Hollywood Domination Chapter 287: Heroes make the situation

"Are you surprised to receive my invitation?" When Kenneth Branagh rolled his tongue on the screen and imitated the English accent of a foreigner vividly, Amanda in the movie theater knew He laughed and made a mark in his heart: The actor who plays Laurence Oliver is indeed quite good at acting. However, she quickly concentrated her attention again and devoted herself to the plot. Seeing Monroe's slightly parted red lips, showing a somewhat stupid look, Amanda couldn't help but shook her head, feeling a little emotional. I thought, "Although she is so beautiful, she is obviously not so normal-but, although she is not so normal, she is so beautiful. To a certain extent, this is worth it..."

Someone moved in the seat next to him, changed his position, and cleared his throat again. Amanda glared unhappily, and then complained in her heart: "The young people who came to the midnight show are of poor quality. Too low!"

As a housewife in a southern town with a family and a small family, the Midnight Show is almost insulated from her. This time I will watch the Midnight Show, and of course it is not because of her support for Jennifer. Although last year because of the phone recording incident, Amanda The bad feeling towards Jennifer was later diluted by time, but her political impurity still made Amanda, who faithfully believed in the education she received since she was a child and believed that Beijing is one of the axes of evil, feel emotionally. In addition to being estranged from Jennifer, she would not hate Jennifer, but it is impossible to say that she is a role model for the children as before. ——However, Amanda does not interfere with the children's preferences, and she will not admit that she is actually secretly paying attention to Jennifer Jefferson. At least she is the same as the children, knowing it immediately I got the good news that "Monroe" won the Venice Best Actress Award.

Since that day, Amanda has been in trouble: this is mainly because the report mentioned the passionate scene in "Monroe", and the children already know the movie and are eagerly looking forward to it. The day it was released in China. Combining the famous scandals around Monroe and the open age she lived in, Amanda naturally began to worry about the scale of the movie. And when the movie was rated pg-13, she knew she was unlikely to stop her children from seeing it (even in the most remote southern towns, parents can't fully control their children's actions, This is indeed a pity for Amanda), so she can only review the movie as soon as it is released to decide whether to find all kinds of excuses to hinder the children before the release date of "Monroe" A few weeks, when the discussion is at its peak - and while it's tantalizing to do so, because it's unrealistic to hope that the kids will forget about the movie after a few weeks, it's always the case with mothers, as long as it's for Children, then no matter how crazy things are, they will at least try it.

And if, at the beginning of the movie, Amanda still embraced this kind of condescending censorship, now that the movie has been running for half an hour, she has already let go of all worries and forgot that she is here. The original intention of watching the movie, but she couldn't help but fully integrated into the plot, she even completely forgot to taste Jennifer's performance in her heart - most of the time, she had forgotten that she was watching a movie, as if she had completely entered the movie. The world on the screen regards everything as reality. What's more, as the movie progressed, Amanda changed her perception of Monroe: Before that, her image of Monroe was very stereotyped, **** stars, private life chaos, scandals with the president, suicide, Material girls, these labels are all related to the social atmosphere of the 60s, and the beat generation. Of course, the beat generation does not actually have much to do with Monroe, but for Amanda, all these It sounds similar, but it feels like a group of degenerate men and women who use alcohol and drugs to destroy themselves and live a precarious life insanely, just like Monroe. Her sinful atmosphere, her mental illness also gives people a sense of innocence and self-blame.

However, what is told in the movie is another story entirely. The director did not shy away from Monroe's failure in acting and the fact that she was 'ignorant', but from the movie you can see that she In fact, the film uses very rich images and very clear and calm messaging to illustrate all aspects of Monroe's life: Monroe's own abnormality-from her sudden depression You can see the clues. The crowd around Monroe used and deceived her for their own benefit. Paula's pretentiousness, Paula's 'tutor'-style performance teacher's manipulation of Monroe, Arthur Miller's arrogance, and the media's aversion to the life of being Monroe's vassal, including his fundamental display The selfishness... The performances of these actors are so lifelike that Amanda can easily contact her acquaintances and give her a strong sense of substitution. She was soon completely attracted by the movie and felt the feeling of Monroe , at this moment, what she thinks is no longer "whether the story is true, did Monroe shoot it so well?", or she no longer cares whether the movie is true or not. As an audience, this is the last thing she cares about. What she cares about is whether Monroe can find a way out of her predicament, or whether this girl who is fundamentally very inferior and longs for love and support can be lucky in this situation she faces. Looking for a sincere feeling in a cold environment.

Amanda didn't know that she, who had a low level of education, objectively speaking, was not too developed in intelligence, had a narrow range of experience, and had extremely high moral values. Feeling Monroe's current situation so easily and deciphering the intention of the director team shows how powerful the crew is: the story has progressed to the present, and no one's dialogue on the surface has anything to do with Monroe's despair and loneliness. In fact, all the dialogues are emphasizing her importance, people's concessions and pampering to her, but even Amanda can see that people are not interested in her at all, what Lawrence needs is her fame and the most important thing. For basic acting, performance teacher Paula needs Monroe’s dependence on her, interest in method, and the high salary represented by these two things. Collaborator Green wants the style represented by the cooperation between Monroe and Lawrence, of course There are also huge profits. What Arthur Miller wants is a wife who can understand him and cooperate with his creation. Everyone expects to get what they want from Monroe, and they all expect Monroe to be as obedient as a doll , once Monroe can't meet their requirements, or just shows such a sign, they are frightened and frightened, and they always try their best to stop, intimidate or even hurt Monroe, no one is thinking about it. Monroe's thoughts, consider her appeal.

Of course, Monroe was not perfect, and she had no faults at all. Her mental problems and lack of talent were also mercilessly exposed to everyone. Amanda thought that Monroe was indeed very beautiful. No doubt—but she's also an actress without much acting talent, no doubt about that either. This made Amanda even feel a little embarrassed for Marilyn: everyone except her knew this very well, but everyone also knew very well that they must not expose this, so everyone was like Paula. Happily coaxing Marilyn, pampering her performance efforts - as long as Marilyn is happy enough to cooperate with them, then they will never care what the soap bubble will eventually cause after it blows bigger and bigger result.

"It can even be said that Marilyn herself understands this." Amanda thought a little sadly, "but maybe she can't face it at all, so she is afraid of the set and always late. Poor girl , her life is a mess, and perhaps among all the people around her, only Colin has the purest affection for her—although he is also a bad boy."

As a biopic, "Monroe" does not have a clear plot line, and of course there is no suspense, because everyone knows that Monroe must not be with Colin in the end, and "You Long Xi Feng" has also been filmed , and the response was not very good. This is of course also a common problem with biopics-because there is no suspense and less excitement, the average audience can easily get bored. Amanda is not usually the kind of audience who can calm down and watch art films. Among her favorite films, the most in-depth film may be "The Devil Wears Prada". However, today she entered Monroe without any obstacles In the world, there is no sense of boredom or procrastination at all, and he quickly understands the plot, and even begins to judge the characters: this is very unusual for an ordinary audience, because generally speaking, the protagonist Rarely a bad guy, Amanda will think Colin is a bad guy, which shows that she has started to think independently, which also makes her a qualified audience of art films, rather than the kind who have no brains and only bring Come on popcorn, any unsatisfactory shot, regardless of the director's intentions, will be savagely and badly judged as a 'bad guest'.

If a film critic who knows Amanda well enough and knows what she is thinking now, she might overturn the glass in fright, because Amanda is usually an out-and-out villain. For media people, it is equivalent to unreasonable and ignorant box office power. For example, Amanda began to criticize Jennifer because she praised Salvi for being handsome in the wiretapping incident and had an affair with a former model. Prejudice and disgust would be unreasonable for any enlightened adult, but she is so stubborn, what can you do with her? No matter how stubborn she is, she has money, and she is also a potential audience for the movie. You still have to earn her money. ——You should even be thankful that she is not so smart, because if her memory was better, and she remembered that "Monroe" was directed by the profligate model, Amanda might not have come to see it at all.

However, Amanda is indeed thinking and feeling now, and she has correctly understood the director's intention, at least part of it, and has become a good audience that any director dreams of. You can think, it’s not that you don’t have your own perception of life, it’s just that they may be picky, dull, or weird, only if you are good enough can you break through their defenses, arouse sympathy, and turn them from The unreasonable villains turn into bosom friends who are truly inspired by, moved by, and appreciative of movies...

"Colin is still a little young, chasing young opposite **** is his instinct, perhaps because the object of his love is too far away and too mature for him, so he wants to prove himself by pursuing Lucy It also proves that she has grown up.” In reality, Amanda would definitely disapprove of Colin and even disgust him, but at this moment, she understands and tolerates Colin in the movie. "This is a mistake that is very easy to make when you are young. Yes, he may regret it later, but at this moment, he must be unable to control himself..."

The plot line of "Monroe" is actually very simple. It can be summed up in a few words: Monroe came to the UK to film "You Long Xi Feng", Colin became the director's assistant, and got in touch with her. The filming process was not It went well, Monroe quarreled with her husband, got on badly with Laurence Oliver, and Colin gradually increased her contact with her—such a poor plot line is simply not qualified in general commercial films, because it simply captures But in "Monroe", the beautiful picture grabs the attention of some people, and the emotional line with a strong sense of urgency firmly grasps the hearts of the audience who are less aesthetically savvy, such as Amanda, her perception of beauty is relatively weak, so the beauty of Marilyn and the beauty of camera scheduling can't make her so fascinated, but the chemical reaction between Colin and Monroe is firmly grasped. Her heart, who has completely entered the movie, no longer thinks about the superb acting skills of the actors, but really treats Colin and Marilyn as two real people. "From the moment the two first met, there was an obvious attraction, Colin and she resonated, and as for Arthur, it was an unhappy marriage, the two couldn't even communicate, and they lived in different lives. In this world, Arthur took a fancy to her appearance and naively thought that she was talented enough to understand him, while Marilyn, who had no talent herself, admired Arthur very much and naively thought that he could take good care of her. What they want is completely different, they are all asking each other for something that person does not have..."

Although she realized that she was hoping that Marilyn would break through the constraints of marriage, Amanda did not feel any moral guilt. My own changes, still immersed in the story, sad to see Arthur and Marilyn being recognized by fans during an outing, ruining a good afternoon.

"It's always like this," Marilyn complained to Arthur, but her tone was not too troubled: before this, Marilyn had just seen her performance in the film, and that was far from being Perfect. Therefore, now she especially needs the affirmation and admiration of others. These infatuated movie fans just meet her needs. Her originally light and melancholy expression has been stretched out. There is no line, but it perfectly embodies Marilyn. mental activity. "We can't let us have a moment of peace."

And Arthur? He seemed to be completely unaware of his wife's true thoughts. The word "Patience" was written on the corners of his eyes and brows—it was obvious that his temper was reaching its limit, and this sensitive and extreme writer had been holding his temper. Accompanying Marilyn, taking care of her fluctuating temper, and some mediocre but unwilling to be mediocre tossing, he seemed to be unaware of Marilyn's expression of "I am sorry but I am really happy", but it was flat and somewhat Sighing impatiently, he didn't answer his wife at all.

Marilyn's expression darkened, and she glanced at the camera—the fan's angle, the long eyelashes casting heavy shadows on that beautiful face, which set Amanda on fire. There was a deep anger: Although it is fair to say that Arthur has been wronging himself to cooperate with Marilyn, the incomprehension between Marilyn and him is mutual, but Arthur, who is mentally stable and talented, and his spirit Among the unstable, inferior and fragile Marilyn, her balance is naturally inclined to Marilyn-if you can't care for her and understand her, then why do you marry her? Although smarter than Marilyn, there is no doubt that Arthur Miller is a selfish ghost. Marilyn has been afraid of causing trouble to those around her (although it has not been effective due to many complicated factors), but everyone knows , her heart is good, she has been fighting against herself, and Arthur, he may feel that he has been begging for perfection, but in fact, his contribution to this relationship can be said to be so little that there is almost nothing, and some are just for The pursuit of beauty and vanity - a world-renowned **** beauty, unexpectedly chooses the humble him among thousands of choices, Arthur just can't resist this temptation.

When the plot reaches this point, a derailment seems inevitable, but Amanda has no resistance and criticism, and even forgot to measure whether this movie is suitable for her too young daughter. When Lin met Marilyn who was sobbing alone, she was fascinated by the chemical reaction between the two: without saying a word, the communication and subtext based on eyes and expressions are the focus of this play, whether it is Marilyn or Colin , no one spoke, Marilyn stood in the middle of the cleaning room where she was crying secretly, staring at Colin with tears, and Colin also looked at her helplessly and tenderly, whether it was Colin, Marilyn, or Amanda They all understood the meaning conveyed by this silent communication—Colin, who had already observed the conflict between Arthur and Marilyn, fully understood why Marilyn was crying, and Marilyn also understood that Colin understood, she understood Colin's heart The care for her and the tenderness he dared not say, and Colin also understood that Marilyn cherished his care, and this cherishment was not because of the difference in their identities, nor because she was famous all over the world. Big man, diminished by his being nobody, his affection was precious to her, something she could not always have.

Although Arthur is upstairs and it is night now, it is not convenient to speak, but through this silent communication, Marilyn still seems to have absorbed a certain amount of strength. , The almost collapsed expression also disappeared, she turned her hands away, and wiped her nose somewhat rudely——The innocence was revealed again inadvertently, and Colin's eyes became softer, and he couldn't help showing a smile——

"Marilyn!" Arthur suddenly appeared on the stairs, breaking the magic spell, Colin took a step back in shock, looked back at Arthur, and Arthur's footsteps also stopped, He looked at Colin with some doubts, as if realizing something was wrong—as the rhythm of the soundtrack became tighter, Amanda also tensed up like Colin: There is no doubt that if Arthur is furious now, Marilyn will definitely It will be unbearable, and at this moment, Amanda has long forgotten that she doesn't take Marilyn Monroe seriously. She hopes from the bottom of her heart that Marilyn will not be hurt again, and that she will not be taken away. A little bit of warmth...

It was another silent exchange. Colin's expression was guilty and stubborn, while Arthur was puzzled and thoughtful. His eyes went back and forth between Colin and the direction of the door several times, as if he finally let go of his doubts. ——There is even a hint of humor: this is just a brat, what does he know? How could Marilyn have liked him?

"Marilyn," he ignored Colin, but went down the stairs and into the room, and said softly, "Honey, it's time for you to sleep, you always think too much, you know I That's not what it means..."

The camera here is a close-up of Colin, and Arthur only has his voice on the scene. However, hearing his insincere, purely perfunctory relief, Colin's expression changed several times: anger, helplessness, sadness, all kinds of things. Complicated emotions flashed across his face, and it seemed that he was about to erupt in the next moment to protest Arthur's bullying of Marilyn, but when Arthur half forced and half pushed Marilyn out of the When he was pulled out from the cleaning room, he took a step back instinctively, watching Marilyn being carried up the stairs by Arthur.

"Ah..." Amanda couldn't help but sighed for a long time, she even felt the moisture in the corner of her eyes, and this sore feeling, when she saw Marilyn quietly turning her head back, feeling affectionate towards Colin After showing a grateful smile, it actually turned into tears and flowed down quietly.

There are not many new ideas in the story of this movie, everything is expected, at least for Amanda, Arthur finally left London and returned to the United States to find his own creative space, No longer staying with Marilyn, and as the filming didn't go well, Lawrence became more and more intolerable for Marilyn's methodical approach-of course, Marilyn didn't perform so well, but his reaction was completely ungentlemanly In the face of the enormous pressure he brought, Marilyn began to suffer from insomnia and drug use, and Colin was sent to ease her emotions: those goblins have already seen that there is something unusual between Colin and Marilyn .

When Marilyn, who was wearing thin spring clothes and was still hazy, sat up halfway, she relaxed her guard after seeing him clearly, and smiled slightly. Amanda and Colin melted into this smile together, and Marilyn's The childishness is fully revealed, and her fragility makes this trust even more valuable. Colin seems to have entered a beautiful dream. In the dream, he has the opportunity to be close to Marilyn, to comfort her pain, and She hugged and fell asleep. All the harm from the outside world seems to be locked out of the door. Milton Green's knocking and roaring can't disturb his current emotions at all. Instead, it becomes a wonderful accompaniment. The world is concentrated in this desk lamp Within the range of the light, Marilyn Monroe was half asleep and half awake in his arms, her eyes were half closed, and she glanced at the door from time to time—she also heard the knock on the door, and she looked at the person outside. The ignorance of the world also made her secretly happy, and even amused her.

"When I was very young, I also had such a room." She adjusted her position in Colin's arms, and talked about her past without any excess, "I was in a boarding school at that time, Living with a bunch of grumpy nuns..."

Accompanied by her narration, a group of montages were superimposed in Colin's head: a little girl was running in a dilapidated and gloomy charity school, followed by several middle-aged nuns in ragged clothes and fierce expressions , she ran into the cleaning room in a panic, closed the door and locked it, found a place on a dirty sofa, hugged her knees, watched the door banging with satisfaction, with a contented look on her face Smile...

The little girl's face gradually overlapped with Marilyn's, and the magnificence around her seemed even more unreal. Marilyn also seemed to share his imagination with Colin. She looked at the room with a smile, Listening to Milton Green's shout, he showed a mischievous smile again, and after looking at Colin, both of them laughed at the same time...

The story has progressed to this point, and nearly an hour has passed before Colin and Marilyn finally went from acquaintance to acquaintance, and gradually to love. It can be said that the pace is slow, but Amanda is not impatient at all. , on the contrary, a dreamy smile appeared on her lips, seeing the exchange of eyes between Colin and Marilyn, seeing Marilyn's lazy and frank smile in front of the camera... Her heart seemed to follow Together with Colin, they flew into that little paradise.

In the small town where Amanda lives, there is only one movie theater in the whole city, and the facilities are a bit old. The attendance rate is quite high, it can almost be said that it is barely full, and no matter what the purpose is, no matter what emotion they are in, the audience has remained silent until now, and no one got up to go to the toilet. Even the annoying ghosts around Amanda no longer cleared their throats, as if they were all attracted by some element of the movie and threw themselves into the screen...

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"The data of the midnight show has been returned." Just as Amanda and her "film friends" were attracted by the strongest Christmas blockbuster this year, the data was transmitted through the network cables laid out across the country. The stream is being transmitted, calculated, checked and pushed quickly, and finally turned into a definite data, which is sent to the ears of subscribing customers. Thanks to the advancement of technology, the popularization of computers, and the launch of a new ticketing system, at the end of 2008, there is no need to wait until the next morning for the results of the midnight show. Data experts capture the comparative values ​​of key theaters and total box office, I have calculated a set of formulas, as long as I have counted the box office of the midnight shows of AMC theaters (15 minutes after the opening of the midnight shows, the ticket sales will be settled in real time and fed back to the headquarters terminal), and the national midnight show box office can be calculated according to the formula. The error value is quite small. If you are lucky, if it does not exceed 11 o'clock, people can know whether the actual box office of the movie is consistent with the pre-release prediction.

The data of "Monroe" is a little slow to return. It is speculated that the on-site sales are relatively hot and the flow of people is large, which leads to the delay of the statistical work of AMC staff. The data has also been calculated, and the statistical agency is very generous. A high-level person called to inform the result. "17 million, an almost unbelievable number, if the final calculation is correct, it will directly enter the second place in film history, only inferior to this year's "Dark Knight"...Of course, if the final verification result is 17 million is still low... ..."

The midnight box office of "The Dark Knight" was 18.5 million, surpassing the previous overlord "Revenge of the Sith" with 16.5 million, and became the king of the midnight box office. The tentative result of "Monroe" was 17 million. The ambiguous number, jumping up, may break the record and create a miracle for the second time this year, suppressing "The Dark Knight", and if the revised result is lower than 16.5 million, it will only be ranked third. Return the runner-up spot to Revenge of the Sith. But in any case, for a literary film—with such a box office, in fact, "Monroe" can no longer be called a literary film—for such an Austrian film, this box office is still unbelievable. In the category of film, it must be unprecedented, no matter how you calculate it, it is destined to break a long list of records, monopolize all the scenery at the end of this year, and completely suppress the rest of the competitors—— —And this midnight show also means that "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has lost its last chance to create a box office miracle and turn around.

Although this news can make many people exclaim, Harvey Weinstein foresaw this result about an hour ago: After observation, he found that the live ticket sales of midnight shows are often relatively mediocre. This is a box office market that focuses on fan pre-orders. Sometimes the box office can be roughly inferred from the booking results. If the figures return slowly, it means that a large number of passer-by audiences who have not made a reservation also come to buy tickets to watch movies. This is very important for the box office. Of course, it is an extremely positive signal-no matter what the reason or which factor is, it seems that this movie has the potential to attract the public. If the quality is not very bad, the subsequent box office trend should not be too bad. And "Monroe"'s original booking numbers were very optimistic, and the box office returned so slowly, it can be seen that the box office of the midnight show was only better than expected-although the final number still made his brows twitch, but generally speaking , His tone is still very stable.

"I see," he said, "thank you, Rudd, for thinking of this for me so late, and I owe you one thing—to have dinner another day, and let me uncork a nice bottle of wine. "

"Of course I won't take advantage of you." Lude laughed happily on the other end of the phone. Obviously, he thought that Weinstein would be in a good mood because of this matter-of course, Lude would be so It’s not unreasonable to guess, because the relationship between Big Dream and Weinstein Films has always been relatively close to outsiders, and there are even cross-shareholdings, “But then again, Harvey, this box office? This is the first time I have seen such terrible data in many years. It seems that she is even more sellable than the real Marilyn Monroe. Those old men in the college will definitely be shocked? Should I be in advance? Congratulations to you and Jennifer? The third Academy Award for acting - I never dreamed it would come so early!"

Understanding that Lude completely misunderstood the reason why he cared about the box office, and thought that Weinstein Films was cooperating with Dameng for the Olympics. Laughing, "Lude, this season I'm focusing on Kate Winslet..."

Of course, Lude was shocked by the news. He was a little overwhelmed by the news. He who was talking and laughing immediately became stuttering and incoherent, as if he didn't know what to do. Harvey also had to be patient After saying a few words to Lu De to convince him that he was not angry, he hung up the phone and stared at the computer screen to meditate—the impact of the midnight box office on him was not just the slightest bit he showed, he had to Take a certain amount of time to digest and absorb, in order to make the most favorable decision.

His glamorous new wife, Georgina Chapman, swayed at the door, but she wisely did not disturb Harvey's thinking, and quickly turned away, and Harvey did not ask her why she came: Georgina definitely It was to urge him to go back to the bedroom to rest, but how could he be able to sleep now? What Lu De said just now is correct, this box office? This performance? And the contacts Sidney Pollack left for her? He has to think about it...

'Bell——'

A shrill phone ring interrupted Harvey's thoughts, and he scanned the screen with some unhappiness—and almost immediately, the unhappiness disappeared, and Weinstein's eyes widened in surprise: Jennifer Jay Fossen? What is she calling so late? ——And how come the timing is so accurate? Not long after Lu De put down the phone, she called?

"Jennifer," in a flash of thought, Harvey didn't keep the other party waiting too long, and quickly answered the phone, and greeted with a hearty smile, "Why, do you still remember me? I thought you didn’t consider me a friend anymore—all Hollywood is talking about your marriage to Cesare, but I haven’t received an invitation, girl, I think you have to give me an explanation..."

Jennifer Jefferson's elegant and soft laughter came from the other end of the phone. This girl who just contributed the most acclaimed performance in her career was praised to the sky by all the film critics and won a Venetian silver medal. The female movie star of the Lion Award still sounds as low-key and calm as before. She seems to have been prepared for Harvey's temptation, "Harvey, are you scaring me——If you will listen to rumors of marriage, You should have broken up with me more than ten times."

No positive answer, it seems that she and Cesare Vigeri are really married... It is not difficult to understand, judging from the shareholding change sent by Dameng, Jennifer now owns all of the Super stock, Vijay also officially resigned from caa to enter the big dream, marriage is indeed a means of laundering money, um, political marriage, maybe this will be a point that can be used...

Calculating and analyzing Jennifer's tone and words quickly in his heart, Harvey laughed on the surface, "Really? Well, it's my fault, but if it wasn't for giving If I send an invitation, Jennifer, why are you calling so late?"

Jennifer smiled leisurely on the other end of the phone. Harvey didn't like her confident attitude—it even gave him a vague sense of ominousness, making him feel as if he had fallen into an absolute disadvantage .

"Of course it's for the Oscars, dear Harvey," after laughing, Jennifer said in a relaxed tone, as if she didn't even know that she had made Harvey's forehead sweat. "Of course it's because of your plan to let Kate support the role of reporting to the owner, dear Harvey, besides this, what else can I do to disturb your peace on such a beautiful night..."