The top of fame and fortune [Comprehensive British and American]

"Erica, next week I need to see your script for a feature film, as well as a video work with a proposition." Richard Peña, a professor of film at Columbia University's School of Art, as a mentor to Erica, asked her Can be called strict.

In the fall semester of [-], Erica returned to Columbia University. After she won the Academy Award, the professors of the School of Art seemed to be more strict with her. Maybe they planned to train her as a famous alumnus?

As the only first-class film school in the Ivy League, the School of Art has always paid attention to the comprehensive ability training of directors, screenwriters and production management of masters of arts.

Of course Erica did not have any objection to the academic requirements of her tutor Richard, "I will hand it over to you as soon as possible, Professor."

"I'm really strict with you, but Erica, this will effectively improve your ability to create films." Richard Peña can be called a master of American film teaching. In addition to his status as an art professor at Columbia University , he also serves as the chairman of the Lincoln Center Film Association and the New York Film Festival, and has a profound academic influence.

In the evening, Erica just finished her intensive class. Instead of going to the library as usual, she walked quickly to the college parking lot.

Erica drove her Ford Mustang classic car to Minton's Playhouse [Minton Bar] in Harlem near Columbia University. She will participate in a performance tonight.

Morningside Heights, where the Columbia campus is located, is located in the birthplace of the "Beat Generation" literature and art in the mid-20th century, so the nightlife in the vicinity of Columbia is naturally very exciting.

When Erica entered Minton's Playhouse, a well-known jazz bar in New York, on the stage, the performers were fighting with jazz. River Phoenix was one of the performers, playing his jazz guitar with a rich and warm sound.

After leaving the drug rehabilitation center, Rui Fan has not returned to Hollywood, but has come to New York, the center of American music, to devote himself to his favorite music life, such as the performance at Minton Bar tonight.

On the stage, River Phoenix's lonely and fragile temperament in the movies has become much calmer, and even the sad mint green eyes no longer seem to carry too much pain and depression.

Erica stood in the audience and gave him high fives, "bravo—"

Rui Fan, who was playing impromptu jazz, had obviously seen Erica. He gestured to the band members, put down the jazz guitar in his hand, and walked away from the stage to approach Erica.

He looked a bit shy, and was a little different from the one who was the focus of attention on the stage just now. He seemed to have two sides of the same thing, tough and gentle. Rui Fan asked her, "What do you think of the performance just now? Tonight's charity performance , can we succeed?"

When he was in Hollywood, Rui Fan often helped many environmental and humanitarian organizations.Of course, it is not the first time to take the band to perform for charity.

The fundraising for tonight’s charity performance will be used for the lives of the survivors of the soldiers who died in the Gulf War, as well as many veterans who were disabled by war or suffered severe psychological trauma, making it difficult to maintain a normal life, or even living on the streets.

River Phoenix and his band decide to sing an anti-war song, and Erica will be his sidekick.

"I don't have the slightest doubt about it," Erica said to Rui Fan as they walked towards the table in the bar, "It's like your innate talent in acting, when you play music, that It's an emotional tension, and I think it can touch anyone."

In Erica's view, River Phoenix is ​​a born artist, whether as a film actor or a musician.

At the bar table, the waiter handed over the menu, Erika chose toast and some fruits and vegetables, no meat.And this is because Rui Fan is a lifelong vegetarian. He witnessed the death of animals when he was young, so he decided not to eat meat.

In the jazz bar, Erica heard the vicissitudes of metal texture of the saxophone and the charming overtones of the jazz trumpet.For a moment, she thought she was living in the "Jazz Age" in "The Great Gatsby"-"an age of miracles, an age of art, an age of extravagance, and an age of irony." '

"What are you thinking?" Rui Fan noticed that she was a little distracted.

Erica held her chin, "Hollywood right now seems to be like the Jazz Age when it was rich and luxurious."

Although he left Hollywood, River Phoenix, as the most outstanding talented actor in the world, has a career in Hollywood for nearly ten years, so he naturally has a deep understanding of it.He agrees with what Erica said, "Indeed, in recent years, Hollywood has been very creative and extremely luxurious. But maybe it is like the 'Jazz Age'. After ten or twenty years, Hollywood will decline day by day, and the glory will no longer exist. What? Who can tell."

"Perhaps 20 years later, Hollywood in the 90s will also be regarded as a 'golden age'? Especially in this year," Erica and Rui Fan talked about the amazing quality of this year's film works, "The Shawshank Redemption ", "Forrest Gump", "Pulp Fiction", "The Lion King", "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "This Killer Is Not So Cold", "Natural Born Killers", "Grandmaid in disguise", "Night Interview" Vampires, Speed, True Lies—"

Erica realized that it was difficult for her to describe these epoch-making outstanding films one by one, and Rui Fan looked at Erica's unabashed love for these movies, thinking of the Academy Awards in a few months, "Hollywood Seems very bullish on 'Forrest Gump' and 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' for best picture."

""Forrest Gump" was expected, but "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was unexpectedly liked by the judges," Erika said frankly, "In addition, I also like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Shawshank Redemption" very much. "Pulp Fiction," especially the former. But the announcement of the movie is something that's going on, they're like no one doing anything, and the movie only made $72 in its first week."

The publisher of "The Shawshank Redemption" is Columbia Pictures. Erica believes that they will make an excellent work that could cause a global cultural boom, but no one cares about it.

Although Erika is the producer and starring of the other two competing works of "The Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral", she has to say, ""The Shawshank Redemption" is my One of the best movies I've ever seen."

"Anyway, this is really a magical year," Rui Fan turned to Erica and talked about her individual Oscar award, "In fact, I think your performance in "Forrest Gump" deserves to be shortlisted Best Actress in a Leading Role, rather than a second-best nomination for a Supporting Actor."

Erica shrugged and ate a piece of toast, "This is a public relations strategy formulated by Paramount, the film's first producer, and I have no involvement in it. Anyway, I have no chance to win an award this year."

Rui Fan, who had some understanding of the conservativeness of the academy's judging, had to admit that what Erica said was the truth, he could only raise his eyebrows and said, "Award selection is always full of influences from multiple parties, that's why there are unexpected surprises from time to time. Isn't that the case?"

"This kind of situation is usually called a shock and upset, or an oolong incident." Erica drank some tequila, feeling its rich and complex aroma on the tip of her tongue, she looked at Rui Fan, "I can go on stage at any time Performance."

Erica will join Rui Fan's charity performance tonight and sing "blowing in the wind" with him, the anti-war song composed by Bob Dylan. Erica once Singing in "Forrest Gump", the story in the movie is exactly the time it was born, the Vietnam War period.

But now, decades after the Vietnam War, wars are still raging in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and countless young people are sent to the battlefield and lose their lives. "Blowing in the wind" has been loved by people all over the world for decades, perhaps because the world desires that the world's political situation can resolve disputes in a peaceful and rational way.

Erica stepped onto the stage. This most important piece in the history of American folk songs has been added with the charm of jazz tonight. Erica's voice is not crisp and romantic, but as deep as velvet, full of emotional tension——

"How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky

How good a man must be to hear people cry

How much more gunfire is needed to bring about peace

That answer, my friend, blows in the wind"

In the jazz bar, more and more people sang along with Erica and Rui Fan, and people's desire for peace seemed to be engraved in their blood.At the same time, the number of charitable donations being raised for this benefit show has exceeded original expectations.

"How long will people wait to be free

How many times can a person look back and pretend to turn a blind eye

How many more lives must be lost before we realize that too many have died

That answer, my friend, blows in the wind"

For this charity fundraising, Erica donated a lot of money in addition to the charity performance.

In fact, in recent years, she has donated millions of dollars to non-profit charitable organizations and children's hospitals, hoping to protect these vulnerable groups from harm.Even before she joined Hollywood, she was volunteering at a children's hospital.

Due to Erica's charitable behavior over the years, the UN Human Rights Office seemed to want to give her a job. She was invited as a UN Goodwill Ambassador to go to Nepal to do volunteer work in a few months.

Erica gladly took the job, she wanted to have the strength, the opinions, the convictions, and the daring to pursue.