Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1432: Forrest Gump and Jenny, who share a spiritual connection

At Ronald's urging, distributor Bowen stepped up its efforts to screen the film, increasing the number of theaters from less than 20 to . If the box office remains strong, the number will be increased to more than next week.

In addition, Bowen invested a large sum of money in the marketing of the film. In addition to having one of the leading actors, Andrew McCarthy, and Tomita Tanling, two stars familiar to American audiences, promote the film in major media, it also used its overseas distribution relationship to specially arrange for the film to be screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain and the New York Film Festival.

With the Toronto Film Festival, where it was originally scheduled to be exhibited, and a Taylor Reid Film Festival in Colorado, the film is expected to receive some acclaim both domestically and internationally.

In addition, due to the limited scale of screenings in the early stages, the film was watched by Asian audiences, white people who were interested in Asian culture, or die-hard fans of Andrew McCarthy and Tam Ling Tomita, so the film had a very good reputation.

With such a foundation, and by expanding its screening scale in the next two weeks, "The Joy Luck Club" has a chance to become another box office dark horse.

……

"Mr. Li, this is the document that Mr. Lovett (Richard) personally asked me to show you..."

Ronald had been at home with his wife and children for two days. He felt refreshed as if he had been recharged. He did not go to bed immediately after getting on the plane. At this time, the flight attendant saw that the time was right and showed Ronald the newly published film review that Richard had brought over early in the morning.

Of the two famous film critics in Chicago, Gene Siskel liked "The Joy Luck Club" more and wrote some very complimentary words.

He praised the film for showing the true image of Asians, no longer the image of childhood violinists and spelling bee champions. He also praised the performances of the four veteran actors, who successfully portrayed the first generation of Chinese female immigrants and how the cruelty of life continued to affect the lives of their daughters growing up in America... Sisko gave a rare four stars to a film with Chinese as the main character.

Most of the other film reviews were A or B+. The main similarity was that they praised the film for portraying a new image of Asian Americans who are flesh and blood individuals with their own dreams and emotions, completely breaking the rigid collectivist image of Asian Americans in previous American literary and artistic works.

Only one critic, who may or may not be racist towards Asians, gave the film a C+, and that was Ty Burr from Entertainment Weekly.

His opinion is that the film "deals raw issues of abandonment, infanticide, suffocating maternal love, and self-esteem, packs a powerful emotional punch, and is incredibly faithful to the novel."

But the story is tired and preachy, filled with embarrassing nudity, bullshit dialogue, and all the white male characters are "betrayers."

Only the clips with Zhao Jialing and Lu Yan are truly cinematic, but they come too late to save the film.

"Put me through to Mr. Michael Gray..."

Ronald has become somewhat immune to this level of bad film reviews. This film critic obviously cannot understand the subtle expressions of Oriental people. He cannot understand many of the actors' facial expressions, body language, and the subtext behind their lines.

"Michael, yes, I saw it, we have to fight back against his film review..."

Ronald used a satellite phone to talk strategy with the marketing consultant. Such negative reviews actually had little impact on the box office. Firstly, he was the only one who was "maverick", and secondly, today's audiences all liked this style of movie.

But if there are negative reviews, they can be refuted again, preferably by Ty Burr, so that both sides can argue and more audiences can see the arguments over a movie with a predominantly Chinese cast, which can attract more people who are not in the scheduled audience group to enter the cinema and see for themselves whether the movie is good or bad.

The current counterattack against him is concentrated in two aspects.

First, you are completely discriminating against Asian culture, and you are looking at the issue from the perspective of white supremacy. The problems encountered by first-generation immigrants are very common among many immigrants to America, and they are not special. It is just that the film critic's arrogance has caused him to be biased against an unfamiliar culture.

Second, you are simply being misogynistic and don't understand the movie. The so-called exhausting and preachy movie is just because you missed the wonderful performances of the actors. The emotional expression of women is more delicate than that of male characters. Ty Burr is a typical arrogant white male who is always full of judgmental tendencies towards the way women think.

Michael Gray added a lot of interviews with director Wayne Wang and the actors, fully illustrating that the reason you think this movie is boring and dull is because you are too chauvinistic.

……

"Hahaha……"

Sure enough, this rebuttal article, published in the New York Daily News under the name of a new female film critic, really received a lot of attention from the film critics. Even Siskel and Ebert read a few paragraphs on their weekly film review TV program, making fun of Ty Burr, saying that he was not as good as an unknown female film critic in understanding movies.

Ronald did not continue to indulge in the joy of boosting box office sales through verbal battles. He rested on the set for one night and continued filming the next day.

"Robin, I'll clear the court. If you feel something is wrong, call a timeout immediately. We have prepared a lot of snacks and hot chicken soup there. Just go and rest and find the right state. OK?"

In a small local theater-style house, Ronald was about to shoot a scene of Jenny singing in a club.

"OK, the cold still makes me a little tired, chicken soup is really good..."

Robin Wright was wearing pajamas, and she was going to shoot a scene where she was naked and singing with a guitar. Of course, in this movie aimed at a PG-13 rating, there would be no full-frontal nudity.

Jenny sings folk songs with guitar in this place called club, but actually it is a striptease performance place, which is a symbol that she still has hope for her future. Playing with guitar is just used to neutralize the nudity scene.

"Action!"

Except for a few actors sitting in the audience, all non-essential people were cleared out of the filming area. On the stage, an actress wearing cheap and seductive clothes, holding her shirt off to cover her chest, walked down the stage under the lighting.

A host announced on the stage:

"Let's give her another round of applause. Next up, from California (praising Jenny), our rebellious girl, let's give another round of applause to this voluptuous beauty, 'Bobby Dylan'"

This nickname of Bobby Dylan is the famous singer who imitates folk songs and the author of the song that Jenny is going to sing, Bob Dylan.

This kind of inferior performance venue relies on the popularity of celebrities to promote girls who are actually engaged in striptease performances, and gives them various characteristics that make men itchy, so that they will obediently throw money on the stage and drink a few more glasses.

The curtains on both sides were drawn open, and Robin Wright was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed, shirtless, relying on a wooden guitar to cover himself.

"Oh ho ho..."

There was sparse applause from the audience, and most of the men in the half-filled auditorium whistled tacitly when they saw this scene.

"How many miles must a man go before he can be called a man?
How many seas must a dove fly before it can sleep peacefully on white sand?

Yes, how many times must the shells fly before they are banned forever?"

This scene was shot very naturally. Robin Wright herself has the temperament of a folk singer. Coupled with the makeup and hairstyle of the most glamorous bombshell female stars on the screen in the 1950s and 1960s, the whole person looks both glamorous and pure, giving people a contradictory feeling.

The audience members below were all talking to each other. It was obvious that the singing level was beyond their expectations. They didn't expect to hear real music here.

Robin Wright raised one of her feet, with her pink high-heeled shoe slightly loose from the heel, swaying to the beat, teasing the nerves of the audience below the stage.

Finally, when the third verse was sung, some audience members couldn't help it and started to tease Jenny with words.

"Hey, when are you going to put your guitar down?"

"Yeah, why not give her a harmonica?"

"Hahaha……"

The audience in the front row had spent a lot of money on drinks. After drinking quite a bit, their desires gradually overcame their reason and they began to tease with words.

"Hey honey this isn't Captain Kangaroo"

"Hey, honey, I got something for you..."

Finally, a drunk audience member escalated his verbal teasing into action. He took out a banknote, stood up, leaned against the stage, and stuffed it into Jenny's high heels.

"Cut!"

After taking a few takes, Ronald felt satisfied. Robin Wright also stood up quickly, put on the pajamas handed to her by her assistant, and went to the backstage lounge to drink chicken soup.

I haven't recovered from my cold yet, so filming nude scenes is really a pain. However, Robin Wright is not afraid of exposure. The script says she is completely nude, but in fact she is wearing only a pair of underwear and flesh-colored pantyhose. Under the lighting design, the general audience can't see it. She has protective nipple covers on her upper body, and only her back is completely naked.

"Next is the scene shot downward from the stage, Tom, you need to stand in that position..."

Ronald took advantage of Robin's break and immediately began to arrange the next scene.

This is a double metaphor. In the minds of the audience and Jenny, they know that this is not singing, but striptease. But in some uncontaminated place in Jenny's heart, in the heart of Forrest Gump who came to see her "performance", this is a performance of a folk singer.

"Very good, please stand up, Tom, so I can see you... The light here should shine through Jenny's blonde hair to form a contour light..."

Ronald gave orders to the director of photography, asking him to direct the lighting team to arrange the effect he wanted. A double who was about the same height as Robin Wright was in the original position to find the light for her.

"Action!"

Two hours later, the camera on the back started filming.

Robin Wright immediately handed the chicken soup to his assistant, rubbed his hands, and struck the same pose again. This time the camera shot from behind.

Jenny's naked back was full of eroticism in the dim light. A spotlight from the roof shone on her hair, projecting from the edge of her blonde hair. Coupled with the religious lyrics, the whole scene had a holy meaning.

There was another contradiction between the many male audience members in the audience, with their lustful eyes, and Forrest Gump, who was standing at the back of the auditorium admiring Jenny's singing.

In such a scene, the audience can easily feel through Forrest Gump's eyes that Forrest Gump and Jenny are in tune with each other but are both not able to adapt to the mundane world.

"Cut!"

Ronald captured the feeling he wanted, and the crew began to arrange the lights. The next shot was from Jenny's side and back, which was used to film the scene where Jenny had a conflict with the audience in the front row.

The continuous shooting lasted until late at night. After rearranging the lighting and adjusting the focus, it was already one o'clock in the morning.

Although Robin Wright had a good rest, she still looked tired. Her cold had not fully recovered, which made her very tired. However, for the filming of the movie, Robin Wright was still very dedicated. After putting on her makeup, she still sat on the stool holding her guitar.

"Action!"

"I have something here for you..." The audience actor stood up again and tried to stuff money into Jenny's high heels.

"Go away..." Jenny sang with the feeling of a folk singer. She felt that she was not here to be a dancer.

"Fuck..." The audience member picked up a glass of wine and poured it on Robin Wright's face...

"Cut, Cut..." Ronald stopped immediately. This time Robin Wright's performance was a bit out of place. She was not angry because the audience was touching her, but because they didn't treat her as a singer, but as a stripper. So she shouldn't have avoided the other's hand touching her feet, but kicked him in anger.

"Okay, I see."

Robin Wright understood what Ronald meant, but she still had to redo her hair and makeup after the wine splashed on her. The hairstylist and makeup artist surrounded her and took a full twenty minutes to restore her hair and makeup to their original state.

"Action!"

"Cut, Cut..."

When they got to the place where the audience stuffed money, Ronald was dissatisfied again. In strip clubs in America, the default rule is that you can look but not touch, and if you like it, you can stuff money into the dancers' clothes.

The action of this audience member broke this unspoken rule a bit. Audiences who have been to the club will definitely see that this is a mistake. The audience actually just wants to put money into the shoes and see "something more", not to break the rules and cause trouble to get thrown out by the bouncers in the venue.

However, Robin Wright's hair and makeup were messed up again, and Ronald had to wait for another half an hour. He thought for a moment, "We can just splash water on this one."

"Splash feet?" The actor who played the audience made a splashing gesture towards the stand-in's feet.

"Yes, the scene shot this way is more impactful..."

That being said, it was actually to reduce the time wasted on the heroine to repeat her makeup after being splashed with water. Anyway, the difference between the two shooting methods on the screen was minimal, so Ronald weighed the pros and cons and decisively prioritized cost.

Soon, the desired effect was achieved after changing the shooting method. Then, the shot of Gump rushing to the front and beating up the audience for Jenny, then jumping onto the stage and trying to carry Jenny away, and the shot of Jenny losing her job because of Gump's beating, and jumping out of Gump's arms and walking away alone were also shot.

Finally, the angle of the shot changed to one shot from below the stage, with Forrest Gump holding Jenny's guitar and rushing behind the stage to chase Jenny.

"Tom, Tom... let's run like Forrest Gump..."

"OK!"

In the next video, Tom Hanks resolutely hugged his guitar, then stuck his butt out and chased after her with a ridiculously clumsy pace.

"Cut!"

Finally, the long shoot was over and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The actors went to sleep first and the crew quickly packed up. The assistant director was checking the equipment list. Ronald was also one of the last to leave.

As soon as he got to the room, he fell asleep as soon as his head rested on the pillow. Tomorrow they would be shooting scenes from the Vietnam War, with many armed helicopters and large barrels of gasoline bombs...