"That interview was really good. I imagined what it would be like if I were sitting across from Mike Wallace. Although I would like to say that I would be as good as you, but my intuition tells me
I, I might sweat being asked by that old man..."
The American Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts held a media lunch a few days before the Oscars, inviting all nominees to come and be interviewed by the media.
This is a new luncheon, and it is also a new initiative of the new academy president who hopes to increase the popularity of the Oscars. For the first one, if many people can come, it will be considered a success.
In order to allow as many people as possible to come, the Academy does not limit the nominees of this year to come. Previous winners can also come.
Ronald and Diane came in casual clothes. Everyone was relatively relaxed on such an occasion. It was an opportunity for the nominees of this year to communicate with each other and to be interviewed if they wished.
The person who chatted with Ronald about the interview was Cameron. He felt that this kind of in-depth personal interview intruded too much on private topics. He didn't want his private life to be exposed to the public, so he had no confidence in Ronald's courage.
Still admire it.
"Who said I didn't sweat? Mike was really good. After I finished the first half of the interview, I even changed a shirt during the break."
Ronald partly said that he was nervous about this interview, and partly he was showing off in a low-key manner. Being able to appear for 60 minutes is also a kind of recognition from the public for a director.
"Ha, I wonder if it's possible for me to be on 60 Minutes... This kind of interview is completely different from that of entertainment journalists..." Jim Cameron had a rare look of envy on his face, and almost said, "I want to be on it too..."
"In fact, they will send invitations to potential interviewees every 3-6 months. If you go back and ask your agent, it is possible that he has just declined on your behalf. Hollywood generally refuses such interviews by default.
but……"
Ronald lowered his voice as he spoke, and then quietly said to Cameron, "If you get a Best Director nomination next time, I advise you that it would be better to do it the last time..."
"Oh? Why?" Cameron knew that Ronald would not cheat him, maybe there was some secret.
"It's very good for voting. The polling company I recently hired sampled formal members of the Hollywood Screen Actors Guild, and my vote rate increased a lot..."
"This is really unexpected..." Cameron was a little excited for a moment. 60 Minutes didn't have only one reporter. He would talk to his agent when he got back.
"Hi, Ronald, I watched your show. Your father and uncle are veterans of the Vietnam War. No wonder you were able to shoot that scene in Forrest Gump..." The person who also came to talk this time was Oliver.
Stone, who as a previous recipient was also able to attend today's event.
As a great director who became famous in Hollywood for his Vietnam War movies, he actually disagreed with the moderate attitude of Forrest Gump. If he came to film it, Forrest Gump would definitely have to curse the commander-in-chief at the anti-war rally...
However, as a director, Oliver Stone still appreciates the Vietnam War scenes shot by Ronald. Because he wants to show Forrest Gump's life, the Vietnam War chapters cannot be as colorful as his field platoon, and he can only select some.
Wonderful clips shown.
And Ronald used poetic film editing to connect scenes of peaceful patrols and sudden ambushes from the Vietnam War with CCR's rock songs, which was extraordinary from the start.
Oliver Stone has always thought it was amazing that someone like Ronald, who had never experienced the Vietnam War, could capture the look and feel of the Vietnam War. After watching the interview, I realized that it was because of his family and that his father must have
I often told him what happened on the battlefield that year...
"Yeah, this is a feeling. It's difficult for me to communicate even to people like you who have actually been on the battlefield. Only those who have experienced it personally, or have their closest family members involved, can we understand a few points.
I hoped this would be recognized by Vietnam veterans, and luckily I did."
"It's very good. I cried when I saw the scene where Babu died in Forrest Gump's arms and shouted to his mother to go home. Damn it, you kid took me back to the Vietnam War battlefield.
It's time..." Oliver Stone patted Ronald's shoulder heavily in approval.
This was unexpected by Ronald, "I thought you wouldn't like this movie. After all, Forrest Gump didn't make any anti-war declaration."
"That's not a problem. Your restoration of the Vietnam War is so real. Forrest Gump was like a rookie in the battle, and so was Babu. In the end, he paid the price of his life needlessly. But Forrest Gump finally succeeded in the military hospital.
I learned how to play table tennis. This is so true and ironic. Very few people know that most people in the US military work in the logistics department, and only a small number actually go to the battlefield."
"Ha..." Ronald Le said. Unexpectedly, Oliver Stone was still worried about sending a Yale student to the battlefield. The U.S. military does have such a tradition, and those in charge of logistics don't have to do it.
On the battlefield, after the war, they did better than the soldiers who went through life and death on the battlefield.
In 1946, just after World War II, the great director William Wyler made a movie called The Best Years of Our Lives.
The soldiers who lived through life and death had no jobs and could only work as bartenders in bars. After the original banker retired, he discovered that many veterans could not pay their home loans and were facing homelessness.
In the end, relying on his connections in the Air Force, the protagonist finally got a job dismantling airplanes before he could turn around and successfully marry his sweetheart.
Neither Forrest Gump nor Sergeant Dan benefited from their heroic actions. Forrest Gump was able to afford to buy a shrimp boat because of the endorsement income brought by his table tennis skills for entertaining soldiers in the rear.
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This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The last two people were still discriminated against by women standing on the streets of New York, but they can only gain social recognition after becoming successful.
This kind of description is especially appealing to veterans like Oliver Stone. It doesn't matter anything else, as long as it goes to hell to undermine the U.S. military and the government...
"I only took the photos based on the facts. These contents were all obtained from the interview records of veterans." Ronald couldn't stop laughing. He didn't expect that it would be so in line with Oliver Stone's preferences.
"Look at how corrupt the federal government and the military have become. Telling the truth is a huge irony for them. I like this paragraph very much..."
The two of them were going to continue to hack the U.S. Army together. Unexpectedly, Oliver Stone suddenly frowned, as if he saw a fly on the plate during the meal.
"What's wrong?" Ronald saw this and tried to turn around to see who made Stone so disgusted.
"Assxhole!" Oliver Stone cursed, and he pulled Ronald to prevent him from letting this disgusting fat boy ruin his good mood.
The person who walked in was his former "friend", Michael Cimino, who also won the Oscar for Best Director and became famous earlier than him, for "The Deer Hunter".
Since "Heaven's Gate" bombed at the box office, Michael Cimino has almost lost his qualifications to continue to be a director in Hollywood.
After several years of struggling to revise other people's scripts, work as a script doctor, or write scripts for studios, he later filmed a Chinese gangster story "Year of the Dragon". After being protested by Ronald,
After the event was boycotted, it also failed at the box office.
After that, he bounced around in various failed projects. He made two movies and was sued by the producer because the editing did not meet the contract requirements. The only time he had the opportunity to work with a star was Dustin Hoffman.
The story of a retired failed Tour de France rider who was fired for offending Dustin Hoffman.
Ronald took a look at this fat director who looked down upon him back then. Although he failed all the way in Hollywood, he still looked like an arrogant man. He even wore sunglasses indoors and held his head high, as if he was looking at everyone.
From under the glasses, a glimmer of gaze was revealed, passing over the proud chin and reaching the other person's forehead.
"How did you get involved with this person?" Ronald also felt sick, and his good mood was ruined.
"I'm blind..." Oliver Stone laughed at himself.
Last year, because of his love for talent, he also encouraged Mario Casal, the boss of Carloco Pictures, to help Michael Cimino fund the fat boy's ambitious "Conquering Horses" project. However, Cimino succeeded
He offended everyone, from the producer who helped him find an assistant to the casting director to the art director. They all submitted their resignations and would rather not get paid than cooperate with this bastard.
In the end, even Mario Casal was scolded by Michael Cimino. Casal, who was worried about the company's financial situation, fired Cimino on the spot.
This also made Oliver Stone, who was the recommender, very embarrassed. Just when he was about to communicate with Casal, Michael Cimino called Stone and scolded him.
This made Stone give up the idea of saying good things for Cimino and sit back and watch Cimino's failure without any psychological burden.
"Why would he do this? Doesn't he know who pays him?" Ronald didn't understand this man's strange operation.
"He was so difficult and arrogant that I don't know if he ever gave up. He never had the humility to accept reality, never. He thought he was the same Cimino who won Best Director for The Deer Hunter.
"Stone curled his lips, some people are so arrogant.
"Ha...", Ronald was about to say something. In fact, the Deer Hunter is also taking advantage of the time, and its real artistic value may not be very high. In addition, a lens that shoots dozens or hundreds of strips of film first, and then
Slowly selecting in the editing room will always lead to good working methods. If you are not afraid of losing money, you can still cut out a readable copy at one-third the industry average speed, but it will only hurt the production.
The filmmakers lost money and even United Artists, one of the top eight companies at that time, went bankrupt.
"Hey, isn't this Oliver?"
Unexpectedly, the fly came over on its own, wanting to make Oliver Stone angry again for not speaking up for him.
"The project that was abandoned by people with no vision like you and Casal has now become a film in the main competition of this year's Cannes."
It turns out that Michael Cimino's luck has struck again after he couldn't find a producer in Hollywood willing to finance his movie.
Israeli Arnon Milchan owned Regent Films and proactively contacted him, hoping to sponsor him to shoot a film to participate in the main competition of the European Film Festival.
Arnon Milchan himself has a Mossad background. Actually, he came to Hollywood to make movies not to make money or art, but as a means of penetration. In the very important film market, it is necessary to maintain some presence of Israeli Jews. Much
Make movies where Israelis are positive characters.
Because the filming rights for Cimino's previous "Horses of Conquest" were with Carloco Pictures, Cimino took advantage of his expertise in plagiarism and renamed the script "Sun Chaser" and then adapted it.
The background and characters of the story, with the support of Regency Films, actually entered the main competition of Cannes as a Hollywood entry.
Fat Boy Cimino's upper and lower lips were like a pair of sausages, and he began to talk about his own journey of filming Sun Chaser.
“When I was very young, I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the people of the Dakota Indian tribe, and I became so deeply immersed in their culture that, in a way, it became my religion—
A religion based on a very simple idea: a stone, a cloud, a rock, everything has a soul and is life.
My Sun Chaser is the true inheritor of Indian culture, and it is much more real than that fake Dances with Wolves..."
"Oh my God..." Oliver Stone couldn't stand Cimino's boasting anymore. Dances with Wolves was a particularly commercially successful film, reviving the traditional genre of the Western. Cimino's new film,
His usual procrastination and verbosity have long been abandoned by the times and are no longer popular now.
Oliver Stone stopped paying attention to him, raised his glass and signaled to Ronald, then turned around and walked away.
"Oh, this is not..." Cimino seemed to have noticed Ronald's appearance, curled his lips, and then raised his chin, preparing to say something to disparage Ronald's movie.
"My movie will go to Cannes soon. The people there know my movies best and they can appreciate the art of film best. If it weren't for the Chinese people, I think the artists in Hollywood would be extinct."
"Hey, you've shut down the only production company founded by artists in Hollywood where artists have the final say. If there is a lack of artists in Hollywood, I think you are the culprit."
Ronald looked at him and uttered something coldly. Ronald was not sure if Cimino still remembered what he said in a TV interview about the Deer Hunter making people sleepy.
I still remember. He also gave himself a nickname...
"Hahaha, what do you know about art? Look at Quentin this year. He won the Palme d'Or in China, and Hollywood has such high regard for him. When it comes to art criticism, Hollywood will always follow behind Cannes and Venice..." Xi
Mino was exposed, but he still calmly fought back verbally.
"So that's what he had in mind..." Ronald chuckled.
After all, Cimino is also the winner of the Academy Award for Best Director. He became famous earlier than Oliver Stone. Now he has to follow Quentin Tarantino in order to climb out of the pit and have another chance.
Shoot big productions.
If you want to win the favor of Cannes, of course you have to scold Hollywood. The harder you scold, the more Cannes judges will like you.
Seeing that Cimino continued to criticize him, Ronald didn't want to play with him anymore, "You'd better think clearly about what you say next. People have to be responsible for their own words and deeds..."
"Hahaha, who did I say, it turned out to be you..." Cimino took off his sunglasses, as if he had just recognized Ronald, "I didn't expect that you could make it this far. It seems that I was
I underestimated you."
"Maybe you overestimate yourself."
Ronald turned around with a smile. At that time, Cimino was the best director at the Oscar, but he was an unknown person. Time has passed, and now it is his turn to stand on the Oscar stage.