Chapter 901: Hexi Film Festival, *Window Sill*

The Hexi Film Festival, where Lu Yan He is not present, is still star-studded, presenting the top prosperity of the entertainment industry.

Facts have also proven that this earth will turn without anyone, even if you are a heaven-defying time traveler.

Fortunately, Lu Yan He has never been an arrogant person.

He also does not allow himself to be arrogant.

However, although a person cannot stop the rotation of the earth, he has the ability to influence some other things.

Just like although Lu Yan He was not at the scene of the Hexi Film Festival, at the film festival, many people, including the media, would consciously or unconsciously mention his name.

For example, when introducing Zhang Ruozhi and Qin Shulan.

For example, when the film company Linghe announced that it would remake the two films *Summer Villa Horror* and *Corpse Phase* together with the American D19 company.

For example, when *The Notebook* held its global premiere.

The influence of a filmmaker is engraved into everyone's heart bit by bit, not actively but firmly and powerfully.

You will frequently see his name in the most eye-catching film projects, the most concerned ceremonies, and the biggest media.

Many domestic media often ask a question when interviewing foreign filmmakers: Do you have any Chinese filmmakers you want to collaborate with?

When arriving at the Hexi Film Festival, such questions were even more frequent.

Almost every foreign filmmaker was asked such a question, and the result was that nine out of ten answers were Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He's fans jokingly said:

Brother is not in the Jianghu, but there are always legends of brother in the Jianghu.

On the day of the premiere of *Window Sill*, Jiang Yuqian invited many friends.

The Hexi Film Festival held at her own doorstep is also a Hollywood film she starred in—aiming at the grand prize of this session and the North American awards season at the end of the year, Jiang Yuqian attaches great importance to it.

Among the European and American stars who came to Hexi, many were friends Jiang Yuqian had known over the years, and all of them were invited.

In the first half of the year, a *Love is Not Blind* made Jiang Yuqian receive much praise from the critical circle, all saying that her performance finally broke through the limitations of past styles.

Now, *Window Sill* appeared in front of everyone as a competition film. While everyone was curious, they also broke into a cold sweat about what kind of performance Jiang Yuqian contributed to it.

Actually, Jiang Yuqian herself was just as nervous.

Sia Wei is a film director with a very unique personal style.

Her dialogue style is called "modern small fresh" by many people. If there is anyone in the film industry nowadays who can be called a "golden sentence manufacturing machine," Sia Wei is definitely on the list. Although this point also makes her criticized by many critics, her films are always unable to reach a sufficiently profound place, remaining on the form and surface.

On the filming set, Sia Wei gave very little guidance to Jiang Yuqian.

She likes to let Jiang Yuqian perform a scene several times in different states. Smiling, crying, seemingly casually saying... many fragmented performances.

Jiang Yuqian has always heard Lu Yan He say that acting is not acting in a certain state, but a character. If the character is right, no matter how you act, it is right.

However, when acting in *Window Sill*, she found that much of the homework she did was useless. Sia Wei seemed completely uninterested in her analysis of the character and the handling of many details. On the set, Sia Wei was like a drama rehearsal site, making many immediate ideas for her and letting Jiang Yuqian try.

This made Jiang Yuqian not know what kind of performance she would have in the film after filming this film.

She didn't even know the general situation.

Because there were several ways to perform every scene.

Jiang Yuqian didn't know at all which one Sia Wei would use.

Despite this, Sia Wei, a director who has received attention from film festivals and Oscars in Europe and America, has already proven her talent with her past works, and she does not need to explain the reasons behind these various shootings to Jiang Yuqian.

When Jiang Yuqian sat down and watched the film she starred in for the first time in such a top-tier film festival, with so many peers, media, and critics, her heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

Jiang Yuqian played an editor of a magazine.

Because print media is declining, she is facing an unstable situation of having to change jobs at any time.

At this time, because of a work opportunity, she can interview a once very famous actor—the role that was originally intended for Chen Pinhe.

After Chen Pinhe was out, the actor who came to replace this role became a Chinese-American male actor who had played small roles in Hollywood for more than 20 years—

Wu Mingyou.

This was the first time he had received an important role after working hard in Hollywood for so many years.

Because of the opportunity to interview this male actor, Jiang Yuqian was able to stay by his side for three days, from the crew to private small parties, and come into close contact with the real life of a Hollywood star.

And because of this, she was seen by a film director for her unique temperament and invited to star in his next film work.

She was flattered, but was warned by the male actor that this director was not a good person and not to be deceived by him.

But the opportunity to become an actor in a famous director's new work was in front of her, and Jiang Yuqian was indeed hesitant.

It happened that at this time, the magazine she was in finally announced that it would stop publication, and she would lose her job.

For this reason, Jiang Yuqian decided to take the initiative to contact that director.

In the film, this scene was shot very subtly.

Every moment, because of inertia thinking, you would feel that in the next second, this director would expose his true nature and take Jiang Yuqian to bed.

This is not an illusion.

The film lens gave the director and Jiang Yuqian many close-ups of eyes and micro-expressions.

Including the changes in light and shadow, and some changes in the scheduling of movements, all of which were tacitly exuding this atmosphere.

Jiang Yuqian had a tremor between excitement and anxiety.

In this scene, she and the director had a conversation of about one minute starting from Jiang Yuqian's sentence, "Do you think I can really become an actor?"

When it ended, Jiang Yuqian excitedly raised her hands to cover her hot cheeks.

"God, all of this is like a dream."

But I don't know why, from beginning to end, the director just sat calmly on the sofa, looking at Jiang Yuqian with a smile in his eyes. Clearly, his eyes revealed his interest in Jiang Yuqian from beginning to end, very direct, but also very restrained, and he did nothing.

He didn't say anything else, just quietly examined Jiang Yuqian who was in excitement and as if in the clouds.

*Window Sill* is a film without any direct exposure or display of lustful scenes.

But this film still takes the relationship between men and women as an entry point, with the female lead's own work changes and the relationship changes with the male actor and the film director as the main line.

Later, this film started filming, and the male actor happened to be the male lead of this film.

As a novice actress who had just started, Jiang Yuqian was constantly affirmed by the director for her talent and spirit, but on the other hand, she made frequent mistakes on the set, causing many people to have huge opinions on her. The male actor even directly advised her to give up with evil words.

Her situation made her more and more fragile and helpless, but instead showed the characteristics consistent with the character in the film.

This day, the director came to her room to discuss this role with her. The two talked to the point of excitement and went to bed in a state of confusion. Afterwards, the director kept telling her about the complexity, fragility, and charm of this role, and how similar she was to her, almost identical.

Jiang Yuqian listened while vaguely feeling that something was not quite right.

After this, the director would come to her room almost every night. During the day on the set, every time she performed a performance that was almost instinctive, she could see his fanatical, excited, and burning gaze.

People in the crew were discussing privately that they were in love.

The distance between the male actor and her was also further.

Jiang Yuqian, however, gradually realized in her interaction with the director that he seemed to just treat her as a carrier for this character in the script.

His hot eyes were looking at another soul through her body.

The doubt in Jiang Yuqian's heart grew deeper and deeper.

"This is a very complex and difficult role. This film completely jumps out of Sia Wei's original love mode, and explores the proposition of 'the survival and choice dilemma of the subordinate in the face of the master-famous discipline of the superior' through a group relationship of director and actress."

"I am very shocked that the film has such a direction. I thought it was a love philosophy exploration with the theme of the actress making a choice between the male director and the male actor. This time, Sia Wei changed the woman's choice from between two men to whether to accept this conventional discipline."

"The female character played by Jiang Yuqian must be one of the most powerful characters in the film industry this year. At the end of the film—at the shooting scene of the last scene of the play within a play, her thoughts on the character and the director's thoughts on the character had a huge conflict. The two had a dispute on the set. The director angrily and hysterically said he wanted to fire her and change someone to act. She resolutely threw the script in her hand from the second-floor window and turned away. That was absolutely the best performance Jiang Yuqian has ever had since she entered the film industry."

"This is a fable story, using the relationship between male directors and female actors to metaphor the relationship between patriarchal society and women. It is undoubtedly a signal that Sia Wei is no longer satisfied with the expression of love sketch films and decided to step into a more grand discussion."

"Ironically, when the director in the film clamored to change a female actor to reshoot, the production company directly rejected his decision out of economic considerations, and directly used the scene where Jiang Yuqian threw the script from behind the window sill, turned and left, leaving only an empty window, as the ending of this play within a play. She still received attention because of the great success of this film."

Lu Yan He did not see this film at the first time, but after the premiere of this film, various evaluations were flying all over the sky.

Jiang Yuqian is regarded as a strong contender for Best Actress this year.

British male actor Johnny Haynes, who played the director, also received rave reviews for his successful shaping of the morbid, stubborn, arrogant director who wanted to shape the real actress into the heroine in the film.

Wu Mingyou, who replaced Chen Pinhe to play the male actor, did not receive any attention.

His presence in the film was evaluated as "plain."

Some mean media said that in fact, from the setting of the script, this character should also have been a force that could compete with the director and the actress, but because of the actor's mediocrity, it became a tool character in the film.

Sia Wei's *Window Sill* became the film with the highest discussion at this Hexi Film Festival. ===== CHAPTER 902 =====