Chapter 91

The premiere of the nominated films at the Cannes Film Festival is held at the Film Palace, and thanks to the previous promotion and exposure, when Wei Jin arrived at the Film Festival Palace with the main creative team, the premiere of "The Room" was already very lively.

The Lumière Hall has a thousand seats on the upper and lower levels, and at this time it was already packed full, most of the people here are news media, film critics, and film industry practitioners, with only a small portion being film fans.

The Cannes Film Festival is different from other film festivals, Cannes Film Festival is not open to the public, so here it is more like a grand gathering within the industry.

In Cannes, to watch a film, one can only rely on credentials or the film's invitation letter.

Credentials refer to press passes or market passes, which are identity documents for media and practitioners.

Besides credentials, there is another type of viewing qualification: the film invitation letter, which is why many people are seen asking for tickets at the entrance.

Because media passes are limited, while film fans are numerous, wanting to watch a film but lacking credentials or an invitation letter, they can only resort to this method, which is also one of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival: every day someone stands at the entrance of the Film Palace holding up small signs asking for tickets.

At this time, many media and industry practitioners present had already taken out small notebooks, ready to jot down their viewing experience at any moment, to facilitate writing reviews later.

The screening hall quieted down, and Zhang Ziyi also perked up, preparing to watch Ceng Li's film, wanting to see what this classmate had done to earn Wei Jin's favor.

As the plot unfolded, Zhang Ziyi gradually clarified the storyline: the female protagonist was deceived and kidnapped by Lao Ma, imprisoned in this room as a female slave, and this had already lasted seven full years.

The following year she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy, who is now five years old; since his hair has never been cut, he appears like a girl.

To protect the child's mental health, the mother fabricated a series of fairy tales, isolating him from the harsh reality.

This is a story of a girl who was lured, imprisoned, violated, and gave birth to a child.

Through the child's monologue and dialogue with his mother, the film narrates a very cruel story in a gentle manner; the film's shot rhythm is somewhat slow, yet even so, it still attracts the audience's attention.

Later, the plot develops to the point where the mother has her son pretend to be dead, hoping to escape this place through this ruse, because the son is already five years old and cannot forever remain unseen by the real world.

Through the efforts of mother and son, the child was finally brought out of the room as a "corpse" for disposal; ultimately, the clever child narrowly escaped the villain's clutches, and with police assistance, also rescued his mother. Sobbing sounds echoed in the screening hall, many moved to tears by the mother and son's escape from imprisonment and reunion.

Many also relaxed their hearts at this moment; according to common sense, after being rescued from captivity, everything will improve from now on.

Zhang Ziyi thought the same, but soon, the cold reality struck with contradiction.

The neighbors' strange glances, legal issues, the mother and son's life problems after two days, the son's psychological recovery, accepting media interviews for a considerable income, exposing their tragic encounter to the world's gaze—under these pressures, the female protagonist's belief in the world also vanished. In the face of reality and others' reflections, she strongly realized her life had been destroyed, and she chose suicide—this is precisely the theme of the film's latter half: the room is a cage, the mother and son have always been escaping; in the first half they had already escaped physically, in the second half they await psychological escape. When the film reached the scene of Zhang Jing's suicide, the screening hall fell into a brief silence, the air at this moment seeming to come to a standstill.

Many media personnel at this moment picked up their pens to record their first impressions.

The film here displays a very common social problem: public opinion and societal gaze often have greater destructive power than direct crime; criminals harm mostly your body, while society harms your inner self.

The plot continues to develop; the child's adaptability and learning ability are strong, he slowly begins to integrate into the unfamiliar world and begins to change his mother; watching the child's healthy growth, the female protagonist also finally emerges from the shadow, and the film comes to its end: the mother and son finally return once more to the "room" that once confined them; gazing at this cramped space, the child says: "If the door is open, then it is not a room."

Many film critics again picked up their pens; this sentence here seems to contain rich philosophy, requiring careful contemplation.

Amid the uplifting background music, Zhang An began to bid farewell one by one to the past in the room; Zhang Jing also, at the moment of departure, softly said goodbye; the camera kept pulling back, the entire city turned into a vast white expanse. The lights had already come on, many people remained seated motionless, Zhang Ziyi also felt as if a force filled her heart, a touch on her cheek, tear tracks not yet dry—suddenly, thunderous applause surged from all directions, sweeping across the hall, turning the entire auditorium into an ocean of applause.

One after another, media reporters, guests, and film fans stood up, using applause to express their emotions.

At this moment, Ceng Li also hurriedly wiped the tears from her face; she still had to go on stage for the curtain call soon.

Wei Jin led the main creative team onto the stage; this moment belonged to them. Applause had already been ringing for five minutes, Wei Jin and them had already bowed several times, yet everyone continued to enthusiastically clap.

Finally, the applause lasted over ten minutes before subsiding, and the production team also completed their curtain call.

"Wei, congratulations, you have contributed a splendid work!"

The film festival chairman, Gilles Jacob, this old man enthusiastically embraced Wei Jin.

"Wei Sheng, the film was shot very well, ba bi!"

Wong Kar-wai also offered a word of praise, even in this environment, he still wore his sunglasses.

"Wei Dao, congratulations, you truly made an excellent work, I wish you an award in advance."

Zhang Ziyi also came over to congratulate, then turned to her old classmate Ceng Li: "Li Zi, you also performed very well; it seems our class will produce a Cannes Best Actress this time."

"Thank you, Ziyi, it's all thanks to the director's efforts."

Ceng Li's face showed a smile, yet her words remained very humble.

The people in the judging panel continuously offered congratulations, which also gave Wei Jin a few points of confidence in his heart.

After briefly exchanging words with nearby directors and judges, the staff on the side began urging them on; the film premiere press release event nearby had already been set up, the media were all in place, just waiting for Wei Jin and company!

Along the way, they were repeatedly stopped by enthusiastic film fans asking for autographs, and only then did Wei Jin and company hurry to the press conference hall to accept media interviews.

After an hour-long interview, Wei Jin discussed many film-related topics, which finally sent the reporters packing; a few people then hurried to the celebration party hosted by the "The Room" production team.

During the film festival, as long as the production team is not dirt poor, they will hold a celebration party after the film premiere.

On one hand, it is for promotion; on the other hand, it is also for selling the film.

Wei Jin Fengliu Film and Television Company had high expectations for this film festival; seeing the premiere just now was fiery hot, naturally they would not miss this good opportunity for promotion.

The party was held at the Carlton InterContinental Hotel; this time they had specially hired a public relations team, everything was orderly, they only needed to prepare the checks.

When Wei Jin and company rushed here, it was already past eleven o'clock; however, during the film festival, most people are night owls, night life had just begun, and the party was extraordinarily lively.

Moving through the crowd, Wei Jin enjoyed the congratulations with peace of mind; in the Western world, if you have ability, people will praise you, and there is no need to be humble.

"Thank you, little Jin."

There will be a special press conference tomorrow morning, so Wei Jin and company did not linger too long at the party; the party scene was handed over to Chen Zhiming to manage.

Just after returning to the hotel bedroom with Ceng Li, the enthusiastic Li Jie already clung to them, it was clear she was quite excited.

"Li Jie, between us we never need to say thank you."

Gently kissing the woman in his arms, Wei Jin thought to himself that he could do no more for you than this.

New book uploaded, today's third update presented, sincerely asking all book friends for a subscription, collection, thank you everyone! (End of chapter)