Chapter 84: A famous Italian director with some circumstances
"The former governor of California and a former famous movie star announced his participation in the next presidential election." CBS TV station is reviewing the acting career of this Hollywood star with the same name as Ronald, and his journey after entering politics.
Ronald put down the pen in his hand, stood up, stretched, read the news, and took a rest.
On a CBS political commentary program, two guests were arguing about the prospects of running for office. After all, California is a base for the entertainment industry, and neither of them was optimistic that the former California governor could gain public support outside California and win the Elephant Party's primary election.
If a movie star could become the leader, wouldn't the other elites in America be ashamed to the end?
One guest was optimistic about a political star from the Elephant Party, a former ambassador to the United Nations and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Another guest favored the Don Party, stressing that it was extremely rare for the current leader to lose re-election.
Listening to the political commentary program, Ronald was actually waiting for the old movies from the classic theater. During this period of time, apart from the appreciation of classic movies, Ronald spent almost no energy on other courses. Anyway, his usual performance was passable.
.
After watching dozens of classic movies from the golden age of Hollywood, and then borrowing the scripts of several of them from Julia Taylor, Ronald compared the final movies with the content of the scripts one by one, and gained some perceptual understanding of how to write scripts.
.
Everything written in the script must be filmed in a way. You can't write "Adam saw the pocket watch left by his father and couldn't help but think of him as a kind man." The camera can only capture Adam's expressions and movements.
His thoughts and memories cannot be photographed directly. Even if the memories are shown in flashbacks, they cannot capture what it means to be a kind person.
There is a golden saying in Hollywood: "Show, Don't tell." This is the basic principle of writing scripts. To show a person's kindness, you can film him giving some money to a beggar, or helping an old lady.
Crossing the road, all of this must be written in the script.
In Scorsese's class, Ronald liked Billy Wilder's movies the most. Not only were the plots fascinating, but they often had several twists at the end, making them enjoyable to watch. It's a pity that his movies were shot early.
There was no script at the casting studio to compare with, which Ronald deeply regretted.
So after Ronald watched the movie, he began to write a plot summary. He summarized the plot of the entire movie in a few hundred words. This was also a way to train his script writing skills.
Two days ago, Scorsese showed Orson Welles' famous work "Citizen Kane". This movie has long been forgotten, and it was only in recent years that it was strongly promoted by director Peter Bogdanovich.
People in the film industry have re-recognized his value.
Ronald was very immersed in watching it. "Citizen Kane" tells a suspenseful story. A newspaper tycoon died and said the word "rosestai" before he died. The movie tried to understand the meaning of this word from different people.
true meaning.
The newspaper announced that CBS would be showing another Orson Welles movie "Touch of Evil" tonight, and Ronald planned to preview it in addition to the scheduled video.
"Ring ring ring..." The phone rang.
It was Julia Taylor from the casting studio.
"Ronnie, Endless Love has been taken over by PolyGram. Casablanca Records is completely out. They signed Italian director Franco Zeffirelli to direct. He will come to talk about casting tomorrow.
You come too."
The original producer, Keith Barish of Casablanca Records, failed to hire Paul Schrader to direct the film after all. PolyGram saw that they couldn't even get a new director who was a screenwriter turned director, so they simply funded the film.
Casablanca Records bought the film rights, then kicked them out and became their own production company.
PolyGram's idea was very simple and crude. Since this was a Romeo and Juliet-style teenage love story, they hired Franco Zeffirelli, who had directed the 1968 version of "Romeo and Juliet," to film it.
The wealthy PolyGram spent money on this Italian director. In addition to directing some movies adapted from classic Shakespeare plays, his main job is as an opera director. This is the first time he directs a modern drama.
Although the story of the novel takes place in Chicago, PolyGram planned to use a New York studio and a house on Long Island for the main filming location. Therefore, Julia Taylor's New York casting studio still got the deal.
Business.
Ronald promised Julia to rush to the casting studio tomorrow morning. After putting down the phone, the CBS commercials just finished and the classic theater program started.
The beginning of "The Beautiful Lady" is very attractive. The opening music sounds and the subtitles are flowing upwards, and the plot is also unfolding. A person placed a time bomb in the trunk of the car and gave a close-up of 3 minutes.
Then the car began to drive slowly among many pedestrians. The protagonist, a Mexican police detective, and his newlywed American wife were also walking around the car. Time slowly passed, the music gradually stopped, and the subtitles came to the end.
, there was a sudden bang, and the bomb exploded, killing the car owner and the beautiful woman in the car.
"The subtitles are not very good. They have just finished playing and the time bomb is about to explode. The audience actually received the hint that the subtitles have finished playing and the background music has stopped. They already know that the bomb is about to explode. There is less suspense and fright.
"Ronald wrote down his analysis in his notebook.
After watching "The Last Lady", Ronald was ready to take a rest. This movie was indeed a bit strange. The plot and editing were skipped in some places, and it seemed that many scenes were cut out.
Ronald had heard an anecdote told by Scorsese. In Hollywood back then, studios had the right to edit, and directors were often not allowed to enter the editing room. Artistry was not considered at all. The studio boss wanted it fast and what he wanted.
It is commercial value. Once it is cut, it will be released immediately. If it doesn't work, it will be replaced with the next one. The boss of Warner Brothers famously said, "I don't want a good movie, I want it to be released next Tuesday."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Fortunately, these old studio managers are all old and dead, including Francis Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Thanks to new directors such as Seth, Spielberg, and George Lucas, Hollywood now has great respect for directors' artistic pursuits. Who made the films produced by these directors who value art very popular?
…
Franco Zeffirelli is a little old man. He wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Thin gold chains are used on the temples and wrapped around the scarf behind his neck so that he can easily take them off and hang them on his chest.
It will not be lost before.
With his charming style and outstanding artistic achievements, Franco Zeffirelli also has many fans in America.
In addition to "Romeo and Juliet", his work that American audiences are most familiar with is Shakespeare's masterpiece "The Taming of the Shrew" starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
However, Ronald discovered that this little old man had a strange vision. When he looked at the photos of actors prepared for him by Julia Taylor, he was relatively normal towards actresses, but when he saw the photos of male actors, his eyes lit up and he even
I will slowly rub the photos with my hands.
This kind of behavior regardless of the occasion made Ronald feel a chill and he couldn't help but stay away from him.
"What do you think of the casting of the heroine?" Franco Zeffirelli seemed not to notice Ronald's little move, took some photos and asked everyone what they thought.
Italians speak English very well, and there is no accent. Franco Zeffirelli himself said that he learned English from a British nun when he was a child, and he also served as a translator for the American army during World War II.
Before the person in the casting studio could answer, another woman who came with her spoke first: "Please Franco, we can't choose Brooke Esquire to play the heroine Jade. Her acting skills are not good enough to play the role."
For such a complex role, there is no shortage of good young actors in Hollywood."
The woman who spoke was the first supporting actress decided, Shirley Knight. In the movie "Endless Love", she will play the heroine Jed's mother Ann. This role is a thorough liberal,
In addition to approving her daughter's relationship with her boyfriend David when she was a minor, she also tried to seduce David in the end.
Shirley Knight is a veteran actress who has performed in films, TV series, and Broadway, and has served as a producer for many television and Broadway productions.
This time, she was the first person PolyGram finalized, and she also intended to use her rich production and performance experience to help the producers monitor the director.
After all, Polygram was an outsider. When they entered the film industry, they were more or less seduced by Peter Gubel, the former director of the film department of Casablanca Records. Peter Gubel had a good relationship with Shirley Knight.
"What do you recommend? Shirley?" Franco Zeffirelli actually had his own considerations about the casting of the heroine, but compared to the male lead, he was not as insistent.
"I think there are many girls in Hollywood now who have superb acting skills, such as Jodie Foster who plays Taxi Driver, Bo Derek who plays Perfect Bo Derek, Carrie Fisher who plays Star Wars, and they also act in TV series
Deborah Winger and Jennifer Jason Leigh are all available for auditions."
In fact, this is not the first time Jodie Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Ronald have heard their names. They were also considered as heroines in the last movie "Blue Coral"
However, he later gave up because the director insisted on starring completely naked, and Brooke Shields was eventually given the advantage.
Although Hollywood is very big, big productions often pursue stable roles, so the roles of young girls come and go only among these people.
"We will send out audition invitations to them as soon as possible." Julia Taylor agreed, then hesitated and asked, "Brooke Shields, do you need to send out audition invitations?"
"Send it too," Franco Zeffirelli ignored Shirley Knight's complaints about her acting skills and decided to ask Brooke Shields to audition as well.
"As for the male protagonist, I plan to..." Franco Zeffirelli put on his glasses, found the direction of Ronald, deliberately looked him up and down a few times, and then said:
"It is better to conduct a selection audition for the society. This is the publicity strategy proposed by Gubel, CEO of PolyGram Pictures. Before the audition for the movie has begun, let the audience know that the movie adapted from the novel Endless Love is about to start filming.