Chapter 330

"Wow wow, sounds like that damn Chinese kid, did this play finally get messed up?"

"Hahaha, yes Harvey, just like I said at Christmas, there is no actor in the world who won't act in a bad movie. No matter who he is, no matter how strict his movie selection standards are. Harrison Ford will be beaten bloody by *Firewall*, and Tom Hanks will also be sweating profusely on *The Bonfire of the Vanities*. Today, just like Marlon Brando will eventually meet *The Score*, Nuo Chen finally has his *Hawthorn Tree*."

"... Although I don't like these analogies of yours. But, forget it, hurry up and say it Sam, is it that his acting finally had a big rollover, and ultimately messed things up?"

"Uh, not really. But he chose the wrong script this time, chose the wrong director Zhang Yimou, chose wrong a lot. He gave up what he was best at, that profound acting that interprets complex human nature, and limited himself to a piece of paper."

"A piece of paper?"

"It's a metaphor. My meaning is, his character is as thin as a piece of paper, completely unable to withstand scrutiny, can you imagine a man and a woman who are in love lying on a bed, he even touched her below, but in the end, did nothing?"

"Hahahahahaha, wtf."

"Hahaha, I even heard someone saying this is a gay when the show ended. Hahaha. He even helped her wash her feet. My God, he helped her wash her feet, but from beginning to end, they didn't even kiss. What kind of love is this? Platonic spiritual love? Sorry, the Berlin in my mind doesn't believe in this."

"Haha, I'm very happy to hear you say these things. You mean, there's no chance this time, right?"

"99%, although his acting is not a problem, it's useless, unless Werner Herzog and those jurors are crazy, they will let him hold the Silver Bear again. Compared with *My Blueberry Nights*, this movie is only suitable for appearing in the youth field."

"... This sounds really wonderful. However, I just saw the news from the Berlin scene, that Chinese kid seems to have made a call on the red carpet, wanting to call the police to catch Roman Polanski. Do you know about this?"

"No, I don't know." Sam White laughed, "My God, Harvey, if calling the police was useful, Polanski would have been in jail back in the 70s."

"Yes, so I can't figure it out. Someone who can win a luxury mansion worth millions by despicable means, why would... forget it, anyway, I called Polanski before, his attitude towards me was very bad, this has nothing to do with us. Now, you just need to do your job."

"Ok, I understand, Harvey."

At the press conference on the scene, Kosslick finally started to speak.

"I can't say I don't like it."

He said a sentence in German, and the translator followed and translated a sentence behind them.

The translator is a German, but he must have a background of studying in China, because he only has a little accent, Chen Nuo heard it very clearly, and he also believes Zhang Yimou heard it very clearly.

His originally excited complexion slowly became calm.

His peripheral vision noticed that Old Mouzi couldn't laugh either.

"This is a very good movie."

"Zhang used his skilled techniques to tell a story with a high degree of completeness."

"The actors inside also showed their wonderful performances."

"The female lead, Liu from China, her performance is absolutely eye-catching."

"Chen, I don't need to say much, his performance is as wonderful and stable as ever."

"Congratulations to them."

The reporter didn't sit down and continued to ask: "So, Mr. Kosslick, you still haven't answered my question. Do you like this movie?"

Kosslick smiled: "My personal feeling is not important, what is important is how the audience sees it."

"Then do you think the audience will like it?"

"I don't know, after the community screening in a few days, I suggest you go and ask those Berlin citizens."

After speaking, Kosslick gave a wink to the host on the side.

That reporter clearly noticed this too, and immediately said: "Sir. I will ask one last question. Do you think this movie can win an award in Berlin?"

"This needs to be decided by Werner Herzog and his jury members." Kosslick laughed, "You asked the wrong person."

The host said: "Alright, next. Let's focus on the movie itself."

The reporters in the media room suddenly swarmed up, raising their hands.

The host looked around and pointed to a position: "Ok, you."

A big-nosed man stood up and said in English: "My question is for Chen. May I ask Chen, what made you agree to act in such a movie? Do you think you can win Best Actor again with this movie?"

The press conference lasted for a total of more than 50 minutes and ended hastily.

Now, let alone comparing with *Apart Together*, it can even be said to have set a new low for the length of the Berlin Film Festival press conference.

It's not that the reporters didn't want to continue, but it ended at Zhang Yimou's signal, this scene which can be called purgatory.

At this press conference, 70% of the questions were aimed at Chen Nuo.

That reporter's question was just the beginning, almost everyone else was asking him.

Without exception, they were all criticizing him, although Chen Nuo felt it was okay, but Zhang Yimou clearly couldn't stand it anymore and let the press conference end early.

After ending the press conference early, before walking out of the Film Palace, he said to Chen Nuo with a serious expression: "Nuozi, it seems that we have completely miscalculated this time."

This is definitely a nonsense sentence.

Needless to say, he was interrogated for so long just now.

In fact, as early as when Kosslick stammered for a long time, talking about this and that, just refusing to say a word of "I like it" from his own mouth, Chen Nuo discovered that they had thought about things too simply.

The love story in *Hawthorn Tree* is actually a bit beautified for Chinese people. Just like that poem *Red Bean*, it describes a love that most people can look forward to but cannot reach.

In most cases, try walking for a year or a half, and don't call or write a letter to your wife or girlfriend. By then, it won't be spring branches sprouting, but how many hats you have.

Then, for those foreigners who can't eat fine bran, what is such love?

Chen Nuo recalls now, Zhang Yimou is fine, what is even more incredible is that he would also intentionally or unintentionally ignore this problem.

Who is he?

Are there few things he knows?

For example, there is an example in memory that is so profound.

That was in 2012, when Tinder just came out.

He met a Canadian-Chinese girl on a graduation trip to LA on it.

The girl was quite pretty, so after playing together for half a day, they slept together at night.

After it was over, the two chatted, the girl hadn't been to China, and asked him curiously how many women he had slept with in his life?

At that time, Chen Nuo was only 25 years old, a relatively simple age, and said 20 casually.

As a result, that ABC was incredibly unbelievable, feeling like hearing an elephant only weighing 20 jin.

Not feeling it was too much, but feeling it was too little.

The girl told him. In Canada, generally, before getting married, whether male or female, if you haven't slept with a hundred or eighty, that belongs to being ugly and no one wants you.

Of course, whether this number is true, that doesn't matter.

What matters is, it can be seen from this that in the eyes of these European and American foreigners, if you fall in love without sleeping, either your brain has a problem, or your orientation has a problem, in short...

It's not love at all.

Taking this kind of clear and light love movie to challenge the love views of Europeans and Americans for hundreds or thousands of years, if this group of people isn't asking for trouble, what are they?

Taking a step back, even if you don't sleep, without bed scenes, it is estimated that only like in *Blueberry*, kissing from beginning to end, can barely make these ghosts think they are watching a love movie instead of some fairy tale.

Think about it, Wong Kar-wai is rational, and Zhang Yimou and him are definitely a bit inflated.

Both of them ignored reality in some issues, intoxicated in self-high, and then affected the entire team.

Just like everyone knows that stock speculation will lose money, but they will still send it.

Being able to be shortlisted for the main competition unit also fueled their optimistic mood, strengthened their wrong cognition, and believed that love is the same as maternal love, and the world is the same, and the cultural wall does not exist.

What *Mother* can do in Cannes, why can't *Hawthorn Tree* do it in Berlin?

As a result?

No one can say that Zhang Yimou's personal style in this version of *Hawthorn Tree* is inferior to Bong Joon-ho.

However, the cultural barrier about love descended on Berlin like an iron curtain spanning the European continent at this time, dividing it into two halves.

Making them from the East become some kind of alien in the eyes of these Westerners.

Listening to Old Mouzi's dejected words, Chen Nuo didn't know what to say, and could only nod silently.

After returning to the hotel, it was almost 1 a. m., Chen Nuo was just about to take a shower when he heard the doorbell ring.

Maybe before tonight, Chen Nuo might not have opened the door.

But now, after he peeked through the cat's eye, he opened the door without thinking much, and even moved aside.

"Come in."

Liu Yifei changed into a dark blue winter hoodie, lowered her head, and walked in silently.

But she was quite impolite, sitting on the edge of Chen Nuo's bed with a plop.

Chen Nuo sat on the stool, looking at Liu Yifei's appearance, and could only comfort: "Don't worry. It doesn't matter if Berlin doesn't work, there are Golden Horse and Golden Rooster after going back, and there are other awards. You performed absolutely no problem this time, don't think too much."

Liu Yifei was silent and didn't answer.

Chen Nuo sighed.

In fact, his mood is not very good either.

How can it be good?

Everyone was eating hot pot and singing songs, happily came to Berlin, and the result was such a result.

On the way back, Zhang Yimou was saying that after going to the community cinema to walk through the motions, he was ready to go to Paris to relax and think about his next movie.

Director Zhang is a person who has experienced big storms, of course, he can put down the current dissatisfaction, ask Chen Nuo to introduce Leonardo DiCaprio, and try to see if he can invite Leo to shoot his next movie.

The movie script is almost written, adapted from Yan Geling's novel of the same name *The Flowers of War*, filming the Nanking Massacre, now preparing to find a Hollywood big name to play the priest inside, Leo is Director Zhang's first choice.

At the same time, after returning to the country, he will start a national sea selection of twelve girls.

Why is it twelve and not thirteen.

It is because Director Zhang has already decided on one in his heart. It is not someone else, but Zhang Xiaofei, whom Chen Nuo called to watch the movie with Director Zhang earlier.

This girl looks big-eyed and quite spiritual, and she even sent him a New Year's greeting text message during the New Year.

Director Zhang was laughing and talking about these things in the car back to the hotel.

Of course, everyone understands what he means.

Nothing more than looking forward.

After filming one movie, there is another, failure is only temporary.

As long as the person is still there, you can make a comeback.

Damn.

Said lightly. But Chen Nuo can't let go so easily, likewise, he also found that Liu Yifei can't let go so easily either.

This may be the difference between a director and an actor.

The director only needs to be responsible to the capital side, as long as the capital side doesn't blame him, even if he dreams of the entertainment industry, he can be a hero.

But as an actor who is fully devoted to a role, seeing all the hard work not being understood, that kind of frustration and loss, absolutely not so easy to pass.

Liu Yifei was silent for a while before saying: "I want to drink."

Chen Nuo looked at the minibar in the room and didn't talk nonsense, because he actually wanted to drink a little too. If it weren't for watching Qi Yuntian being exhausted following him these two days, he would definitely have pulled Qi Da over to have two drinks.

Stood up and walked over there, "Drink what? Dry red?"

"No, whiskey."

Chen Nuo walked over, took a bottle from the bar, and opened it.

The price of self-paid whiskey in the Ritz-Carlton room, ordinary people estimate that a glance will cause cardiac arrest.

However, in a bad mood, Chen Nuo didn't care about that much.

Amber-colored liquor was poured into the glass, he drank a small glass directly at the bar, and with the spicy liquor entering his throat, under the poison-fighting poison, the lumps in his heart did indeed loosen a bit.

"I want to drink too." Liu Yifei called out dissatisfiedly.

Chen Nuo took two empty wine glasses with one hand and a wine bottle with the other, went over and put them on the coffee table with a clatter, and then poured half a glass in each glass.

Still preparing to pick it up and touch it,

As a result, Liu Yifei took the glass in front of her, and without saying a word, drank it in one gulp.

Chen Nuo originally prepared to watch her make a fool of herself, but saw that this girl didn't change her face or heartbeat, and put the glass on the table again, "Come again."

"Pour it yourself."

Chen Nuo knew his drinking capacity, and if he did it like that again, he would probably have to vomit after a few more glasses, so he took the second glass of wine and sipped it slowly.

Liu Yifei was different from him, she poured a large half glass for herself, but in one gulp, divided into two mouthfuls, and drank it again.

But she couldn't help it this time and coughed.

After coughing, two red clouds had already flown on her face, but her words were still clear, "Chen Nuo, do you think we still have a chance?"

Chen Nuo thought about it and shook his head: "Very small."

Liu Yifei closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling, took a deep breath, and said: "I think we performed really well, Director Zhang also directed very well, I watched it just now, and I cried... But, why is it like this?"

Chen Nuo took a sip of wine, and he also felt it was very good.

But...

He didn't even want to look at the *Screen* rating tomorrow.

When filming *My Blueberry Nights*, I felt that it was mostly a flop, but in the end, I didn't win the Cannes Best Actor, but finally won the Palme d'Or, which was considered flying.

What about this *Hawthorn Tree*, he racked his brains to win an award, and he came to Berlin with ambition, thinking he could fly, but didn't expect it to flop.

Perhaps this is life?

Just as bitter as this wine.

He sighed again.

"Did I implicate you?" Liu Yifei asked again.

Chen Nuo frowned, looked up at the girl, only to see her looking at him seriously.

On her goose-egg face, there was a slight pink color caused by alcohol. Her originally energetic eyes were somewhat unfocused at the moment, her long eyelashes trembled, the tip of her nose was also red due to the alcohol, her lips were pursed and then released, her lips seemed to be coated with a layer of honey, casting a watery glaze under the dim light.

"You implicate me? Haha."

"Didn't those reporters ask you? Do you regret cooperating with me."

"Did they ask you? It's you guys... forget it, don't listen to their nonsense. Just like I said, I really like this movie, especially the last scene, if I could make the decision, I would have given you the Silver Bear Award."

Liu Yifei was silent for a while before saying: "Thank you." Then she poured a small half glass of wine, took the initiative to touch Chen Nuo, and the two drank a mouthful together.

"How many stars do you think we will be given tomorrow? How many points?"

"One? Two? 1 point 2 points? Forget it. When the time comes to participate in the community cinema meeting, I will go to America, you go back to China. Qi Da said there are several scripts that are good, you go back and choose yourself. Just like Zhang Weiping said, victory or defeat is a common matter for soldiers. What does it matter if you can't win an award, Wang Quan'an's movie is so popular, can it definitely win? Anyway, our box office should be good, that's enough."

Liu Yifei whispered: "Hmm." She looked at the wine glass in a daze and asked again: "What is love?"

"What is love... um, next question."

Liu Yifei smiled and was silent again. After a long while, she suddenly sighed lightly and said: "Is it only love if you do that kind of thing?"

"Definitely not."

"But, why do they all say we acted very fake."

"You should know the virtues of these Europeans and Americans better than me, right? You take their words seriously? Hehe."

"That's true."

"You say... is that kind of thing really that interesting?"

"Uh"

Liu Yifei suddenly looked up at Chen Nuo and asked: "Have you done it?"

Chen Nuo was really choked by his saliva this time, coughing for a long time.

Liu Yifei curled her lips and said: "It seems you have done it."

Chen Nuo chuckled: "Can we change the topic."

"No, hey, who did you do it with?"

"I said change the topic."

"I said no, hurry up and say, when did you do it, with whom? Was it Wen Yingshan? You lived together at that time, was it, was it..."

When Liu Yifei said this, her body kept leaning forward. Probably because she drank alcohol, her limbs were not very flexible, and suddenly her center of gravity was unstable, and she fell forward.

Chen Nuo subconsciously reached out to scoop her up, so dangerous, just a second later, Xixi would probably have fallen face down.

"Are you drunk? Wow, you are so heavy. How many jin are you?"

Chen Nuo remembered that it seemed to be like this last time, this woman was drunk, or he helped her into the car, at that time he was so tired he almost vomited blood. Liu Xiaoli was on the side, feeling like he was some kind of flower-picking thief.

He straightened Liu Yifei and said speechlessly: "Do you want to go back to sleep? I see you seem..."

Before he finished speaking, he only saw the girl in front of him with a flushed face, her skin like blood jade, spreading from her cheeks to her earlobes, and at the same time her lips parted slightly, and she said very softly.

"What?"

Liu Yifei's voice was a little louder this time, but it was not much louder than a mosquito's call, "Your hand."

Chen Nuo's brain was a bit numb, he still didn't react for a while, and even subconsciously moved his hand, only feeling the touch of hardness and softness.

He looked down and realized, oh, his hand was in the wrong place, and when he was drunk, he subconsciously squeezed it again.

Although there was still a steel ring, only his fingertips could touch the soft and elastic part.

But a very shameless thought flashed through his mind. Unexpectedly, it was actually a bit bigger than he imagined.

If it were someone else, Liu Yifei would definitely not have such a light reaction now.

But now, she only felt like a soldering iron was placed on her chest, let alone moving, her brain was a bit dizzy from the heat, but there was also a particularly comfortable feeling, and she wanted to just fall asleep like that.

Liu Yifei maintained 45-degree whiskey for 5 minutes and drank almost three glasses, and the only remaining bit of rational consciousness, "Chen... you... you let, let..."

Liu Yifei was also slow enough, in fact, Chen Nuo had already let go at this time, shook his already dizzy head, sat back in the chair, and laughed: "Not on purpose, sorry."

The blush on Liu Yifei's face did not dissipate, she bit her lip, and she didn't know what was going on in her brain, and thought of the previous question again.

Is it really only love if you have done it?

She stood up unsteadily and said: "No, I'm going back to sleep."

"Go, go." Chen Nuo held the wine glass, sat in the chair, and drank again.

He originally didn't mean to send Liu Yifei, because he felt dizzy, his feet were softer than noodles, and he couldn't stand up a bit.

You know, he flew to BJ within 36 hours, sang a song, and rushed back to Berlin without stopping.

Accepted an interview, attended a premiere and a press conference, and finally returned to the hotel and drank two glasses of whiskey.

The combined rest time was the 9 hours on the plane back.

Under these circumstances, he didn't fall asleep, which was already considered strong willpower.

"Help me." Liu Yifei said, "I'm a little dizzy."

"Holy shit, you..."

Chen Nuo looked at the woman who was indeed a bit unsteady, feeling like she was about to fall, no way, he had to support the chair armrest and stand up.

Shook his head, his center of gravity was a bit unstable and walked over.

"I... I support you, I, really impressed by you, you are really..."

Chen Nuo was incoherent, his tongue was tied before he finished speaking, just went over to support Liu Yifei's arm, and as a result, her whole person's weight all pressed down.

If it were usually, it would be fine, but now how could Chen Nuo support it.

He could only let out an "Ouch," and the two fell together to the side.

Fortunately, it was a soft big bed next to them, and the two added up to nearly 300 jin, so they didn't fall into a mess.

Resting on the soft and fluffy quilt, Chen Nuo felt a hot airflow spraying on his nose, and at the same time, a very dizzying smell of alcohol came from the opposite side, making his brain even more confused.

A pair of black and white eyes were close at hand at this moment, almost sticking to his pupils, Chen Nuo felt that his vision was full of this pair of eyes, and even focusing became a problem.

His gaze subconsciously moved down, first seeing the slightly curved hump nose, the tiny pores on the tip of the nose were clearly visible, followed by the moist lips.

Too close.

Not close at hand, but only a millimeter away.

So much so that they couldn't tell who pouted first, and their lips touched together all of a sudden.

(End of chapter)