Chapter 255: Special Film Critic

"The 62nd Venice Film Festival Award Prediction and Analysis Guide."

A post in the "Cao Yang Bar" was topped, quickly becoming a hot spot.

The reason this post was topped is because the person who wrote the post is a well-known director who is rising in China. He didn't hide his name, but posted it directly in the bar.

And, he also specially wrote at the beginning: Very honored, I was invited by the Venice Film Festival official field journal to become a special film critic.

I uphold an objective and fair attitude and point of view to write this article. This article is also published in the Venice Film Festival official field journal ICS. Interested friends can go to query and correct.

He wrote in the post in the tone of an "expert":

Predicting the Oscars is not difficult. More than 5,500 academy members serve as judges. The main body of voting every year is completely unchanged, and the overall viewing taste has produced long-term aesthetic inertia.

Coupled with the Golden Globe Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, various union awards, and other large and small wind vanes, as long as you analyze patiently, the results can generally be mastered.

Film festivals are different.

Although the avant-garde Cannes, the profound Venice, and the rigid Berlin are each a system, because there are only a few judges, and the people in power every year are not the same batch, the contingency is very strong.

Before predicting the awards, you must analyze the composition of the jury. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you accurately guess the attribution of the awards.

There are three points worth noting about the jury composition of this Venice Film Festival.

First, Jury President Dante Ferretti is an art director, and his requirements for composition, color, clothing, and details everywhere must be relatively strict.

Second, Italian female singer Emilianna once sang the ending song of *The Lord of the Rings* Part 2, and will definitely pay attention to the film's soundtrack.

Third, Chinese writer and screenwriter A Cheng appeared in the jury, so that filmmakers, musicians, and writers are all covered.

This leads to a definite conclusion: this year's awards will be relatively dispersed, and it is impossible for one film to win multiple awards.

Back to the point, so far, combined with this year's field journal scores and the views of film critics, as well as my bold speculation after careful consideration, the biggest favorite for the Golden Lion Award is Patrice Chéreau's *Gabrielle*.

Someone will definitely refute, saying that the official field journal's highest score is Cao Yang's *Black Swan*, so why is the biggest favorite for the Golden Lion Award *Gabrielle*?

First of all, film festivals have an unwritten rule, that is, big heat must die, high score must die.

*Black Swan* is indeed 0.3 points higher than *Gabrielle*, but you must know that Cao Yang has long "abandoned" traditional art films and started so-called experimental films, which is a betrayal of art.

First declare, I am an alumnus of Cao Yang, and we are both graduates of the Directing Department. I don't have any opinion on him, and I appreciate his early art films very much.

However, Cao Yang hasn't shot a pure art film for two years. He is immersed in so-called experimental films and has achieved quite good results.

I really doubt whether he can still shoot pure art films?

I watched his *Black Swan*, and I don't know how to describe it. This film is less of an art film and more of a thriller suspense film!

Throughout the history of the entire Venice Film Festival, no thriller film has ever won an award.

Someone will ask, then why is *Black Swan*'s score so high?

Commercial success has made Director Cao Yang very famous, and his influence has long exceeded his influence in the art film field.

When everyone evaluates *Black Swan*, they will unconsciously think that this is Cao Yang's film. The places I don't understand and haven't seen in this film must have deep meaning...

Thus, *Black Swan*'s score will naturally be a bit higher.

Regarding the speculation and attribution of the Golden Lion Award, I will say one last point.

Patrice Chéreau's *Gabrielle* also has an advantage, that is, the wonderful performance of the art queen Isabelle Huppert, who has won the Cannes Best Actress award twice and the Venice Best Actress award twice, is another bonus item for the film.

In addition, mention one sentence: Cao Yang won the Jury Grand Prize at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival in '01, and the film that beat him to win the highest Golden Bear Award that year was Patrice Chéreau.

Next, it is about the prediction of some other awards and the possible reasons for winning. At first glance, it is still somewhat "reasonable."

For example, regarding Best Actress, he said it is very likely to be won by Lee Young-ae of the Korean film *Lady Vengeance*.

The reason given is that this film abandoned the social reality concept and raised the result of revenge to the moral level of theology, indicating that only through "redemption" can one find a way out in despair. Lee Young-ae is that "goddess."

For the Jury Grand Prize, which has the second highest gold content, he predicted that Takeshi Kitano of Japan would win it.

The reason is that as the "god" of Japan, the master of world cinema, his idol, Takeshi Kitano's film is a very personal "dream-like" work shot for himself.

It contains the director's experience, understanding of society, and review of past works, which is worthy of a Jury Grand Prize.

Until the last Best Technical Contribution Award, Cao Yang's *Black Swan* did not appear.

At the end, he explained one sentence: Undoubtedly, Cao Yang is a very talented director. As Cao Yang's senior, I sincerely hope he will not waste his talent and can settle down to cultivate deeply in the art film field so that he can go further, instead of shooting films like *Black Swan* that are mysterious.

As a senior, I suggest that the film festival can give Director Cao Yang a Jury Special Award to show its importance and encouragement to him.

I sincerely hope that Director Cao Yang can go smoothly on the road of art and go further and further!

This post is very popular in the "Cao Yang Bar," and the number of people browsing is particularly large.

However, because *Black Swan* hasn't been released yet, everyone doesn't know how the film is shot, and they can't refute anything for the time being.

Most of the replies are such as:

"Haven't seen Cao Yang's new film yet. It seems that the poster doesn't evaluate this film highly. Does Cao Yang also have a time when he misses?"

"Don't know what the situation is, are there any brothers with big 'd' in Venice who have watched it? Can you talk about your views?"

"This post looks like the analysis is reasonable and well-founded, but brothers, have you noticed one point? The official field journal of the Venice Film Festival gave *Black Swan* the highest score. Just because of this point, I feel the poster is biased."

"Haha, brothers, let me show you the original film review published in ICS. Most of the front of this article is the original text, but the text after 'As' at the end is all gone."

!

Below is the original film review picture posted in ICS.

Jiang Shixiong was a student of the first undergraduate class of the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy. After graduating in '60, he stayed at the school to teach and served as the director of the Directing Department teaching and research office, party branch secretary, and other positions.

She has brought many classes as a head teacher, and before retiring, she also served as a master's supervisor for two terms. She is a veteran professor of the Beijing Film Academy, and the connections don't need to be mentioned.

Today, after she received a call, she was stunned for a long time, and then dialed a phone number with a face full of anger.

"The film review on ICS, explain to me what is going on!"

The old lady just connected the phone over there and asked for guilt angrily.

"Teacher, I have written many film reviews on ICS. Which one are you talking about?"

After hearing this, the old lady was even angrier.

"Don't play dumb with me! I'm talking about which one you know very well, I need an explanation."

The opposite pondered for a moment before saying softly:

"Teacher, is it my article predicting the awards? Is there any problem? I am from a fair and just point of view. I watched *Black Swan*, it is a suspense thriller film, I just said my thoughts."

"You!"

The old lady was furious and scolded directly: "Whether you are from a fair and just point of view or for other reasons, you know best.

I am old, but I am not senile. Last time at the College Student Film Festival, I noticed that you were a bit wrong, and I also earnestly persuaded you, and this is how you do it?"

Since it was spread out, the other party didn't pretend to be confused anymore and shouted:

"Teacher, I don't know where I did wrong. I just don't understand why the entire Beijing Film Academy threw all the resources on him. If these resources were given to me, I would definitely be more famous, more influential, and more successful than him..."

"Shut up!"

The old lady was furious.

"You think the achievements Cao Yang achieved were smashed out by the school's resources? Absurd, simply too absurd. I can tell you clearly that the school not only didn't smash resources for him, he instead constantly created resources for the school!"

After catching her breath, the old lady suddenly felt very tired. The prejudice in people's hearts is a big mountain. No matter how hard you try, you can't move it. It's better to be direct.

"You are now a special film critic for the Venice Film Festival official field journal ICS, very majestic and inflated, right? Haha, you think how your special film critic came about?"

"Teacher, I... I know it was you who gave it to me, and I have always been very grateful to you..."

"Haha, silly child, you are really naive."

The old lady laughed at herself. She is now extremely disappointed. She thought she could also bring out a great director, and she tried her best to pull connections for him, but where did she know...

Sigh, I really envy that guy Old Situ who had a stroke of luck. I brought more classes than him, and brought more students than him. He is still a documentary director, how can he bring out so many feature film directors?

Why don't I have such luck?

"Tell you the truth, for your future, and to let you get closer to Cao Yang, I thickened my face to ask Cao Yang for help. This so-called special film critic of yours was asked for you by Cao Yang from Venice. Didn't expect it, right? Haha..."

The old lady's laughter was full of sadness and disappointment.

The other end of the phone was dumbfounded.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 256 =====

(End of chapter)