Directors
"This has been an incredible year. In the first half of the year, I never thought I would win a Golden Globe. Thank you, Nick, without whom this show wouldn't be possible; I know you are the best. Also, I have to thank Bill Murray. It's a blessing to be able to work with you. Of course, I also have to thank Tokyo. This city has contributed a lot."
After the awards, at the Golden Globes after-party, Levi's mind was still recalling Theron's grateful speech at the award ceremony. Theron's thank-you speech was well written, and Levi was pleasantly surprised by directly addressing Levi as Nick in her speech.
Theron obviously knows how her achievements came about, and she is also full of gratitude for Levi.
"In addition, I have to thank the producer, my agent for helping me, my friends for their support, and I can't thank my fellow South Africans enough. I will return to South Africa within a week, bringing the award back."
Of course, Theron couldn't thank Levi alone. In her speech, her words also gave the Golden Globes face: she specifically mentioned her South African identity to promote the authenticity of the Golden Globes. It is an international award. Her approach can be said to have given the Golden Globe a lot of face.
It's a pity that the Golden Globe Awards didn't give him that much face - he lost the Best Director and Best Actor, and the Best Screenplay was also snatched away by Soderbergh's Traffic.
The script of "Traffic" is admittedly not as good as Levi's "The Departed." However, "Traffic" is adapted from a British story, while Levi's "The Departed" is from Hong Kong. There is this difference. Levi still lost.
In the end, if it weren't for the best movie, Levi's film regained its reputation, and Levi almost thought he had been cheated by others.
But the good thing is this award is unparalleled.
"Best Drama Film, Nicholas Levi, The Departed!"
Levi clearly remembered that when he heard the award, he sighed in relief. This year's Best Director and Best Actor are both playing tricks. The Best Film award is almost the most important award. It didn't go to anyone else, so there's still much hope for Levi's movies.
"I'm very happy to receive this award. I have many people to thank, including the film's leading actors, producers, people who helped with the filming of the film, and most importantly, the screenwriter. Thank you, thanks for your hard work; this is a great movie."
Compared to Theron's, Levi's speech was obviously much shorter. This award has already received enough publicity. He didn't need to say anything more.
Winning the Golden Globe Award can be said to be the film's first achievement. However, this also means Levi's movie has to continue public relations - thinking of this, Levi couldn't help but feel helpless. He would have left here long ago if it weren't for public relations.
He didn't like the party after the Golden Globe Awards - especially today, after he won the best movie, he didn't know how many people were congratulating him. Throughout the evening, he thanked others for their congratulations. He was still a little dizzy until he found a chance to rest in the corner.
"Nick, don't be in a daze. Now is not the time to be in a daze. I just saw several judges who don't go out very much. Now, they are here at the Golden Globe Awards. You should go and make connections and contribute something to our movie..."
While Levi was thinking, Alexander had walked over unknowingly. Levi turned around and gave him a look and a wry smile.
He didn't expect that someone would still be able to find him when he was hiding, "Who said I didn't try to have a relationship? I was chatting with others just now. But today, it was obvious that my luck was bad. I wanted to chat with another director just now, but I was met with failure."
"You probably went to chat with Soderbergh, right?" Alexander asked with a smile.
Generally speaking, since the awards are over, people congratulate each other. Although everyone is a competitor during the awards ceremony, when the awards are over, there will still be opportunities for cooperation in the future, right?
But if it is Soderbergh, Alexander is not surprised that Levi is deflated.
"No, I didn't see him at all. What was he thinking? We are contenders for this award, but so is he. Why did he just leave?"
This time, at the party after the award, Levi was shocked to discover that Soderbergh, one of the biggest competitors today, seems to have left.
"Perhaps Soderbergh was unhappy when he saw that he didn't win the award, so he left first. After all these years, he still has the same temper as before, which is really difficult for him." Alexander noticed Soderbergh's leaving, and he also explained to Levi.
These words also made Levi quite sad: After all, Soderbergh is a person who makes independent films, and his temper will inevitably have some personality.
If he remembers correctly, in the future, this guy may even want to give up movies and become a painter. Such a temper is too willful.
Of course, as an artist, this kind of temper is good. However, as a director, an overly personal temper will also affect his career - movies are a collaborative work of many people, and it is impossible for one person to support them all. If you don't pay attention to communicating with others, you are causing trouble for yourself.
For example, although he has received fewer awards today than Levi, the Oscar's Best Director title still needs to be determined. If he is willing to stay, it may not be beneficial to him. However, he chose to leave in anger.
"I can understand Soderbergh leaving." Levi shook his head at Alexander's words, "But I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about Ridley Scott. Even though he just saw I was there, he didn't pay much attention to me, so I was more surprised."
Compared with Soderbergh, Ridley Scott has filmed many commercial blockbusters and is quite mature. However, he didn't give Levi a good look at today's banquet, which surprised Levi.
"Ridley Scott originally wanted to finish filming Gladiator, and after gaining enough trust, he would shoot a big-budget blockbuster of his choice. I heard that he had already found the subject matter, and it seems to be the story of the Crusaders...
Now that Gladiator didn't win the best movie, those film companies will naturally stop sponsoring him. Without sponsorship, his movie will be ruined. How can he not hate you?" Alexander explained, but it made Levi laugh.
Ridley Scott's big production is "Kingdom of Heaven," right? It was indeed a good movie, but he would probably lose money and die if he filmed it now.
Come September, and it will be 9/11. When a movie will be released that portrays Muslims in a positive light... It is courageous, but death is inevitable.
In this way, it can be regarded as saving him - Levi believes that as long as this movie is released in another time period, the reputation it will receive may be completely different. It's not a bad thing for him that he didn't get sponsorship.
It's a pity that this can't be explained... Levi just shrugged and expressed his helplessness.
"The best director is not given to me, so why hold a grudge against me."
"But the best movie belongs to us. Besides, you don't think that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can also win the best director at the Oscars, do you? After all, it is a foreign language film."
Levi nodded: Indeed, although Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is good, it is a foreign language film, after all. It can win awards in an environment like the Golden Globe Awards that cares about foreign language films, but that would not be easy when it comes to the Oscars.
At the end of the day, Levi has the upper hand in the competition for the award.
"Speaking of which, I remember you told me that after the Oscars, you are going to cooperate with Chinese directors to discuss how to shoot Chinese blockbusters. Now that Ang Lee is here, why don't you go over and discuss it with him?"
Speaking of Ang Lee, Alexander also remembered something. It seems that Levi attaches great importance to the Chinese market. He has expressed that he wants to develop there.
"Ang Lee is from Taiwan, and what I need to open is the Chinese market. He can't help much with the Chinese market. In comparison, there is a greater chance of using Hong Kong people to contact the Chinese.
Of course, it would be better to contact the director in China directly - maybe I should really discuss it with the actress from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As far as I know, she has a good relationship with some directors from China."
Levi shook his head and did not agree with Alexander's suggestion. But after thinking about it, he also came up with an idea: Ang Lee may not be very familiar with mainland China, but the actors in this drama are.
However, until this moment, he still hadn't figured out what to do in his heart.
Levi is very clear that the Chinese market will be huge in the future and may even become the second-largest ticket warehouse in the world. However, the next blockbuster era is almost inevitable if he wants such a development.
Although the movies produced during this period were indeed not of high quality, the scale of these movies opened the eyes of the audience and let them know that film could still be made with such significant momentum.
After the audience's horizons have improved, they will be able to pursue larger-scale movies when watching movies. This is also one of the reasons why China's ticket prices skyrocketed later.
If he were just a businessman, Levi wouldn't mind at all and would directly speed up the process - doing so would be beneficial to him.
However, Levi knew very well that this process was wrong: mindlessly pursuing bigness and spectacular-ness without sufficient film quality would only bring down the film industry.
Levi is not Weinstein, who goes wherever he goes with the mentality of making a fortune and leaving. What he thinks more about is supporting the normal development of domestic films, which is better for the film.
But how to do this? This is also something that makes people scratch their heads.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Scott DePaepe
MMMCMXCIX, or 3,999
Britanna
Marcelo Maia
Danny York
DragonEz
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