Chapter 104: The Cannes International Film Festival

The Cannes International Film Festival is an A-class festival with a long-standing international reputation, and its method of selecting films is also quite distinctive.

Over the course of two weeks, all of the competing films are screened across the festival’s twenty theaters. The organizers then evaluate them according to attendance and audience ratings before making their selection, ultimately choosing six films to enter the festival’s final competition.

The film The Drummer, co-produced by Zhou Ran and Chef Huang, was among the works being screened at this year’s festival.

After more than a month of publicity from Zhou Ran, Zhang Xiaofeng, Chef Huang, and the others, the film’s buzz had already been pushed to a fever pitch, and there was already plenty of discussion about it at home as well.

As a result, The Drummer had become one of the five most talked-about films at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.

That brought both advantages and disadvantages. The good part was that, because it had momentum behind it, they did not need to worry about attendance; people would come to watch it on their own, and there was no need to fear that the film’s obscurity would leave the seats empty.

But there was also a downside: if Zhou Ran’s film failed to receive any nominations or awards this time, it would certainly be attacked mercilessly across the internet.

After all, their publicity campaign had already driven the film’s popularity sky-high and raised the audience’s expectations. If the movie came away empty-handed, a wave of criticism would naturally follow, and being dragged through the mud would be unavoidable.

By now, Chef Huang had thrown all his attention into the film. He had even flown ahead of time to the festival city to wait there, afraid that anything might go wrong.

The Drummer was a somewhat art-house work, and such films are not usually favored by the market. They are not the kind of movies that can easily earn huge box office returns. If Zhou Ran and the others wanted to make a sudden breakthrough and become an overnight sensation, they would have to rely on this Cannes run to turn the tables.

That is the usual path for most art-house films. It is well known that film festivals favor such movies, and their chances of winning awards are far greater than those of commercial films.

Whether The Drummer would sell well was a matter for later.

For now, all Zhou Ran and Chef Huang could do was wait quietly for the two weeks of screenings at Cannes to end, and then see whether the official selection list included their film.

If they were chosen, that would be cause for celebration, because it would at least mean a nomination. If they were not selected for the festival, then they would have to prepare a public relations response afterward. Zhou Ran was also taking something of a gamble this time.

After all, this was his first time acting in a film. If his first film appearance ended in failure, it would have a huge impact on the reputation of his future projects. He could easily end up saddled with the label of a box-office curse.

And with Zhou Ran’s expensive appearance fee on top of that, if he were branded as a box-office poison, his path in film would probably become very difficult indeed. Other directors choosing actors would certainly have to consider his past results.

What was more, when Zhou Ran chose scripts, he could not simply slash his fee too aggressively. Cutting it too much would count as disrupting the market; if Zhou Ran reduced his rate that far, then other actors of similar status would have to do the same, or the imbalance in fees would become too great and distort market prices.

Because Zhou Ran and the others had already made such a spectacle of things through their early publicity, they no longer had any chance to handle it discreetly. They could only take things one step at a time.

And as soon as the Cannes Film Festival began, a wave of speculation swept through the country over Zhou Ran’s entry in the competition.

Everyone was eagerly betting on whether his film could make the cut and win an award, and opinions online were all over the map.

“What is this supposed to be? You’re a singer, so why not just sing? Why make a movie?”

“Maybe you should get your singing straight first. I hate this kind of person the most—just as soon as they make a little name for themselves as a singer, they jump straight into film.”

“Aren’t you even afraid of making a fool of yourself?”

“Zhou Ran, just give it a try if you want. If it doesn’t work out, come back and put out an album.”

“Ran! When is the new album coming out?”

This time, most of the comments online did not approve of Zhou Ran’s cross-over into film. The prevailing attitude was pessimistic, because people had seen far too many singers try acting and fail.

If Zhou Ran had just made a brief cameo, that would have been one thing. But this time he had gone straight into the lead role, and not only was it his first film, he had also thrown himself into a near-impossible challenge by entering a festival of this scale. It was hard not to look on it skeptically.

Even Zhou Ran’s fans, in truth, did not have much confidence in his decision to act in a film. To be blunt, they would rather he just release a new album.

Anderson Jien was one of the festival’s judging critics, and he was also a reviewer with a certain degree of international recognition.

His reputation, however, was not particularly good, because he was known for his foul temper and bluntness.

If Anderson Jien thought a film was bad, he would curse it out directly, no matter who the other party was or what status they had. And if someone offered him hush money, he would gladly accept it and then insult the film even more viciously, leaving no room for negotiation whatsoever. This had led to quite a few people in the industry disliking him.

But after learning all that, Anderson Jien did not care in the slightest. He still did things his own way. If something was bad, he would say so at once, regardless of whether the other party was some towering figure or a famous director.

This time, the reason he had been invited to the Cannes International Film Festival was precisely because the organizers valued this unfiltered, straight-shooting side of his personality and wanted him there as a judge.

Anderson Jien’s goal for this year’s Cannes was simple: start with the most popular films, watch them one by one, and score them. If anything was bad, he would curse it out on the spot. After all, he had the Cannes International Film Festival standing behind him.

The moment he arrived in Cannes, he headed straight from the airport to the screening hall. He was already itching to watch the films and begin reviewing them. When he looked through the festival’s screening list, his eyes landed at once on The Drummer, the film from China.

Anderson Jien decided to begin his first strike with this movie.

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