Movie Master

The 19th Sundance Film Festival has come to an end, and City of God has undoubtedly become the focus of much attention.

The last time a non-English film dominated Sundance was in 1999, when the Vietnamese film Three Seasons of Love became the first non-English award-winning work in Sundance history; only four years later, City of God Created history again, amazed Park City with the attitude of turning out of the sky, and became the second work in the 19-year history of Sundance to win the award with a non-English attitude.

In an instant, the situation changed.

However, although the Sundance Film Festival is a paradise for independent films, dominating Sundance does not mean that the mainstream market loves it. In the past three years, the winners of the jury awards have all been cold in the mainstream market and have not attracted more attention. attention.

In the nineteen years since the establishment of Sundance, the status of independent films in the United States has undergone earth-shaking changes. The success of Pulp Fiction has become the first independent film in film history to break the box office. The success of American Beauty, Three Kings of Prison Break and Fargo has changed the composition of the film attributes in the mainstream market.

But these works are quite special, either produced by long-established independent filmmakers, or invested and produced by independent labels of major studios, and they have no direct relationship with Sundance. Sundance not only focuses on independent films, but also newcomers.

Sundance has been held nineteen times this year, but the most successful work was 1994's Crazy Clerk.

Crazy Clerk is the work written, directed and acted by the unknown Kevin-Smith (Kevin-Smith). One of the works that, along with Pulp Fiction, revolutionized the position of independent films in the film market.

The box office revenue of Crazy Clerk after its release was 3.2 million US dollars. Although it is not as good as the 3.8 million US dollars of Blood Maze, the cost of the work is only 27,000 US dollars. maze. More importantly, this work performed very well in the video tape market, and it is still very popular into the 21st century.

Blood Labyrinth is the highest-grossing Sundance production so far, with Crazy Clerk at No. 2. Quentin Tarantino's debut Reservoir Dogs, which also came out of Sundance, only had a North American box office of 2.8 million, while Steven Soderbergh's famous work Sex, Lies, and Videotapes grossed $2.4 million in North America.

It is worth mentioning that Sex, Lies and Videotape was released after it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but the box office is still not satisfactory.

For the audience, Sundance often means niche, special, weird, and cult/canonical, and these factors may prevent audiences from entering the cinema. This year, however, things seem to be changing, with City of God appearing as a dark horse to spark a propaganda revolution.

City of God not only triggered an upsurge of discussion in Park City, but also received praise from audiences and film critics, which also paved the way for the film to win the jury award; it also became a hot topic on the Internet Focus, Javier's blog has become the hottest topic in the news media in the past eleven days, especially because many viewers chose to arrive in Park City to participate in the Sundance Film Festival in person because of reading the blog, online and offline interactions Linking the virtual and reality on both sides of the Internet has become a new topic in the 21st century.

The powerful influence of blogs has even spread from ordinary people to traditional authoritative media. Many media including the New York Times have expressed concern about it. This was discussed.

Many viewers have expressed their interest in the movie City of God, and their attention to the Sundance Film Festival has also begun to rise.

This is a very interesting phenomenon. Generally speaking, when a film enters a film festival, it hopes to use the influence of the film festival to promote itself; but this time, things are reversed. Festival has gained more attention.

This phenomenon has also successfully aroused the interest of countless communication, journalism, and sociology experts. After all, the Internet is still a novelty at the beginning of the 21st century.

Therefore, the performance of City of God after entering the film market is temporarily unpredictable-this is the first time it has ever happened, and it is something new for everyone. Many people have begun to pay attention to the City of God, from practitioners in the film industry, to practitioners in traditional media such as TV and newspapers, to professionals from other walks of life, all of whom have become curious.

If City of God breaks Sundance's shackles and succeeds at the box office, even if it's not a huge success like The Blair Witch, as long as it can prove the possibility of using online promotional channels, then it will be a big success for the entire media system. Revolutionary.

Quietly, City of God carried the prestige of the Sundance Film Festival jury award, and appeared on the headlines of the entertainment sections of major newspapers and magazines with a strong posture, winning incredible attention . The film's release date has not yet been confirmed, and it has already received such treatment. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for City of God, time will give an answer.

Paramount Pictures immediately announced that they bought the distribution copyright of this work in the English region for US$1.8 million, and will arrange the film to meet the audience as soon as possible. Less than twenty-four hours after this announcement, and less than eighteen hours after City of God won the Jury Prize, Paramount Pictures made another announcement that the film's release in South America The copyright was also bought by them, and they will try their best to promote the simultaneous release of the film in Brazil and the United States.

The two announcements once again sparked heated discussions. The $1.8 million deal is a well-deserved bid at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and City of God once again became the focus of discussion with its proud appearance.

It is worth mentioning that as the attention of City of God gradually heats up, the scandal between film director Lancelot and actress Jessica Alba has also appeared on the pages of many gossip magazines. This is an unprecedented first for Sundance.

As we all know, all the films landing at Sundance are independent films, and more than 90% of them are new directors. Since the rookie director doesn't have too many hot spots, and there are no more past achievements worth discussing, it can almost be said to be a blank sheet of paper. Imagine that the media specifically reported, The rookie director Henry-Bean (Henry-Bean) Winner of the 2001 Sundance Jury Award, after such news came out, everyone was at a loss, Who? Therefore, every year, the focus of media attention is on the award-winning works, focusing on the news of the works themselves, Don't talk about gossip, there are only a handful of reports about new directors.

But this year there is an exception. Jessica, as the heroine of Apocalypse, can be said to have made her debut in 2001, attracting the attention of many TV drama fans. Although there is still a lack of masterpieces on the big screen so far, at least there is a beautiful actress whose name is known. Put her and the director together, and the scandal suddenly becomes interesting.

U.S. Weekly teased, It seems that this talented new director is still a suave Don Juan.

When the annual Sundance Film Festival came to an end, when Park City regained its calm, this year's Sundance has quietly created countless records, with the highest number of participants, the highest number of moviegoers, the most mobilized media, and the number of news reports. The most, the most topics on the Internet, and the deepest influence... Even after a few months, people are still talking about this year's Sundance, discussing the participating films, discussing the ownership of awards, and discussing the future of independent films.

All of this is actually due to a City of God. Although it is too incredible to say so, even absurd, it is the truth. As Robert said, Lance is honored to be on the Sundance stage, but equally, it is also the glory of Sundance to have the City of God. Since 2003, Sundance has entered a new era.

When Sundance closed on January 26, who could predict the direction of the next ten years?

After the closing ceremony and awards ceremony, Lance returned to the backstage, and instantly became the darling of the scene. Almost everyone was looking for Lance, trying to personally send their blessings. The scene was very lively. After finally leaving the scene, when I returned to the hotel where I was staying, it was already two hours later.

Come on, everyone go upstairs. We have to catch a plane tomorrow. Percy greeted the children in front of him. They will go back to Brazil tomorrow, and then wait for the screening time and schedule of City of God to be arranged before doing it. arrange. But more likely, they returned to their daily lives, not movie stars, not on the North American continent, but just a tiny existence in the slums of the City of God.

Percy's words calmed down the children's excitement. They said good night to Lance respectively, then turned and left reluctantly. Alexander Rodriguez, who fell at the end, stood still and did not move. Lance raised his chin and motioned for him to go upstairs.

Lance is deeply touched by the living conditions in the City of God. The despair permeated by the movie City of God is his true inner thoughts, but he knows that it is impossible for him to help so many people. His compassion and sympathy Just a useless hope. Therefore, Lance was very indifferent, even a little heartless, so that when the children left just now, they seemed a little disappointed.

Facing Alexander, Lance did not reveal his true inner thoughts.

But Alexander raised his head, looked deeply at Lance, and said for a long time, Mr. Strelo, tell me, can I be a videographer?

Looking at Alexander's black and white eyeballs, Lance seems to have returned to the first day they arrived in the City of God, when they met in the chaos of the gun battle, the firmness and fragility hidden deep in the eyes, contradictory but Tangled together.

Lance raised his right hand, patted Alexander's shoulder lightly, and whispered, As long as you want.