Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After a lot of red tape, the lights in the theater dimmed. The words "On Group Presents" appeared on the screen.

Strong disco drum beats began to sound from the speakers, and a large building jumped out on the screen. The flags of various countries fluttered on the flagpoles outside, and a group of people ran into the building shouting.

This is a good start, Ronald commented secretly. Just a few strokes outlined the end of the world in 1994. What will happen next? Will the Cold War turn into a hot war? Aliens invade? Or will an asteroid hit the earth?

After thinking about several of the most popular disasters in Hollywood scripts, Ronald quickly collected his mind and watched the movie carefully. As a buyer, the main task is to watch the movie from the audience's perspective, not to do any analysis.

Three male and female singers, wearing sparkling white diamond-studded performance costumes, sang and danced disco-style songs on the stage.

It's really unexpected? This building is not a UN meeting to deal with the crisis, but a concert.

No, it wasn't a concert, it was a singing and dancing talent show. The heartbeat of the audience and the decibel of their cheers determined whether the contestants would leave or stay.

The second group to go on stage was a male and female group. They had no band accompaniment, only an acoustic guitar, and they didn't sing the current pop music, but more like the country rock that hippies loved in the 1960s. The audience was silent and didn't applaud. Some people stood up impatiently and asked them to leave, and some began to throw things at the stage.

The scene changed, and the two singers, a man and a woman, were still singing with a smile on their faces. The audience gradually sat down and listened carefully. The heartbeat of the audience in the monitoring room gradually reached 150. The director was stunned and decided to make some noise to disrupt the performance.

Ronald was also stunned. This movie was not as good as Roger Corman's. How to say it, it was like a college student went to visit the set of director Corman, and then went back to tinker with his own amateur homework.

The next plot was even more absurd. The talent show director turned out to be Satan. They made noise to deliberately lower the score of the duo, and then signed the female singer Bibi instead of her partner and boyfriend Alfie. The movie has evolved from a musical to a myth.

However, the two names of the protagonists are interesting. Ronald couldn't help laughing when he saw this. Alfie is the name of the protagonist of a movie of the same name starring Michael Caine in 1966. He played a romantic named Alfie.

This low-budget British production with a cost of less than $1 million sold 18 million in America. Ronald also watched it during class.

As for the name of the heroine Bibi, people who are familiar with rock music gossip know that this is a reference to Bibi Bull, a well-known rock music star who slept with all the popular rock bands.

Ronald's laughter attracted a round of eye rolls from the beautiful woman next to him. She couldn't stand this bad movie and wanted to leave. "Fortunately, this handsome American guy confiscated her movie ticket money, otherwise he would have to give it back."

Ronald had given up the idea of ​​buying the movie when he saw this. The first roll of film (11 minutes) at the beginning made the audience want to leave, and the subsequent plot could not be saved by gods.

Most of the audience was just polite, unlike leaving early during the opening film of the film festival. Some viewers had already started to doze off, and then they were awakened by a burst of singing and dancing.

The scene suddenly jumped from the office to a cave, where a group of demons began to sing and dance, persuading the heroine Bibi to take a bite of the big apple.

Ronald looked at the fat producer sitting in the front row, who was shaking his head and happily following the music. The joys and sorrows of people in this world are really incommensurable. The fat man was immersed in his great movie singing and dancing scenes, while the audience only felt that the noise disturbed their sleep.

Let alone the following plot, even Ronald couldn't watch it. Only in two places did he wake up from his drowsiness.

The first time was when Satan transformed into a producer and signed the heroine. Immediately, her record sales began to soar. Ronald, who fell asleep with the noisy singing and dancing, suddenly woke up after the background noise disappeared and glanced at the screen.

"But I haven't recorded the song yet? Why can I start selling records first?" Bibi asked puzzled.

"This is the true meaning of business. You sell it first, then start making it." Satan smiled.

Hey, this idea is interesting. Isn't this how the fat man operates the movie?

Ronald thought it was interesting and went back to sleep.

The second time, near the end of the film, Bibi finally woke up and was no longer controlled by Satan. She ran to find the male protagonist Alfie. The two found a group of people, left modern technology, and lived a hippie-like life. An unknown plant was burned on a large lawn, and they became very "spiritual" in the smoke.

Satan led the security guards to catch Bibi, and their family and children were about to be destroyed. Yes, I don't know why the hero and heroine suddenly got married and had children.

At the critical moment, the screen suddenly shone brightly, and Ronald was awakened by the strong light.

I saw a Rolls-Royce car with white light appear in the sky, making a "biubiubiu" sound and falling from the sky. A white-bearded old man came out and saved the hero and heroine, and led them to a new planet to restart human reproduction.

Ronald rubbed his eyes. Is this the special effect that cost a "big price"? It seemed quite expensive, maybe only about two dollars and thirty-eight cents.

He yawned loudly, and the beautiful woman next to him was also awakened. The two found that the movie had ended, and the beauty was awakened by the reopened theater lights.

The fat man who gave Ronald the movie ticket happily walked onto the stage in front of the screen and took the microphone prepared by the organizer. "I am the director of this film, Minahan Golan..."

"Hey...hey...don't hit anyone."

The audience had been holding back their anger and wanted to vent it. Montreal has been in debt of one billion dollars since hosting the Olympics. Four years have passed, and the main venue for the 1976 Olympic Games has not yet been completed. A large amount of taxes paid each year are used to pay off debts, and public facilities have not been updated. There is great resentment.

The Montreal International Film Festival is also an idea thought up by the city government, hoping to attract investment from the film industry and boost employment and tax revenue. However, the French-speaking part of Montreal limits the film source and scale of the film festival, and its development is far inferior to that of another Canadian film festival established at the same time, the Toronto Film Festival.

Thinking that the taxes he had worked so hard to pay had led to such a terrible movie, it would be better to build roads and increase funding for public education. I happened to have the mini record that was given to me when I entered the house. The audience imitated the scene at the beginning of the movie and threw the record in their hands at the fat man Minahan.

Fat Minahan fled off the stage in embarrassment, clutching his head and running away. The audience didn't give up, and the audience in the back row also started throwing the record forward. Their hands were not strong enough and it fell on the head of Ronald, who was sitting in the front row.

"Hey, don't throw it away..." Ronald held his head and ran out of the cinema.

The beautiful woman next to me disappeared somewhere. Ronald had to walk slowly back to the hotel alone. Is the level of the Montreal Film Festival limited? It's said to be an A-level film festival, so what kind of opening film was chosen?

When Ronald returned to the hotel, he made a cup of instant coffee to calm his frightened mind.

In fact, thinking about it afterwards, the investment in this movie is probably not small. There are so many dancers participating, and although many big scenes are ugly, the scenery is real.

There are a lot of bad movies because the budget is small and corners are cut. This bad movie is bad in a unique way. It’s not that the money wasn’t invested, it’s that the investment was not in the right place.

The movie is set in 1994, but the props and scenery look like they were in 1954, giving people a very low-key feel.

The hero and heroine become hippies to save the world, but they are not hippies at all. Hippies advocate freedom, and no one can dance in a group dance with uniform movements like them.

how to say? It feels like the director only saw descriptions of hippies in magazines, and then used his own imagination of the reported text to direct the hippie scenes, which is specious.

"You can't leave. What the audience threw was the record you sent. You, Cannon Pictures, must compensate."

At the same time, another fat man, Yoram, the cousin of the fat man Minahan, was held tightly by the manager of the cinema and refused to let him go. It turned out that some of the records thrown by the audience hit the screen with too much force and broke the screen.

The main venue of the Montreal Film Festival is very large, and the supporting large screen is very expensive. If it is broken, it will cost a lot of money to replace it, and the organizing committee will also screen other films here. The person in charge of the cinema grabbed Yoram and refused to let go, and would not give up until he came up with money.

"It's no use holding me back, only Minahan can sign the check."

"Where did he go?"

Everyone searched around the venue three times but could not find Minahan.

His cousin and partner Yoram said helplessly, "Maybe Minahan has gone back to the hotel. He put a lot of effort into this movie and directed and edited it himself. Why don't you go back to the hotel with me, I'm afraid of him receive a blow."

The cinema manager, a senior member of the organizing committee, returned to the hotel with Yoram. There was no sign of Minahan in the room. Everyone looked for him several times but could not find Minahan, so they had to go back to the lobby to discuss compensation.

"Minahan won't escape, right?" The theater manager and Yoram had this thought in their minds at the same time.

"He's here...he's going to jump off the building." A staff member shouted outside.

Everyone ran out of the lobby and saw a man standing on the railing of the balcony outside the room where Minahan lived.

None other than “Apple” director and producer Minahan Golan.

Yoram was very anxious and shouted to the top, "Minahan, don't worry about it. Let's go back and continue financing the next movie. We will definitely succeed."

Minahan looked at the shadow. I figured it out, I have no talent for movies. This time we lost all the money we made from filming and distributing the movie in Israel. I don’t want to live anymore. "

"Think about your wife, think about your children, Minahan..." Seeing that Minahan had not left the railing, Yoram shouted anxiously louder. The organizing committee staff nearby were already preparing to call the police.

Ronald was also disturbed by the shouting from downstairs in his room. He opened the balcony door and prepared to go out to watch the excitement.

Go to the balcony and take a look,

Ronald looked in the direction they were pointing and saw a fat man standing on the balcony railing of the room next to his, preparing to jump down.