, and Ning Hao can still be a guest of honor.

But Shen Santong couldn't do this kind of thing.

Guangtou Xu breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Shen Santong would push Ning Hao to death.

After all, Guangtou Xu didn’t know that this kind of thing could be divided into several levels, and that nothing would happen after touching it.

His first feeling was that Shen Santong wanted to ruin Ning Hao's reputation, and he couldn't help but struggle in his heart, after all, Ning Hao was also a good friend.

You definitely can’t sell it all at once.

Fortunately, Shen Santong had no such plan.

Shen Santong said, "You ask Ning Hao to negotiate a deal with the film selectors in Berlin. There are still people smearing me recently. We don't have anyone with weight to speak out. Ning Hao can stand up."

Nowadays, not only Shen Santong himself is rising, but Santong Entertainment is also rising.

For example, Huayi has gained considerable united front value and can also invest in some Hollywood movies.

Correspondingly, whether it is Jia Zhangke or Wang Xiaoshuai, not to mention Lou Ye, he has the worst fighting ability.

Jia Zhangke and Wang Xiaoshuai have limited audiences and influence, so they can only entertain themselves.

It would be fine if there was no Santong Entertainment, but now that we have Santong Entertainment, they alone are definitely not enough.

Ning Hao is someone who can at least make good-looking movies and is liked by the audience. For some Western forces, he is definitely a target for wooing.

United front work is not limited to Southeast University.

In other words, even if Todai needs to make contributions in united front work, it must pay attention to basic methods and be decent.

Not everyone can invest if they want.

The West is very cruel when it doesn't need it, but very enthusiastic when it needs it, and can change its attitude as easily as turning the pages of a book.

"This year, Mo Jing Wang served as the chairman of the jury for the main competition unit, and the opening film was his The Grandmaster. Since we can go big, let's try for the Golden Bear Award."

“It’s not just the region, but ‘No Man’s Land’ also has a magical realism tone, it’s crazy, dark, magical, and it echoes the Nobel Prize.”

The more Shen Santong analyzed, the more he felt that the possibility of success was very high.

Among the three major film festivals, the Berlin Film Festival is notoriously obscene and disgusting.

If the Berlin Film Festival does not have such bad intentions and is a good film festival, then just pretend that this incident never happened.

If he really had bad intentions, he deserved to be slapped in the face on the spot.

Simply playing around at the Berlin Film Festival doesn't matter to Shen Santong now.

If you want to play, play big and trample the Golden Bear Award on the ground.

Guangtou Xu looked at Shen Santong who was obviously in high spirits, and felt a little disappointed but also a little excited.

He refused to accept the Silver Bear Award on the spot and even called it performance art. As for the Golden Bear Award, Ning Hao can forget about making it on the international stage from now on.

This is not a prank on the Berlin Film Festival, but a slap in the face, a hard slap.

It’s also very exciting!

These are the three major international film festivals. If Xu Guangtou was a professional, it would be hard for him to have such an idea, but he is not.

And it is obvious that accomplishing this will definitely add a lot of points to Shen Santong's score.

Shen Santong thought of something else: "In the past two years, someone should have poached you, right?"

"Yes." Guangtou Xu answered subconsciously, and then quickly changed his words: "I rejected them all."

Shen Santong said: "It doesn't matter, people always go to higher places."

Guangtou Xu thought Shen Santong would start a conversation, but Shen Santong suddenly changed the subject: "I'm afraid it's not just in our country, there should be people abroad. There must be more people who have come into contact with Ning Hao. After all, he and I had some unpleasant experiences in the past, and he is no longer in Santong Entertainment."

"To be sure of winning the Golden Bear, you can't just go through the Berlin Film Festival. You have to test it out from all sides."

Xu Zheng immediately repeated what he had said to Ning Hao, using some techniques to omit a lot of key content.

At the same time, he also observed Ning Hao's expression.

This is the Berlin Film Festival after all, and there is a chance of winning the Golden Bear.

What if Ning Hao does nothing and chooses to accept the award?
Ning Hao was also dumbfounded. He was not just shocked, but extremely shocked: "Golden Bear Award, damn, if I were to refuse the award when I won it, this is the Golden Bear Award."

Back then, he was running for awards with "Incense" and he was eager for awards.

This is the fucking Golden Bear Award. The first one in China was Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum", followed by Xie Fei and Wang Quanan.

Xu Zheng stared at him: "Haozi, are you going to do it?"

Ning Hao rubbed his head, was silent for a long time, drank a glass of white wine, gritted his teeth and said, "Cheers!"

There is nothing special about international film festivals. Nowadays, the Dongda market is the king.

Xu Zheng said, "Haozi, it's not that I don't trust you. This is a big deal. Director Shen is watching us too. It's not like in the past. If you fooled me, it would be fine. But if you fooled Director Shen, it would be really hard to get over it. By then, not only will we not be able to do this, I'm afraid we won't be able to stay in this business."

Ning Hao was not very happy, but still asked: "What are you going to do?"

Xu Zheng had an idea long ago, and said slowly: "There is still a month before Berlin. Let's make a documentary and tell the story from the beginning. Let's try to see if the Berlin Film Festival is a tool for so-called Western narratives and whether it only considers ideology."

"If it's not, let's just laugh it off. If it is, don't blame us. They did it to us first."

Xu Zheng and Shen Santong thought the same thing.

The choice of whether to destroy their own reputation is not up to them, but the Berlin Film Festival.

Record this in advance, it will be more lethal.

Ning Hao was silent for a longer time this time. He realized this and closed his eyes.

In the past, when it came to literature and art, those scenes seemed to appear before my eyes, and then slowly disappear.

Guangtou Xu was getting impatient waiting.

Ning Hao opened his eyes, which were full of bloodshot, and spat out two words: "Done!"

Guangtou Xu smiled so hard that his mouth split open: "Good brother, let's do something big!"

(End of this chapter)