Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After packing his luggage, checking his passport, traveler's checks, and the newly printed New World Distribution Company business card, Ronald jumped into a taxi to the airport.

Roger Corman temporarily gave Ronald the title of film buyer and asked him to go to the film festival held in Montreal, the capital of Quebec, Canada to watch films. He specifically talked to Ronald about the method of buying films, and summarized it into two points.

First, art films are different from art films. Some art films are based on a good story and add a strong personal style to the director. As long as the purchase price of this kind of art film is cheap enough, it will not lose money.

Another kind of art film is the director's innovation in the audition language. This kind of art film does not have a solid story as a foundation, nor does it have any major dramatic conflicts. Instead, the director tries to break through the boundaries of film art. Maybe people in the industry like this kind of art film more than the audience, so it is not suitable to take the risk of buying copies.

Second, there are many good films shot by foreign directors, but because of the cultural gap with America, they have not been introduced and screened. Whether the American audience can understand the film and immerse themselves in the story described by the director determines whether the introduction is profitable or not.

Some directors are good at filming human nature, family affection, love, revenge, and other common human emotional experiences. Even if there are some cultural barriers, it doesn't matter. Some directors are very focused on their own national culture, so the experience of American audiences may not be good.

In short, Ronald raided the New World Company and watched the foreign famous director art films that Coleman had introduced before, such as "Desu Uzala" co-produced by Japanese Kurosawa Akira and the Suvil Alliance, and "Wild Strawberries" by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, and roughly knew Coleman's bottom line and size.

Montreal and New York are in the same time zone. After a long flight, Ronald's feet have been a little swollen in his shoes, and it is a bit uncomfortable to walk. Carrying a large box in his hand, he lined up to wait for customs clearance.

"Excuse me, are you coming to Montreal to go to school?" The staff looked at the photo on the passport and then looked at Ronald's young face.

"I'm on a business trip to attend the film festival."

"Ah, bienvenueaufestivalternationaldufildeontreal" The staff knocked an oval entry stamp.

Ronald picked up his suitcase and walked to the arrival hall of the airport. Why do the signs seem to be in French? The staff just now also spoke French.

There were two fat men wearing Jewish caps in front of him, and they seemed to have the same doubts as him. They grabbed a staff member and asked in English with a heavy accent from somewhere unknown, "How do we get to the official venue of the film festival? Film festival, showing movies? Do you understand?"

"Go out from this exit and you will see the taxi waiting point." The staff replied in English.

"Don't you speak English?" The slightly older fat man looked unhappy.

"Minahan, stop arguing, let's go to the venue quickly, and the copies we brought must be sent there first." As they said this, the two pushed the heavy luggage cart with reels of film stacked on it.

Ronald followed the two fat men who also came to the film festival and found the waiting point. He took out the official invitation letter of the film festival and showed it to the taxi driver before he was able to get on the car and go to the hotel near the Art Square.

"Ah, are you here to attend the film festival?" the driver asked in English.

"Yeah, why do people here all speak French?"

"Ah, ssieurs. Quebec is a French-speaking area." Seeing Ronald's puzzled face, "Americans?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Only Americans would be so careless as to think that Canada is all English-speaking. After the closing of the Montreal Olympics, Quebec passed the French Charter and made French the official language of Quebec.

"So that's how it is," Ronald thought of America's boycott of the Moscow Olympics, "Then do you have this year's Olympic TV broadcast here?"

"Yes, but it's closed, you can't watch it in America. CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) broadcasts the whole thing."

"Yes, it's a pity. Our president asked NBC and ABC to boycott the broadcast, so we can only watch the news."

When he arrived at the booked hotel, Ronald found that the two fat Jewish men were also staying in the same hotel as him, and the older one was moving film reels from the car.

"Do you need help? "Ronald asked, seeing that they were all filmmakers.

"Thank you so much. These films are so heavy. They are all our hard work and our masterpiece. I heard that this film has been selected as the opening film of this film festival and has a good chance of being nominated for an Oscar."

"Oh, really." Ronald was stunned by the fat man's familiarity. "Where are you going to move it?"

"Put it here, put it here. The organizing committee will be here soon. We will escort it to the main venue."

The fat man kept talking, watching Ronald's movements with his eyes. Seeing that he was very strong and lifted the film very steadily, he felt relieved.

"I have to be careful. You know, I only brought this copy from the West German printing factory. If there is any mistake, the audience in Montreal will miss this masterpiece."

"Minahan." Another fat man who was younger than him guided a car closer in the distance, "The organizing committee is here."

"Ah, thank you, what's your name? "Fatty Minahan took Ronald's hand and shook it a few times.

"My name is Ronald, and I'm from America..."

"Ah..., ah...Yoram... bring two movie tickets for tomorrow." Minahan turned around and shouted to another fat man.

Then he took the ticket from Yoram's hand and turned around to hand it to Ronald.

"Take it, take it, this is a rare opportunity. The opening film of the film festival is very popular. The organizing committee told us that all the tickets are sold out. You should learn the art of our movies. It will be good for you. This is a rare opportunity."

Ronald took the two movie tickets and watched the two fat men walk to the organizing committee's car and supervise the staff to move the film.

"This neck is almost as thick as the forehead."

Ronald looked at Minahan's back, secretly complained, picked up his luggage and went to check in.

After taking a hot bath and changing into comfortable sneakers, Ronald walked out of the hotel and set off to the Art Square to find food.

Dusk had fallen, and the streets were full of movie-loving audiences, holding various signs asking for tickets. Ronald walked past a blonde beauty and saw that her sign read "Seeking a ticket for the opening movie."

The beauty saw Ronald's hesitation for a moment and immediately came forward, "Do you have a ticket for the opening movie? I can buy it at double the price."

"I'm going to have dinner. If you can take me to a good restaurant to eat together, I'll sell it to you at the original price." Ronald took out two movie tickets and flashed them in front of the beauty.

"That's easy. Our favorite food in Montreal is Schwartz's smoked meat."

The beauty threw the sign, straddled Ronald's arm, and walked towards a store on the street next to the Art Square.

There was a long queue at the door. Ronald smelled the smell of smoked meat and knew he was in the right place. This kind of delicious food needs the advice of the locals.

"Is this a specialty of your Montreal?"

The beauty shook her head, "No, this was opened by a Polish Jewish family when I was a child. It tastes very good, so more and more people are eating it."

"Jews, it seems that people from Eastern Europe don't have much taboos about pork."

Ronald watched the team move slowly and orderly, and took the opportunity to talk to the beauty about movies, "Is tomorrow's opening movie good? Why do you want it so much."

"Don't you know? Where did you get your movie tickets? The main venue is full of their posters." The beauty was very surprised.

"Two people who came to the film festival gave it to me. Maybe they are the producers of tomorrow's opening movie."

"Wow, isn't that a good seat in the front row? Great." The beauty shouted exaggeratedly while holding Ronald's arm.

"This is a groundbreaking musical film. I tell you, it's even better than Grease two years ago. I heard that the film tells the origin and future of mankind. In short, it's very good."

"Ah, ah, is that so?" Ronald came back to his senses from the aroma of smoked meat, "Why do you speak English so well?"

"Not all people in Quebec speak only French. English is also a basic subject in our school. It's only those French people who want independence who want to set up French schools and teach only French." The beauty explained.

The two of them lined up and bought two large portions of smoked meat and bread. After taking a bite, the taste was not very salty, but there was a maple aroma. Ronald was very happy and ordered two more to take away.

"So come to my hotel tomorrow evening to wait for me, and I will go to the main venue with you." Ronald said to the beauty.

"Okay, don't you need my tour guide service tomorrow? It can be used to offset the ticket price."

"I'd love to, but I'm going to register with the organizing committee tomorrow. We can go there later. Anyway, the film festival will last for ten days."

"So you're here to attend the film festival?" the beauty asked him with wide eyes?

"Yes, I'm here to buy films on behalf of New World Productions of America," Ronald handed a new business card to the beauty.

"New World? Never heard of it." The beauty took the business card and shook her head at the red sun-shaped company logo on it. "I'll come to the hotel to see you tomorrow."

Ronald returned to the hotel with the smoked meat and turned on the TV. CBC was still replaying the Olympic highlights, the group gymnastics real-life art puzzle at the closing ceremony. The real person held up a drawing board and pieced together the mascot, a little bear named Misha. She also shed a tear in a dynamic way, regretting that some athletes from boycotting countries could not come to participate in the Olympics.

"This is absolutely amazing."

The next day, Ronald rested in the morning to adjust to the jet lag, and went to the organizing committee in the afternoon to register and pay. Wearing a buyer badge issued by the organizing committee, he could watch all the screenings.

Ronald returned to the hotel and waited for the beauty from yesterday. The two walked into the main venue together, waiting to watch the so-called blockbuster.

"What is this?" Ronald walked into the screening room, and the ticket collector handed them two large square envelopes.

"This is the original soundtrack mini disc of the movie. You can play it on the record player when you go back," the ticket collector replied, "The bathroom is on the left, and the smoking room is on the second floor."

"Free discs for watching movies?" Ronald thought to himself, this is quite unique.

Standing in front of the poster at the entrance and looking at it, Ronald found that what he was about to watch was a musical, and there were many special effects scenes. No wonder the fat man named Minahan boasted yesterday that he would be nominated for an Oscar.

Musicals were the hottest hits in the United States in the past two years, and special effects were also the main selling point of the two box office miracles of Jaws and Star Wars. If this movie can be combined into one, it is indeed worth looking forward to. I will try to talk to Minahan later. Maybe I can introduce it to the United States on behalf of New World.

Minahan seemed to say yesterday that it was filmed in West Germany, right?

By the way, what is the name of this movie?

Ronald's eyes moved down. On the poster, a beautiful woman was wearing a sci-fi outfit, holding a laser gun similar to Star Wars, and below it was the title of the movie

"The Apple"

There was also a line of small words below:

"In 1994, the power of rock and roll saved the earth."

Why does this sound so much like a Roger Corman movie?