Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 188 The Call of the Far Mountain

Seeing that the awards were hopeless and they would only be caught by reporters asking embarrassing questions if they stayed in Montreal, the two Israeli filmmakers changed their tickets to America ahead of the end of the film festival.

Before leaving, Minahan and Ronald had breakfast together and exchanged contact information.Knowing that Ronald's script was valued by Jane Fonda and sold for a sky-high price, he immediately invited Ronald to talk about his "Intersection" script at Cannon Pictures in Los Angeles.

"Ronald, let's work together, we're going to win an Oscar, we're going to make him a remake of the greatest family movie in Hollywood in the past 20 years, and now Hollywood is going to be popular with family movies."

"Greatest family movie?", Ronald thought for a moment, "Is it 'The Godfather'?"

"No No No, it's 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'".Minahan shook his head.

Ronald knew that this movie was about a white daughter who brought a black boyfriend back to her parents' house for dinner, then understood each other, and finally reconciled.

However, he was very afraid that his "Intersection" script would be made by Minahan into a song and dance film of Chinese and Italian dancing together, so he declined his kindness because he still needed to polish the script.

Minahan has just entered the Hollywood game field, and he will not let go of an insider who sells scripts at sky-high prices, "Anyway, you have to come to Cannon Pictures to talk to us, you are a genius playwright, and I am a genius director , our cooperation will be a great success.”

Well, Ronald just agreed to check it out at Cannon Pictures.He didn't want his script to be made into a movie that would be beaten by the audience.

Films participating in the festival were screened at a rate of about one a day, and Ronald began his real career as a film buyer.Roger Coleman did not give him a purchase index, but only suggested that if there is a good movie and the price is right, he can contact Gail in New World.

So Ronald just picked some movies that he was interested in watching, regardless of whether it was a new movie or an old movie, if he was not interested after watching it for 10 minutes, he got up and left.

For example, Hitchcock's daughter brought two films as a tribute to Hitchcock.Ronald watched both movies, "Rear Window," and "Vertigo."

Although both films are Hitchcock's masterpieces, Ronald missed the chance to see them.I have never seen that theater rerun in America, and I didn't even miss Scorsese's film appreciation class.

It turned out that Hitchcock knew that his daughter's qualifications were mediocre and she had no future in the film industry, so he bought the five color films he was most satisfied with, including these two, and The Murderer, The Case of the Strange Corpse, and The Soul of the Soul. The copyright is left to my daughter.

With the copyrights of these five movies in hand, the daughter's family can live comfortably.

These two films are exquisitely conceived, the photography is excellent and the performances are very good. As a fan, Ronald watched it once, and wanted to watch it several times to ponder the technique.Especially in "Rear Window", the close-up of Grace Kelly that filled the big screen became her appearance in the whole movie, which is very amazing.

And "Vertigo" was shown when Jimmy Stewart went up the stairs, and there was a sliding zoom (Dolly Zoom), which made an effect that the hero was not moving in the camera, while the background was moving rapidly, to show that the hero was terrified. Feelings of high vertigo.

At this time, the audience collectively applauded and cheered, and it seemed that they were all knowledgeable.This is the technique of sliding zoom, which appeared on the big screen for the first time in film history, and was later used by Spielberg in "Jaws".

In addition to satisfying his curiosity, Ronald's main energy is still on non-English exhibits.There is too much competition for English-language films.

For example, "The Stunt Man" starring Peter O'Toole has been bought by [-]th Century Fox and shown in America.Even the bids for the second round of screenings were sold at a price much higher than Ronald's budget.

The first thing that attracted his interest was a film "Stalker" by the Soviet Union Alliance. According to the report, the artistic value of this film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky was highly praised.

Even though Ronald had the buyer's badge, it took a lot of trouble before he entered the arena and found a seat in the back row.

Most of the people who came to see it were film insiders and movie fans who were attracted by the publicity.

The film follows a mysterious location that appears to contain alien relics, and the stalker is a guide-like character who takes other people through the mysterious location.Some want to walk through the mysterious location to get rich, some want to get artistic inspiration, some think it is evil and want to blow it up.

Others, like Ronald, found themselves hypnotized.

The movie is so slow paced that Ronald would fall asleep at times.After two hours, four and 10 minutes of struggling with the Sandman, the screening finally came to an end, and a head of the National Film and Television Commission (Goskino) of the Souvier Union was accepting interviews and asking questions from the audience.

"Yes, the film is very slow paced, and Goskino suggested the same to director Tarkovsky, to speed up the pace and shorten the duration.

"No, we don't interfere with the director's creation, we just make suggestions, and director Tarkovsky's intentions have been well preserved."

The whole movie does show a completely different technique from commercial movies, and you can feel the strong personal style of the author and director.In the middle, the protagonist Stalker also quotes a passage from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, "People are soft and fragile when they are born, and hard and strong when they die." This gives the film a philosopher's temperament.

However, Ronald looked around, most of the audience had fallen under the sleep spell, and the quality of sleep was quite good.No one in America dares to buy this kind of movie and release it on a large scale.

Ronald saw that most of the buyers had left, and the head of the National Film and Television Commission seemed quite lonely, so he went up to talk to him through an interpreter.

He told Ronald that in order to promote cultural propaganda, the alliance gave a lot of subsidies to film exports, and this film was shown at several major film festivals.Hope to be seen by the people of America, not just profit.

For this purpose, Goskino is willing to sell the film screening rights at a relatively low price. If you are interested, you can contact the Cultural Counselor of the Soviet Embassy.

Ronald was interested in the low price, but there was really no market for the film.Maybe artists in the industry will learn some useful exploratory shooting techniques from it, but the general audience?Maybe try selling it to insomniacs?
Of course he wouldn't dare to say that to the Goskino people.Ronald asked, "Do you have any works with strong storytelling? Stories with plots and twists and turns, the kind that reflect the lives of ordinary people? Movies that people watch can let American audiences understand you."

The head of Goskino listened to the translation, and replied through the translator, "Yes, there is a movie in my country that has been hit recently, and it has broken the record for the number of viewers in the league. This time, I also transferred a copy to participate in the screening. You are welcome to come and see."

Ronald hurriedly noted down the screening time, hoping that the movie would not make people sleepy.

Another film that aroused Ronald's strong interest came from Dongying, and it was the competition film "The Call of the Far Mountain".The director was not the Akira Kurosawa he was familiar with, but a guy named Yoji Yamada.

This movie is about a middle-aged love story.Ronald is going to learn some experience and see where his "My Brother's Protector" is not mature enough in the middle-aged love part of the plot.

The story tells the story of a man named Kosaku Tajima who broke into the house of a widowed herdsman in Hokkaido on a rainy night to ask for shelter from the rain.The widow Minzi and her son Takezhi raise cattle and depend on each other for survival. After accepting Tian Dao to shelter from the rain, Ta Dao asks to work part-time at Minzi's house.

Considering that the family needs a strong laborer, Minzi agreed.Tian Dao won the favor of Minzi, mother and son with his down-to-earth and hard-working style, and also helped Minzi beat away the peasant association cadres who came to play hooligans in front of the widow's door. Takeshi also relied on Tian Dao as his father's image.

Two years later Tajima's brother came to visit him and gave him some money.It turns out that Tajima is a murderer. Because his wife borrowed a usury loan to invest in stocks and couldn't repay it, she committed suicide. In a rage, Tajima accidentally killed the creditor who came to collect the debt at the funeral, and then fled to Hokkaido.

To fulfill Takeshi's wish, Tajima participated in horse racing in the countryside of Hokkaido.Tajima won the championship at the racetrack, but was recognized by the police who followed his brother and was taken away.

Because of the provocative behavior of the creditor, the court concluded that Wadajima was not deliberate, and it was manslaughter.In the end, Kosaku Tajima was sentenced to three years in prison.

On the train that escorted him to the place where he would serve his sentence, Minzi brought food and boarded the same carriage.After seeking the consent of the police, she sat next to Tajima and chatted with her fellow villagers, telling her neighbor that she had sold her cattle and was going to move to the city, and she was going to wait for Tajima to come back.

The whole film is simple and smooth. Ronald feels very kind when he sees this oriental implicit film style. The relationship between the long-term workers in the image is very touching.Coupled with the scenery and folk customs of Hokkaido, it is a movie that audiences will love.

Ronald had the idea of ​​buying the screening rights of the film, and approached the manager of Shochiku Films, the distributor in Japan, to discuss distribution in America.

"..."

"What? I don't know Japanese, can you speak English?" Ronald asked shyly.

"I said, what I speak is English?"

Well, the English of Dongying people is really difficult to understand.Ronald grabbed a translator from the organizing committee to help, and he was able to communicate normally with the manager of Shochiku Films.

"What? $50? That's absolutely not okay. Too expensive."

"Lola Narudsan, but this movie is worth the price. You can see that many viewers are in tears."

"Yes, I also proposed to buy the distribution rights in America because this movie is simple and moving. But this movie has no stars, and it is still a foreign language film..."

"There is no star in this movie? Lolan Narud-san, Shochiku's manager put Ronald in front of the poster. The male protagonist Tajima is played by Takakura Kensang. He is the top star in Japan. The heroine Minko is Bisho Chieko Acting, she is a national female star, and if the audience does not see her during the New Year and the Obon Festival, it will be a bad festival."

"I understand that they may be the stars of Japan, but no one knows them in America. I also like their performance very much, so I want to introduce them to America. If you can lower the price to less than [-] US dollars, I can consider it in America." Show it in theaters in big cities, so that our people can also get acquainted with your country's stars."

"I'm really sorry. This is beyond the scope of my authority. I'm very sorry to disappoint you." The manager of Songzhu Films kept bowing and apologizing, but refused to lower the price.

Ronald was also a little disappointed. The film was well made, but its values ​​and culture were not compatible with American audiences. It could only find a market among some audiences who like foreign films and art films.

For example, at the end when Tajima and Minzi met on the train, it was placed in America. Minzi must go up to communicate with the police, let the two meet and have a chat. In the end, they must hug and kiss, and the passengers on the train applaud.In Dongying, it is impossible for Tajima to talk directly to Minzi. On the one hand, the police are not allowed to violate the regulations, and on the other hand, Tajima cannot face Minzi.

American audiences really can't appreciate this kind of implicit beauty, and feel that Minzi's feelings for Tajima are not deep enough.This big cultural difference made Ronald dare not make up his mind to pay a high price.

I found the organizing committee at the film festival, and faxed my optimism and opinions on "The Call of the Far Mountain" to New World Producer, and Ronald planned to continue watching the film.

"Protest against apartheid, protest against racial discrimination!"

A group of people shouted slogans from a distance at the entrance of the screening hall to boycott the films shown here.

Ronald immediately became interested.I showed the buyer's badge to the staff, and walked into the empty theater with few audiences.

Can be boycotted, isn't it free marketing?
　In the future, the morning update will still be at nine o'clock, and eight o'clock is a bit too early for me, so I have some time to proofread typos.

　
(End of this chapter)