Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The quality of "The Silence of the Lambs" is really a rare good film in the past ten years. This kind of thriller is different from ordinary horror movies. There are not many "scary" shots in the whole film. The most violent scene is Hannibal beating the guard to death in the cage. In this plot, the director also used symphony and camera editing to greatly weaken the time and degree of violent scenes.

The horror of thrillers is a kind of horror that stimulates people's spiritual imagination and is psychological. This also puts forward extremely high artistic requirements for directors. Not everyone can inspire the audience's imagination from plain pictures and scare themselves.

And after they scare themselves enough, they will immediately tell their relatives and friends about this news and ask them to go to the cinema to scare themselves.

Therefore, the box office figures of "The Silence of the Lambs" are also very good. It rushed to the top of the list.

Although the box office performance in the off-season was not good overall, it was still the first place. TriStar Pictures received a big gift from Ronald. Frank Price and Mike McDavoy, two executives who were marginalized in Sony Columbia, now speak louder.

After all, Columbia Pictures, which is managed by CEO Peter Guber himself, has much stronger resources than TriStar Pictures, which is in a concubine status, and no movie has ever reached the top of the weekly box office chart.

They came to visit Ronald together. In addition to thanking him, they also hoped that Ronald could release more movies in TriStar Pictures.

"If you can control Coppola, then his project, tentatively named Dracula - The Untold Story, actually has good potential." Ronald knew that Coppola's weakness was that he would be led astray by the inspiration that appeared during the filming process. If he could let his endless inspiration emerge in the preparation stage like he did when he filmed The Godfather, then he would follow the plan more during the filming.

"I prepared a bet agreement for him. If he can complete the filming on time and within the budget according to the schedule, he will be given a generous bonus. If he exceeds the time and budget, he will be held responsible." Mike Medavoy is very experienced in managing geniuses.

Frank Price did not agree with this, but under Coppola's frequent and substantial overspending "reputation", he let go of the production and only focused on the script and casting.

"Francis, TriStar Pictures has settled it..." Ronald then called director Coppola.

"Really? That's great. Many distributors don't want to watch this movie..." Coppola still faces great financial pressure, and he has high hopes for this movie.

"I told them that you can often create miracles in this state. Frank Price is your bosom friend. In fact, even without me speaking, they would probably give your project the green light."

"No need to say more, I've made a note this time. We are good friends. But when I went to the Directors Guild a few days ago, it seemed that not many votes were cast for you..."

"I didn't hold much hope, after all, it's a romantic film with religious plots. Thank you anyway."

Coppola was talking about the Directors Guild's vote for the Oscar nomination for Best Director. Most of the people who have voting rights in the Academy are members of the Directors Guild.

Although he said he had no idea, Ronald, who returned home, turned on the TV and watched the TV broadcast of the Oscar nominations.

"Welcome to the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Today, we are announcing the nominations for the new Oscars here according to tradition."

The newly appointed president of the Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts, Karl Malden, still likes to show up like last year. He said a lot of nonsense, and then announced the nominations for the new Oscars with last year's Best Supporting Actor, Denzel Washington.

When the nominations were announced last year, he and Geena Davis, the Best Supporting Actress of the previous session, were nominated. It seems that they want to make this a new tradition of the Oscars.

"The nominees for Best Actor are Gerard Depardieu, Richard Harris, Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, and Kevin Costner."

"The nominees for Best Actress are Kathy Bates, Anjelica Huston, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, and Joanne Woodward."

There is no suspense about the nominations for the two acting awards. There are popular movies, quotas for foreign actors, and the factor of respecting the elderly and loving the young.

Joanne Woodward is Paul Newman's wife, the only Oscar-winning actor and actress couple. Last year, they co-produced a movie, "Bridget and the Other Bride", which was average at the box office and the performance was not particularly outstanding. However, many of the voting members of the Screen Actors Guild are also old actors, which is respecting the elderly.

Julia Roberts has two box office hits in a row, and her screen image is also very beautiful. These people with voting rights have also known this unfamiliar young actor through a lot of public relations work. This is love for children.

This is also related to the cleverness of the subject matter. Julia Roberts plays classic Hollywood type heroines, and the old judges like it.

Ronald also applied for the best actor and actress nomination for "Ghost", but was not selected as expected. What movie actors may dislike most is those peers who don't seem to spend too much effort on acting, but have achieved amazing box office results and have become stars overnight.

Demi Moore actually doesn’t care too much. The increase in her value and popularity from this movie will last for many years.

Next is the Best Supporting Actress. Whoopi Goldberg, for whom Ronald focuses on public relations, was nominated. Sometimes, public relations work is to avoid highly competitive categories. Goldberg’s performance works well in this year’s less competitive supporting actress category.

Annette Bening, who is also a newcomer in the film industry, although she worked very hard in “The Gambler” and gave a peak performance in both physical and acting aspects, the film company may not pay enough attention to her and do not want her to compete with another actress in the film, Anjelica Huston, the mother of the male protagonist, so they only applied for the Best Supporting Actress.

This is a practice that makes people pay but not get what they deserve. Annette Bening entered the industry at a very old age and did not have good connections. The box office of this movie was average. She neither received box office recognition nor was she classified as a supporting actress of a lower level in terms of awards... She had a lot of frontal nudity in this movie. She made such a great sacrifice, but the box office and awards were not satisfactory...

Compared to Demi Moore, it can be said that it fully explains why actresses should enter the industry as early as possible.

Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene, who played the Indian Sioux tribe, were also nominated for the best supporting actor and actress. Graham Greene and three Italian-American actors, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Andy Garcia, were nominated at the same time, and they all played roles in gangster movies. The three of them played in Dick Tracy, The Godfather Part III, and Goodfellas respectively.

"Here it comes..."

Diane, who was watching the TV broadcast together, was more nervous than Ronald. The nominations for the best director were announced soon.

"Francis Ford Coppola - The Godfather Part III, Martin Scorsese - Goodfellas, Stephen Freels - The Gambler, Barb Schroeder - Reversal of Fortune..."

Four of the five nominations were announced, and Ronald thought for a moment that he was the next one, and his hands were sweating...

"Kevin Costner - Dances with Wolves"

"Huh?"

Diane exclaimed, how could Costner be nominated for the Best Director Award? She looked at Ronald, and her husband's face flashed with disappointment. She immediately leaned over and put her face together to comfort him.

"It's the same old problem. They don't like romantic comedies very much." Ronald acted calmly, but in fact he was also complaining in his heart. Kevin Costner could also be nominated for the Best Director?

Well, among the directors nominated this year, only Martin Scorsese is the most popular and deserved one. You will just be a runner-up if you go.

Scorsese has made many masterpieces over the years, such as Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, which are both highly artistic and innovative works, but they didn't get the Best Director award by accident.

However, the Oscars have always had a tradition of compensating you with a small golden man based on historical performance and comprehensive consideration.

This year, Coppola's third film, The Godfather, did not meet expectations, and the other two nominated films were even less in quality. Even if Ronald was nominated, there would not be much hope. After all, in Hollywood and the film critics, the saying that Scorsese deserves a small golden man has been popular for a long time.

The following nominations were announced one after another. Ghost and Dances with Wolves were nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay respectively. These two films were also nominated for Best Picture.

Relatively speaking, the nomination for Best Picture is less affected by the box office. In several major art awards, it is easy to have a situation where the higher the box office, the fewer nominations. This is also a problem that voting awards are prone to.

"Then there is the Best Foreign Language Film. After the selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts, we selected five nominated films from non-English films selected from all over the world. They are..."

The Best Foreign Language Film is different from the nominations for other awards. This is a registration by the film associations of various countries, not by the film producers. The voting selection is the same as the best film. It is not a special industry association vote, but all the judges with voting rights vote together.

"Yiou Zhang, Ju Dou... use Chinese."

"Huh?" Ronald found that the acquaintance who won the Golden Bear at the West Berlin Film Festival was actually nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars this time. He immediately picked up the phone and called Director Wu who helped him collect old Chinese films.

"Director Wu, have you watched the broadcast? Yiou was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film."

"What? There is also this? That's good, when he comes to Los Angeles, I will make dumplings for him." Director Wu did not watch the live broadcast. He recently found copies of many Chinese-language films from the 1940s in the US military's copy warehouse. These may not be preserved so well in China. They have only been shown a few times and there are no scratches on high-quality copies.

This is because the US military has always been rich and has to show movies every week to entertain the soldiers. Some troops stationed in Asia at that time purchased local movies to show to the soldiers and some local people who served the soldiers.

When the U.S. military withdrew from Asia a few years later, these copies were returned to the mainland by ship and lay in the U.S. military warehouse for decades. However, the storage conditions of the U.S. military warehouse are better than those of some Hollywood studios, so it is rare that they can be passed down to this day.

Among these copies, there are several classics that are passed down by word of mouth in the domestic circle, such as Spring in a Small Town and Eternal Memory. Director Wu was very happy to begin with, and today he heard that it was even more of a double happiness.

"I'll call him to congratulate him and set a time. When he comes to Los Angeles, can I find a time to talk to him? I always feel that he still has potential."

"Come on... When the time comes, you can also make some dumplings for Diane and me. The last time I ate them, they tasted very good. Bring your daughter as well." Ronald was very happy and prepared to give a grand reception. When the time comes, let Director Huang from Xujiahui come as well. I will pay for the expenses myself, and let them meet and communicate with AngLee who is preparing to promote the film, and learn about the production process of Hollywood.

In his heart, Ronald still thinks more highly of these filmmakers than those in Hong Kong. Some themes and genre films can only be made by them. The Asian fever brought by The Last Emperor has not completely subsided until now. Maybe we can make a The Last Emperor directed by a Chinese director.

However, things are unpredictable. A day later, Director Wu called again.

"I'm so sorry, Director Luo, Xiao Zhang can't come. He has other things to do and can't come to Los Angeles to attend the awards ceremony."

"Can't come?" Ronald was a little confused when he received the call. Doesn't the mainland attach great importance to Western awards such as the Oscars? Seeing such a good opportunity, how could he give up?

The Oscars are not some third-rate international film festival awards that can be won as long as you spend money. If you don't come, the Oscars will never give you the award.

In history, only Marlon Brando and George C. Scott have refused to accept the award. But they refused at the time of the award ceremony, and the Oscar organizing committee had no choice but to accept it.

If you say you won't come before the vote, you won't have a chance in the future, let alone this time.

"Hey, I've scolded him. But you can't blame him completely for this matter."

It turned out that there was another hidden story in this matter. The selection of which film to submit for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is entirely decided by the associations of various countries. This Ju Dou is similar to Yiou Zhang's previous "Red Sorghum" in that both reflect the backward rural life before 1949.

Ju Dou tells the story of the oppression of free human nature by feudal ethics. It is actually a pretty good story, and it is adapted from a best-seller.

However, Red Sorghum won the Golden Bear Award, and there was a voice in the mainland that Yiou deliberately filmed some backward stories and showed these bad things to foreigners to satisfy their curiosity.

Although "Ju Dou" was selected at the beginning of this time, the leader actually didn't think that this movie would be in the eyes of the Oscar judges. Can the Germans' achievements in movies be compared with those of film powers such as America, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union? The West Berlin Film Festival is still far behind Cannes and the Oscars.

Who knew that when the nominations were announced, Ju Dou actually entered the final round of the last five films. The leader was under pressure all of a sudden, and his face couldn't come down. He didn't want Yiou to go, but he couldn't stop him directly. In the end, he had to tell the public that he had other important things and couldn't go.

"Is there anything more important than winning an award? Damn it, forget it. Get ready and come with me to visit the president of the Academy, Mr. Karl Malden. Tell him about this difficulty. Otherwise, let alone Yiou, I don't think other directors will ever be favored by the Oscars again."