Chapter 248: Old Ma's Difficulty

When *Black Swan* played to the end, with the female lead's passionate, fanatical, and wild dancing, she seemed to break out of her cocoon and be reborn, and small black feathers began to grow on her body.

And, as her spinning accelerated, the feathers on her body began to grow wildly, and finally, as she spun faster and faster, with a "whoosh," two black feathered wings spread out, and she suddenly stopped, proudly raising her head to look forward.

And the camera rotated with her, finally reaching the front, and the audience saw a perfect, clean female lead who had stopped; the whole audience applauded wildly.

"No way!"

"Amazing!"

"Oh my god!"

"Wow!"

The voices of the foreigners rose one after another.

Xie Fei and Zheng Dongtian looked at each other, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes.

Even though Old Tian had long known that the female lead would grow black wings while dancing and become the "Black Swan," he had watched it without special effects at the time.

Seeing this scene now, he couldn't help but look at Cao Yang; this scene was truly too impactful.

"Do you remember the statue that appeared earlier?" Xie Fei asked Zheng Dongtian in a low voice.

Zheng Dongtian thought about it; it seemed to have appeared. When the statue appeared at the time, some sad music played, so he had an impression.

Generally, when a seemingly unimportant shot appears in a film, but special music plays at this time or the protagonist pays special attention to it, in most cases, it is the director reminding the audience that this shot actually has a meaning.

"The armless statue that the female lead stared at?" Zheng Dongtian asked.

"Hmm."

Xie Fei nodded, "The statue's arms are broken and gone, only two wings are raised high, the two legs are tightly together, the body stands upright in the posture of Jesus' crucifixion, and the lower body has male sexual characteristics..."

He paused and continued, "You know the meaning of Jesus in the West: suffering, death, and resurrection. The meaning of this sculpture might be that if you want to have wings, you must abandon your arms, wait for suffering, and be placed in a dead end to be born again."

Zheng Dongtian thought for a moment, and then a more surprised expression appeared on his face.

"The female lead used the glass that often made her fall into hallucinations to stab herself, 'killing' herself, and later she completed the transformation, her arms turned into wings, and she became the Black Swan..."

Xie Fei nodded without speaking.

Among these Beijing Film Academy people present, except for Cao Yang, when it comes to artistic achievements and the expression of art, including Tian Zhuangzhuang, they might not be as good as Xie Fei, who had won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

He also discovered many echoing plots and many lens languages full of meaning.

For example, the plot of the female lead growing wings and turning into the Black Swan also echoes the dream at the beginning of the film; will the pure White Swan be seduced by the Demon King and fall?

In short, this film is full of details, and it seems that every shot has a meaning.

The change in the color of the clothes, the female lead gradually transitioning from white and pink clothes at the beginning to gray, and finally to black, seems to be related to the change in her state of mind.

When expressing the female lead's dancing and daily life, many are handheld shaky shots, creating the instability and tension in the heroine's heart, reflecting her inner anxiety.

The extensive use of mirrors, glass, and other reflective objects shows the female lead's "dual personality." Distorted and split images often appear in the reflections, metaphorizing the collapse of self-cognition and the awakening of the Black Swan personality.

In narrow scenes such as the dance studio and bedroom, the mirrors and walls form a visual squeeze, strengthening the psychological predicament of the character being controlled and imprisoned...

Xie Fei could still think of many such details.

However, there was no need to discuss it with Zheng Dongtian.

He didn't want to waste his breath.

Just now, he really couldn't help it; the thoughts in his heart had to be spoken, so he exchanged a little with Old Zheng.

Sigh, if I had known, I would have sat next to Cao Yang, even if it was sitting next to that kid Tian Zhuangzhuang, at least I could have had a lot to communicate with Tian Zhuangzhuang.

As for Old Situ...

That is a vulgar person who had a stroke of luck, who by chance brought out the '78 directing class, and by chance became Cao Yang's teacher!

Pfft, there's no one else with that kind of luck.

Xie Fei admits that the old guy is indeed quite capable in documentaries, but art films, sorry, he doesn't know a damn thing about art films.

Xie Fei couldn't help but look at Cao Yang's direction again, and then sighed heavily in his heart.

Then he glared fiercely at Old Situ; I really want to give the old guy two punches. Even free-range raising can raise Cao Yang, who can shoot art films and experimental films that combine art films and commercial films.

He has awards, and he has a unique skill in training actors; what a pity!

Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!

Boring, I'm leaving!

Xie Fei stood up directly, walked to Cao Yang, patted Cao Yang on the shoulder, and said, "This is true art!"

After speaking, he didn't say hello to anyone and pushed the door open and left.

Zheng Dongtian was a bit confused; what kind of madness is this old guy Xie Fei having? Wasn't he fine just now?

Inexplicable.

If you say he is dissatisfied with the film, he ran specifically to Cao Yang to say that this is art, which is obviously extremely satisfied with the film.

If you are so satisfied with the film, why are you leaving? Shouldn't you take the opportunity to communicate with the people sitting here?

Didn't he communicate quite well with himself just now? Old Tian curled his lip again.

He understands Old Xie a little; the old guy belongs to the old literary youth, and when that literary youth problem comes up, he can do anything.

He just happened to see Old Xie "fiercely" glaring at his own teacher; he didn't know how Old Situ had offended Old Xie again.

He actually felt a little empathy; in Old Xie's eyes, his teacher is a "big rough guy," just like he looks at Hou Yuan, that guy who had a stroke of luck.

Sigh, I can't imagine that my teacher, this rough guy, could actually teach me and Cao Yang... forget it, add that kid Chen Kaige.

How much luck did my teacher have to be able to teach such talented disciples as me, Cao Yang, and Old Chen!

Old Tian's heart moved, and he came to the other side of Old Situ, pretending to sigh, "Teacher, have you noticed that this kid Cao Yang is imitating Kaige's *Farewell My Concubine*."

"Ah?"

Old Situ widened his eyes, looked at Old Tian with some disbelief, and asked leisurely, "Is there?"

Old Tian nodded vigorously.

"Teacher, look, Cheng Dieyi and the female lead of this film are the same; because of art, they reached a state of obsession, madness, and insanity. They both completely integrated the character with themselves. Cao Yang plagiarized Kaige."

!

Old Situ opened his mouth, and then slapped Old Tian on the back of the head.

"Do you think I'm stupid? If I didn't have some ability, how could I teach such excellent students as Kaige and Cao Yang?

The two are completely different, okay.

*Farewell My Concubine* is about showing from a macro perspective how an opera fanatic is swept forward in the torrent of the times, while *Black Swan* focuses on the individual's micro-inner self; the female lead, in her own struggle, releases the nature of the Black Swan and reaches her ideal artistic realm..."

Old Tian was dumbfounded; he couldn't understand Old Situ, how could such an interpretation come out of Old Situ's mouth?

Cao Yang wanted to laugh; Old Tian, Old Tian, didn't you just walk into the gun? When I went to the teacher's house yesterday, I told the teacher about the plot and compared it with *Farewell My Concubine*, which the teacher could understand best.

You are purely looking for a beating.

At the strong request of the foreigners, the film was played again.

Marco Müller didn't watch it again; he had plenty of opportunities to dig into the details of the film, and he could take it back to Venice to watch it repeatedly.

He pulled Cao Yang, walked outside, patted Cao Yang on the shoulder hard, and laughed loudly.

"Satisfied?"

Cao Yang also patted Old Ma's shoulder twice in return; there must be give and take, but he didn't dare to use too much force, fearing he would break Old Ma.

"Haha..."

Old Ma smiled and gave a thumbs up, "My selector just said that your film can be rated at least A+."

"A+?"

"Haha, this is our internal rating; above A, you have the qualifications to compete for the Golden Lion," Old Ma explained with a smile.

"Confident?" Cao Yang thought for a moment and asked softly.

Old Ma knew what Cao Yang meant; he thought for a moment and nodded heavily.

"If it were last year, I would have at most 40% certainty; this year, I have 70% certainty."

Cao Yang laughed; it seems that after Old Ma's efforts, his position as the Venice Film Festival chairman is becoming more and more stable.

"Old Ma, what do you think of the actors? Especially the female lead," Cao Yang asked again.

Marco Müller said without hesitation:

"She brought it to life! She simply brought the character to life. Not only the female lead, but I found that the actors in this film all performed very well, whether it was the second female lead, the male lead, or the actor playing the female lead's mother."

After thinking about it, Old Ma felt that saying it this way didn't seem convincing, so he changed to another way, saying: "Let me put it this way, if any actor in this film wins an award at any film festival, I don't think anyone will raise any questions."

"What about Venice? I think you understand what I mean."

Old Ma frowned and fell into deep thought.

Sometimes, even if an actor performs brilliantly, they may not necessarily win an award; this is related to many factors.

For example, if Old Ma "designates" *Black Swan* to win the Golden Lion, then if he "designates" *Black Swan* to win the Best Actress award, that would be a bit too greedy.

Inside the film festival, it's not that Old Ma has the final say; there are many forces to balance.

Moreover, the invited jury president must also be given some decision-making power; otherwise, who would still come to be the jury president?

There are also some forces outside the field that need to balance relationships, and a major award must be left for Italy, or at least a major award must be left for Europe.

The Venice Film Festival only has seven permanent awards, which are already few, and this year a major award must be left for Hollywood...

If *Black Swan* were to be given two major awards, would he have to renegotiate and rebalance the various forces he had finally balanced before?

Very difficult.

"The jury can decide the attribution of some awards; I will try to see if I can get a quota from them."

Old Ma thought for a long time and decided to find a way from the jury.

"The jury?"

Cao Yang nodded and said, "Okay, I will also find a way from the jury; let's work together."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 249 =====