Birth of an actor

Before the end of the year, the post-production of "Brokeback Mountain" was completed, and the movie trailer was played in the advertising time of some theaters and cable channels, and the final work before the release was carried out.

This is a part of the release plan of "Brokeback Mountain", and it is also a common method for many Olympic films-to conduct a small-scale public screening in several important cities in North America before the end of December, in order to catch up with the final deadline for the release required by the Oscars. After obtaining the nomination qualifications for the Oscars and gaining some gains at the awards ceremony, it will be screened globally and use nominations or awards to hit the box office.

There is nothing wrong with this Olympic plan, but at the last moment before the release, the trailer of "Brokeback Mountain" caused an uproar because of the scale problem.

It turned out that in Los Angeles, when a couple took their children to the movie theater to watch a family movie, the theater played the full trailer of "Brokeback Mountain" before the opening, which included a Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger The silhouette of the bed scene, the scene of kissing with two people, although there are two scenes of kissing with Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams in the trailer, but those same-sex scenes made the couple feel extremely Big offense, and found a lawyer to file a lawsuit in court.

The couple claimed that the preview of "Brokeback Mountain" not only made them feel very uncomfortable, but after watching the movie, they were constantly asked about same-sex kissing by their children. It also caused them great mental pressure and serious emotional problems. They must accept Spiritual counseling and therapy by psychiatrists.Through their lawyers, they sued the movie theater and the "Brokeback Mountain" crew, demanding that the trailer be taken offline, on the grounds that underage children should not be exposed to any content related to homosexuality, and they also demanded compensation of [-] US dollars for mental damage.

Of course, it is impossible for the theater to give this huge amount of compensation. The theater's lawyer also responded that "Brokeback Mountain" is an R-rated movie, which means that people under the age of 17 can watch it even if they are accompanied by an adult. When a couple walks into a movie theater with their children, it is legal for their children to be exposed to R-rated movies, not to mention that what they watch is only trailers. There is no violation of laws and regulations in the theater, and compensation should not be paid.

After the lawsuit, the couple joined forces with some parents and conservative groups from the Los Angeles Board of Education to hold protests in front of movie theaters and cable stations. As the protests grew louder, the gay community in Los Angeles was not to be outdone. gathered together, demanding the right to watch movies normally - the small-scale release of "Brokeback Mountain" is only in the two cities of New York and Los Angeles. If the theaters in Los Angeles are really forced to give up because of protests, then they can only wait until You won't be able to see the movie until after the Oscars.

The continuous protests by anti-same groups and gay groups, and the continuous reports of the California media, the release of "Brokeback Mountain" has become a big news in North America.

Because there are too many homosexual scenes in the movie trailer, I have to find a lawyer to sue and boycott the movie’s release. It’s just religion and law, but since the birth of Hollywood movies, there have been some interesting phenomena in mainstream movies, that is, gays are generally “invisible”, and lesbians are more open than gays—and The real world is just the opposite.

In the first half of the twentieth century, gay men did not exist in Hollywood movies at all. This non-existence means that gay men’s characters were completely hidden or changed their sexuality. If the plot really needs it, then it should be hinted at one or two details, such as a certain If a male character is portrayed as a sissy or a transvestite who loves to sing and dance, it does not mean that a male character is gay, nor does it allow him to have intimate contact with the same sex.In contrast, in 1930, Marlene Dietrich could wear men's clothing and kiss women in "Morocco". In "The Queen of Sweden" in 1933, although the Queen of Sweden played by Greta Garbo was changed to heterosexuality, but There are also several flirting scenes with women, which are well received by the audience.

Later, Hollywood movies allowed gay men to appear on the screen, and they were either sissy funny characters or criminals. The ending was either death or imprisonment. It was not until the equal rights movement in the 80s and [-]s that the affirmative action was in full swing. image.

But just because people can accept gay men in movies doesn't mean they're ready to watch them make out.Meryl Streep played a lesbian in Woody Allen's "Manhattan" and was able to live with her girlfriend with children, and there were quite a few in the 1982 lesbian film "Personal Best" Bold and nude shots, and the movie "Make Love" released in the same year with the main character struggling with sexual orientation, the hero just kissed the same sex, and many viewers ran out of the theater screaming "disgusting". fiasco.

The lessons learned from "Making Love" made later movies not dare to show the intimate relationship between gay men. Even "Philadelphia Story" 11 years later, for market considerations, also deleted Tom Hanks and Antonio Bender Russ' few life scenes left only a scene where the two danced together at a Halloween masquerade and Tom Hanks was admitted to the hospital to show their relationship as lovers.

Therefore, under such a background, the bold and realistic R-rated shots of "Brokeback Mountain" are indeed ahead of the aesthetic standards of mainstream movie fans in the past. We'll have to wait until the movie actually comes out.

However, at present, in view of the fierce response caused by the film trailer, after several rounds of market surveys, Willlott, Universal, and Focus have decided to postpone the release time of "Brokeback Mountain", and it is best to go to Europe first. Turn around, win an award at the film festival, and then export it to domestic sales, which can also dilute the risk of direct release in North America.

In other words, "Brokeback Mountain" directly gave up this year's Oscars, and is fully prepared to focus on next year's awards season.

Moreover, taking advantage of this period of time, Ang Lee also re-cut a version of the trailer for "Brokeback Mountain", adding a lot of shots of Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams, as for Jack Gyllenhaal The same-sex intimacy with Heath Ledger was cut to nothing.The previous version of the trailer focused on the European market, and this re-cut version is only available in North America.

In fact, not only "Brokeback Mountain", which has been controversial recently, but even "Milk", intends to do so.

Although the classification of "Milk" is much safer than that of "Brokeback Mountain"-Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" is completely faithful to the original work, and at the same time portrays the relationship between Ennis and Jack and their respective wives in detail. Emotional, Anne Hathaway also contributed the largest performance of an actor's career in order to transform, and the rating of the film as R is reasonable.The rating of "Milk" is PG-13. In the whole movie, there are only one or two scenes of same-sex kissing, which is more warm than passionate.

The conservativeness of "Milk" is not just for ratings. Of course, like "Philadelphia Story", which is also PG-13, it is also one of the purposes to use loose ratings to attract more audiences and arouse wider resonance. .Spielberg has a different take on same-sex relationships.

Spielberg believes that there is no difference between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples. They also support, rely on, ask for help, and quarrel and break up. Therefore, he focuses more on describing the relationship between Milk and Scott than the passionate emotions. After all, love can only be regarded as a branch line of the film-Scott broke up with Milk because he was too enthusiastic about campaigning-the main line has always been Harvey Milk's road to politics.

The trailer turmoil of "Brokeback Mountain" shows that the current anti-gay sentiment in North America still has the upper hand. The film festival announced the list of films shortlisted for the main competition unit. As many as 23 films will compete for the festival's Golden Bear and Silver Bear Awards, and "Milk" is among them.

……

While being shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival, "Milk" will also hold its world premiere at the Berlin Film Palace.

This decision is a bit unusual. Not only did the organizing committee confirm twice in a row, but even the chairman of the Berlin Film Festival, Dieter Koslick, personally called Steven Spielberg to ask whether "Milk" was true. Is it going to be screened in North America or to participate in the Sundance Film Festival, is it going to make its world debut in Berlin?After receiving an affirmative answer, Dieter Koslick immediately decided to promote "Milk" as the biggest highlight of this film festival.

No wonder the Berlin Film Festival Organizing Committee is cautious, but the Berlin Film Festival happens to be held more than a month before the Oscars. Today's Hollywood movies, especially the new works of famous directors and star-studded ones, are really rare in the world. At this time point, I chose to place the film's first release location overseas instead of North America.

There are generally three types of premieres in major film festivals, world premieres, international premieres and regional premieres.As the name implies, the world premiere refers to the first public screening of a film worldwide, the international premiere refers to the first release of a film outside the country where the film was produced, and the regional premiere refers to the release in intercontinental regions, such as North American premiere and European premiere. , Asian Premiere and more.

In terms of priority, the world premiere is naturally the highest, and the Venice Film Festival clearly requires that films participating in the main competition must have a world premiere at the festival.The international premiere is second only to the world premiere. The requirements of the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival are not as strict as those of the Venice Film Festival. The shortlisted films include world premieres and international premieres. If it is good enough, the jury is likely to give some preferential treatment.

Hollywood movies have always liked to be gilded at European film festivals. In recent years, there have been many films participating in the Berlin Film Festival, and there are also some excellent works that won the Golden Bear and Silver Bear Awards, such as "Magnolia", "Dance of the Dead", "Drugs" "Network", "The Devil" and so on, but these films have a common feature. They all had a small-scale public screening in individual cities in North America before the end of December, and then went to Berlin for their international premiere. It is very clear that it is to gain some honor and reputation at the Berlin Film Festival, and to create momentum for the Oscar Awards Ceremony a month later.

There are also some independent films with lower cost and no hope of hitting the Oscars. They will participate in the Sundance Film Festival in January to seek the attention of major North American production companies and filmmakers, and then go to Europe to find other opportunities. For example, this year is also shortlisted The main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival, with a 17-year-old high school student as the protagonist, Tilda Swinton and Keanu Reeves have participated in the Hollywood movie "The Thumb Sucker", which has already been held in Sundan Won the Special Jury Prize at the Sri Lanka Film Festival.

It has been many years since "Milk" was shot by a top director and star-studded Hollywood movie, and chose to make its world debut at the Berlin Film Festival.

In the eyes of the Organizing Committee of the Berlin Film Festival and many German media and movie fans, this is simply a symbol of glory, and it has a sense of pride that surpasses that of Cannes and Venice.

Therefore, the organizing committee has also given enough attention, not only putting "Milk" in the first place in the various promotions of the film festival, but also putting the clips of "Milk" in the main competition film at the opening ceremony The first time in the exhibition, and the premiere time of the film is also the best - [-] pm on the day after the opening of the film festival is the prime time for the film premiere, which is not only convenient for invited guests to attend, but also for the media and professional film critics After watching the movie, I also have time to prepare the manuscript for publication the next morning, which is conducive to the fastest fermentation of word-of-mouth.

Not only that, on the day of the premiere of "Milk", including Roland Emmerich, chairman of the jury of the Berlin Film Festival, as well as Franka Potente, Ingeborg Duckenette, Bovida, Nino All the judges, including Serudi, attended the premiere, as well as other directors or movie stars who were shortlisted for the main competition.For example, "Peacock" director Gu Changwei, "The Thumb Sucker" star Keanu Reeves, and Cate Blanchett and Daniel Day-Lewis who came to Berlin because the starring movie participated in the film festival screening.

The red carpet was extremely lively, and the stars were as bright as the opening red carpet of the film festival, especially when William Bradley and Leonardo DiCaprio appeared together, the flash made The bright light that came out instantly reflected the surroundings of the red carpet like daytime, and the sudden burst of cheers and screams at the scene made many people feel slight tinnitus,

The following description was published in the film festival column on the "Welt" the next day, and the starlight on the red carpet could be felt from the side: "All the influential German media came, even "Auto Bild" sent Two reporters, and they also met fellow journalists from Europe, Asia, North America, South America and even Africa. The interview area is full of German and English with various accents, American English, British English, Australian accent, Scottish accent, and Difficult English from Japan and India, it's like a UN General Assembly."

In short, "Milk" is the most popular and expected film at this Berlin Film Festival, and no film can steal its limelight.

At this time, the quality of the film is very important. If the feedback from the media and film critics is not good after the premiere, if one is not careful, it will form a very embarrassing and sharp contrast with the grand occasion before the premiere.

However, from the beginning of the screening of "Milk", people lamented that this is indeed a masterpiece.

"Spielberg's style this time is very documentary." Roland Emmerich, chairman of the jury of this year's Berlin Film Festival, looked at the opening scene and made an evaluation in his heart.

The first tens of seconds of the film are some clips from "After the Stonewall" and other related documentaries. The police broke into the bar with weapons and randomly arrested the customers inside. Most people obediently waited for the police with their heads in their arms. They were handcuffed, and a few people tried to resist, and were suppressed more violently.Whether it is the reporters who took pictures and videos or the onlookers, they are not surprised by this. This was a very normal thing in the 70s and [-]s.

After the police van full of gay men drives away, the scene shifts to William Brandley's Harvey Milk and others rubbing their wrists as they are released from the station in the middle of the night denounced police violence.

This shot, which seems to be docked in time and space, directly blends into reality from the documentary is amazing.

Harvey Milk and Scott Smith met at the gate of the New York Police Station. They were both arrested and interrogated by the police for attending a gay party in a bar. The two hit it off and quickly fell in love. birthday.

Milk confided to his boyfriend about his former closet life. Because he lived in New York with his family and friends, Milk has been living cautiously. He dared to participate in anti-war demonstrations, but he never dared to reveal his gay status. Therefore, his ex-boyfriend break up with him.Scott suggested that after the Stonewall incident, gays in New York had all gone to live in San Francisco. Perhaps he should change his environment. Milk made up his mind not to suppress himself, so the two followed in the footsteps of a large number of gays in North America and moved to San Francisco.

Some people admired the director's lens language, while others paid attention to other aspects. 'Brandley's performance this time... is very unusual. 'Bo Weida and Bai Ling, two judges with Asian backgrounds, looked at each other and understood that the other had the same feeling.

Harvey Milk on the screen, whether it’s his gestures, walking posture, or his way of speaking and tone, or the details of other people’s appearance and clothing subconsciously, all make some people’s GAY sound crazy .

The judge Bo Weida felt that this kind of acting that is false is more delicate than Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia Story". William Bradley definitely left a lot of Harvey Milk himself A lot of effort was spent on the video data.

Moreover, the final effect does not make people feel disgusted, on the contrary, it is somewhat approachable.This is very important. For a movie that describes marginalized groups, if the protagonist can give the audience a good first impression, then the movie will be half successful in the first place.

Just like the success of "Philadelphia Story", it is absolutely inseparable from the performance of Tom Hanks. In that age of love and discoloration (still is), the AIDS homosexual patient played by Tom Hanks is not scary. Without making the audience feel too threatening, without being scary as soon as you walk into the room, the performance of the actors is absolutely crucial.And William Bradley's Harvey Milk has the same effect, like a friend, family member, or a stranger with high affinity, without making people feel disgusted or disgusted-except for their excellent performances, the two Both are the most popular movie actors, and both play a gay man who eventually dies with tragic heroism, and perhaps also contributes to the film.

The movie continues, Milk and her boyfriend Scott came to San Francisco, opened a photo studio on Castro Avenue, and actively participated in the community and helping others, and soon won the title of "Mayor of Castro" for himself title.

However, Milk, who is openly gay, has also encountered a lot of trouble. The landlord discriminates against homosexuals very much. He raises rent and taxes at every turn. After shaking hands with himself, the neighbors will immediately find a handkerchief to wipe their hands. He is not allowed to join the shopkeepers association. Scott was also injured in a police arrest...Finally, the straw that broke the camel's back came. A gay customer who visited Milk's store was attacked and killed by several anti-gay youths. Desperately whistled for help but did not wait for help, Milk and his friends went to the city hall to argue, asking the police to intensify their efforts to find the murderer but failed, and made up their minds to run for election in order to let the gay community "have a place in the city hall." One who can speak up."

The reason why Milk took the path of his own election is also because in American society at this time, even in the most tolerant areas for the gay community, no comrade dares to run openly. They all use sponsorship funds to cooperate with other politicians. Milk is aware of the growing influence of the LGBT community in San Francisco. He believes that the time has come for the gay community to bravely come out, support each other, and fight for rights, and he is willing to be the first brave.

Milk then recruited a diverse campaign — gay and lesbian, black, Asian and Jewish, 70 and 17 — and ran three times, losing three times, Even if her boyfriend asked to break up due to neglect, was sent threatening letters, and was stalked by anti-gay people, she never gave up on the campaign road.

"Do you know why Bradley's speech is so passionate?" The reporter from the American "Entertainment Weekly" and his counterpart from the other side of the ocean, the reporter from the Italian "Repubblica" whispered.

"I don't know. But Bradley is really convincing. If I were a voter, I would definitely vote for him."

"Here's the scoop, listen up, man. When "Milk" was filming on location in San Francisco, there was an anti-gay group called Exodus or something, protesting every day across the street from the studio. It greatly affected the progress of the crew's work, until Bradley himself thought of a genius idea. He asked people to set up a set in the middle of two streets, and began to speak to these people, just like Milk did 30 years ago. It was done that way and it worked surprisingly well, you could feel the catharsis when he spoke, the fire of anger was burning, it was extremely contagious... the only problem was that the cameraman accidentally took some of the exodus members Of course, in order to avoid trouble, I heard that they used computer technology to change the faces of these people in the later stage." The reporter of "Entertainment Weekly" gave a "tsk" and suddenly stopped talking.

At this time, the movie has entered a small climax. After three failures, Milk finally won the election!He is the first government official in the history of the United States to openly come out and win the election. He is an important milestone in the history of American politics and LGBT equal rights!

Milk, who became a San Francisco city councilor, quickly began to fulfill his campaign promises. Together with his team, he overturned the California Proposition VI that prohibited gays from working as teachers and other public jobs, and promoted the passage of the San Francisco Gay Employment Equality Act.

In this process, Milk gradually became a mature politician, and experienced the process from strangeness, friendship, disagreement to anti-purpose with Dan White, another important man in his life.

When Dan White was carrying a pistol, entered the city hall through the window, and walked towards the office of the mayor and Milk, the judge Franka Potente couldn't help but slow down her breathing a lot. She didn't expect Spielberg to The long shot was used to deal with this episode, and the documentary and epic sense unique to the long shot completely dominated her emotions, making her feel as if she was watching a real history.

This is definitely the longest long shot Spielberg has ever taken!Another judge from the US, Susan Kodak, was absolutely sure, and one of the best!Susan, who is both a producer and an editor, is very aware of the difficulty of shooting such a shot. Sure enough, Spielberg would choose such a subject and find such a group of actors, definitely not to make a mediocre work!Only with this long shot, no matter which year Spielberg chooses to compete for the Oscar, whether it is "big year" or "small year", it will definitely lock in a best picture nomination.

At the end of the film, Dan White killed Mayor Moscone and Milk successively, then went to the church to pray, and then surrendered to the police with a lawyer.

After the news of Milk's death came out, countless people drove to the city hall, and same-sex couples hugged each other wordlessly, watching Milk's body being carried into the car by the police, with one person's head resting on the other's shoulder, In the silent atmosphere, someone began to cry.

That night, Scott Smith and Milk's team led tens of thousands of San Francisco people, people of different skin colors, genders, ages and religious beliefs, gathered from various streets holding candles , walked down Market Street toward City Hall, where Milk's dreams began and ended.

Accompanied by Milk's recorded last words before his death, the camera showed the grand candlelight parade by moving and panning, and people were everywhere in sight. A long group photo, the trajectory of candlelight spreads over several blocks, and the parade is as wide as the street, so long that there is no end in sight.

"There was a young man in San Antonio who suddenly realized that he was gay, that if his parents found out, he would be ridiculed by his classmates and kicked out of the house, his choice was to never come out or commit suicide. Then suddenly one day, this The kid opens the newspaper and it says 'gays are running in San Francisco', so he has two options, one is to move to California, and the other is to stay in San Antonio and stand up and fight."

"If I'm assassinated, I want five, ten, 100, 1000 people to stand up. If a bullet is going to go in my head, let it open the doors of all the lockers where gays are imprisoned."

Thousands of mourners came to the square in front of City Hall. They either placed candles next to the Lincoln Memorial Statue, or held candles in their palms, and began to pray silently.These are the real pictures intercepted from the news in San Francisco that year.

"I want the movement to continue because it's not about personal gain, it's not about personal ambition and desire for power, it's about bringing hope. If there's no hope, we give up. I know you can't live on hope alone, but there's no hope , life is meaningless. So you, and you and you, we must guard hope and give them hope."

The picture was frozen for a moment in the candlelight all over the sky, and then it was pushed to a photo shop on Castro Street. The decorations on the street and people's clothes conveyed the information that time has come to the 21st century, but in that photo shop In the shop window, there is still the sign made by Milk: YES... WEARE OPEN (yes, we are open / out of the closet.)

Soothing music sounds, accompanied by images of real people from 1977 to the present, and lines of subtitles are drawn on the screen, describing the verdict and ending of the Dan White case after the death of Harvey Milk, as well as Scott Smith, Grace How Reeve Jones and others carried on Milk's legacy and fought for it.

The movie was over, but no one in the entire screening hall got up and left. It was not until the last line of subtitles at the end of the film and the credits began to appear that there was warm applause in the audience.

Dieter Koslick, chairman of the Berlin Film Festival, was the first to stand up and applaud, and then more and more people stood up, and finally turned into a standing ovation of the whole audience, and the applause lasted for several minutes.

This is the first time such a scene has appeared at this year's film festival.

At the subsequent press conference, almost all the questions from the media reporters revolved around the film. William and Leonardo used to be absolute superstars in the eyes of the media. The reporters would keep asking questions about their personal lives, but The problems they encounter today are all role-related. The halo of their works covers their superstar halo. There is no better proof of the success of the movie than this.

The famous German film critic William Faber couldn't bear the excitement. During the press conference, he had already started to write a film review in his notebook: "A great film was born at a great film festival."

……

"'Milk' shocks Berlin, Berlin cheers for 'Milk'!"

""Milk" reproduces the legend of a grassroots election operation in the 70s. Spielberg's semi-realistic video style and Bradley's perfect acting skills have reborn a great historical figure."

"The best director and the best actors in the world make a perfect biographical movie."

"'Milk' is essentially a political film."

"As a biographical film, Milk portrayed by Bradley is extremely charismatic, and it is natural for him to grow into a leader. As a political film, the campaign process is full of passion, and his speeches are even more inspiring. There is no doubt that if Bran Deli is willing to go into politics, and he can become the second governor of California, or even the president of the United States. As a gay movie, the audience can fully understand why a handsome man 20 years younger is willing to elope with Milk to San Francisco."

"Same-sex love is not the main line of the movie, but the love between Milk and Scott is particularly moving. Spielberg's skillful and restrained narrative style sublimates this same-sex love."

"Milk is not an inspirational biopic, but it can ignite the audience's anger against social prejudice. This prejudice has always existed in the society we live in, so the resistance of the group is all the more powerful. "

"From Oscar to Berlin, William Bradley once again demonstrated the great creativity of top actors. He not only played a gay man, but also played a politician. The swapped old fox, the complex and multi-faceted characters are as real as they are, which is extremely rare in movies of the same type."

"The ending of the movie is a typical Spielberg style, and the tragedy still has a tone of glory, inspiration, and optimism. Tens of thousands of people mourning for Milk, gathered into a river of light with mournful candles, quietly illuminating The long dark night, as if hope flows with time, to the present, to the future."

"William Brand uses impeccable performance to perfectly portray a heroic statesman. Milk, who has passed away for many years, once again conveys freedom, love and hope to the world through this film."

The above comments are only part of the reports of "Milk" by well-known media and film critics around the world after it was released at the Berlin Film Festival. There are very few popular exhibited films at previous Berlin Film Festivals.

Even the Berlin Film Festival magazine "SCREEN" not only put "Milk" on the cover of the second day, but also scored a high score of 3.6-although it is not the highest score ever, but at this festival, There should be no higher ratings than "Milk", because "SCREEN" adopts the media comprehensive rating system for the premiere movies of the day, which is divided into five levels, with a full score of 4 points, and a score above 3 is already a high-scoring movie , Sometimes a high-scoring film with a score of 3.5 or above cannot appear in a film festival.

The film critic William Faber said that "a great film was born at a great film festival." It is still reserved, and there are slightly exaggerated media, using four greats to describe "Milk": " Great festival, great film, great director, great actors."

Among various professional and non-professional media and film critics, Berlin Film Festival Chairman Dieter Koslick's evaluation seems to be the most prophetic. He said: ""Milk" will start from the Berlin Film Festival. , detonate the whole world."

I don’t know if it will detonate the world in the future. After all, it will take a while for the movie to be released globally, but in Berlin, Germany, and even Europe, "Milk" is the most famous movie recently, not one of them.

Fortunately, the position of chairman of the Berlin International Film Festival is only the organizer and manager of the film festival, and is not responsible for the evaluation of the awards. The chairman of the jury of the film festival is changed every year. This year's chairman is Roland Emmerich. Otherwise, some people will definitely comment that the award has already been determined by default.

However, in many predictions about the award, there are indeed many media and film critics who are optimistic about "Milk". On the one hand, there are not many excellent works in this year's film festival. , the German film "Sophie Schuller" and the South African musical "Carmen of Kayarisha" are some of the more outstanding ones, but they still cannot compare with the conquest-level performance of "Milk".

Another important reason is that the Berlin Film Festival has always favored political themes, which is well known, and "Milk" happens to be.

The three major film festivals in Europe were originally a product of politics. The earliest Venice Film Festival was founded as a tool used by Mussolini to promote fascism. The Cannes Film Festival was founded by Britain, France and other Allies to fight against Venice. , The Berlin Film Festival is a product of the Cold War. The purpose of its creation is to show East Germany and the Soviet Union what a "free world" is. .

After Venice and Cannes moved towards art and business successively, the Berlin Film Festival still maintains its own "political nature". This does not mean that the film festival is manipulated or interfered by politics, but that Berlin pays most attention to films that can reflect the current political situation. It doesn't matter whether the film's standpoint is Eastern or Western, mainstream or non-mainstream.

For example, in 1970, a film based on the Vietnam War documentary "OK" was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival. This film alluded to the real incident of American soldiers gang-raping Vietnamese girls during the Vietnam War.Judge at that time