Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1548 Unexpected Opponents

Sure enough, the seed that Ronald planted in little Bronfman's heart began to sprout and grow in his heart.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., true to his role as a nouveau riche with a bank account full of cash, contacted the Wall Street Journal again and accepted another interview.

This time, he first said a lot of good things about the Japanese, saying that he is a supporter of the Japanese business philosophy. The books he reads when he has nothing to do are "My Youth and Enterprise" by Akio Morita and "The Business Philosophy of Konosuke Matsushita" by Konosuke Matsushita.

He then talked about his desire to invest more money in the media industry, and praised Hollywood greatly, saying that his own brewing industry was a bit boring and not as exciting as the entertainment industry.

The news of this formal interview also reached the ears of Panasonic Corporation, and their impression of this prince of the winemaking industry suddenly became much better. They also felt that he was not the ignorant person they had originally imagined and was worthy of further contact.

At the same time, Ronald began his journey to various award ceremonies before being nominated for the Oscars.

The first award was presented by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Unexpectedly, Ronald's Forrest Gump lost all the awards, from Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture.

The Film Critics Association Awards usually announces the second runner-up in addition to the winning film. So after receiving the list of winners, Ronald was quite angry. His Forrest Gump didn't even get a second place.

Best Picture went to "Pulp Fiction," with "The Shawshank Redemption" second. Best Director went to Quentin Tarantino, with Robert Redford second for "Quiz."

The Best Actor was John Travolta from Pulp Fiction, and the runner-up was Morgan Freeman from The Shawshank Redemption. The Best Actress was Jessica Lange, and the runner-up was Jodie Foster. Even the Best Screenplay was awarded to Pulp Fiction, and the runner-up was The Shawshank Redemption.

This means that these two films won most of the awards at this year's Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards.

It is worth noting that the Best Screenplay Award for Pulp Fiction was awarded to both Quentin Tarantino and Avery. Ronald's previous offensive stance was still effective, and Harvey Weinstein had to add Roger Avery's name so that he and Quentin could share the honor.

Ronald was depressed and wanted to find out the reason. He spent a lot of money on public relations, so why did he fail miserably in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the earliest award of the Film Critics Association?
Michael Gray, Ronald's public relations consultant, rushed to Ronald's office after seeing the list of winners. He said that he had failed in his job and hoped that Ronald would help him find out the cause of the mistake and not fire him immediately. He did not want to end his work for Ronald with a big failure.

Ronald admired Michael Gray's professional ethics, but his statement made Ronald feel bad. Gray obviously said that he didn't know why such a big mistake happened.

Ronald waved his hand, indicating that he would not fire him. Ronald himself had participated in so many awards that he had long lost his charm about the process of producing each award.

This kind of local film critics award is actually selected by a small circle of film critics from several major newspapers in a certain city. The level of these people may not be very high. Maybe a very influential film critic will strongly recommend one movie and speak ill of another movie, which may cause such accidents.

In fact, this kind of award, whether it is the selection process or the frequency of upsets, is similar to the small jury system of Cannes. Cannes also often gives out some inexplicable awards. Sometimes the awards are not given according to the quality of each film, and they will also give an award to people who should have won in the past but did not win for some reason.

Specifically speaking of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, it is very likely that Harvey Weinstein paid more money than him and did a more detailed public relations work than himself.

However, no matter what, it is not right to end up with nothing. There must be something hidden behind this, and Ronald asked many people to find out what was going on.

This was really quite puzzling. Richard went to investigate but could not find any reason. This was also very embarrassing for him as a powerful agent of CAA. David Simkins, Ronald's script supervisor at Daydream Pictures, also relied on his good relationship with film critics to ask a lot of people. The answers he got were all that everyone thought Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption were easier to write from the perspective of film critics, so most of them voted for these two films.

In short, the news that the various groups of people got when they went out to gather information was either nothing, or some news that was obviously just perfunctory nonsense.

Ronald was not discouraged and continued to call his friends in the industry. Even Spielberg and Katzenberg, the two big bosses of DreamWorks, felt puzzled and just comforted Ronald, saying that the award from the Film Critics Association meant nothing and was not as indicative of the Oscars as the Guild Award.

Ronald also knew that it was unnecessary to worry about the Oscars now. However, there was an unexpected event at the Film Critics Association Awards. Who could guarantee that there would be no unexpected events in the more important awards of various trade unions?
Finally, after two days of worrying, an unexpected old friend told Ronald the real reason why Forrest Gump lost at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

“Roger, I have asked several important people to write letters of recommendation for you to the Oscars. You deserve an Oscar Memorial Award… In short, Francis (Coppola), Marty (Scorsese), Jonathan (Demi), Jim (Cameron), and Jack (Nicholson) and I will work together. The executives of the Hollywood Academy of Technology and Arts can no longer ignore your outstanding contribution to Hollywood.

The person who came to Ronald's house to talk to him was Roger Corman, Ronald's first benefactor in Hollywood and the man who promoted him. This time, Ronald joined a group of celebrities who had been favored by him and asked the Academy to consider giving him this year's honorary award.

"Ronald, you are always so kind to me, I am very grateful. It is the best compliment for me to be able to contact you at the beginning of your career." Roger Corman adjusted his glasses and said with a smile. Among those who have received his kindness, Coppola, Cameron, Ronald and Demy are the best to him and often ask him to play some cameo roles.

"But that's not why I came here today... Can we find a private place to talk?" Roger Coleman whispered.

"Of course, let's go to my study." Ronald looked at Coleman in surprise. The two went upstairs and entered the study with anti-eavesdropping facilities and closed the door.

"Have you been wondering why the Los Angeles Film Critics Association didn't give your Forrest Gump any recognition this time?"

"Yeah, do you know the reason?" Ronald was startled.

"Yes, they are going to give a special honorary award this year to one of your world-famous film critics in New York."

"Pauline Carr?"

Ronald was surprised. He didn't expect that this legendary film critic, who stood up for his fellow New Yorker when he was attacked by film critics after making his first two films, would ruin his own business?
Ronald is now very capable in the media world, and with Roger Corman's pointers, he knows where to go to get the information he needs.

After sending Roger Coleman away, Ronald immediately called his confidants, trying to figure out why Pauline Carr was against him and whether he had offended her unintentionally in some way.
However, these efforts did not have much effect. As a film critic, Pauline Kale had retired at the end of 1991, and she rarely wrote film reviews for the New Yorker magazine since then. This time, she did not make an exception for Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.

Therefore, no one in the media knew that she was going to be awarded by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Most of the film critics in New York had a good relationship with Ronald, and they had no idea why Pauline was dissatisfied with Ronald.

Finally, Ronald's people contacted several influential members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and finally discovered a reason that was not the cause.

The reason why Forrest Gump didn't win the award this time is because Pauline Kael pulled the "either him or me" stunt and said that she would give the honorary award to her. If she came to receive the award, then Forrest Gump could not be given any honors for the best film, screenwriter, or director.

"Why? I haven't offended her. My newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations have always been respectful to Pauline and have never said anything derogatory about her. She also has many enemies in the New York film critic circle. My media have always said good things about her. Why am I the only one and not her?"

Ronald thought about it for a day and a night at home, but he couldn't figure out why Pauline did this. After retirement, Pauline rarely went out. The award notice was mailed to her, and she replied by fax.

For the moment, there was really no way to call Pauline Carr and ask this 70-year-old lady the truth. It seemed that we had to wait until the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards to ask Pauline herself, who was also going to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Ronald, look at Entertainment Weekly...it has an interview with Pauline Kale."

Before the award ceremony, Ed Bastian suddenly called Ronald. As the CEO of the regional media group DDH, if he wanted any news content, it would be delivered to his desk before it was published.

But this time, he didn't see the interview with his boss Ronald until the Entertainment Weekly was published. He was so angry that he immediately hung up the phone with Ronald and scolded his assistants.

"Shxt, isn't it said that Pauline Carr lives a reclusive life and can't be reached even by phone?" Ronald hurriedly found this issue of Entertainment Weekly from his mailbox, opened it and searched through the table of contents. Sure enough, this issue contained an interview with Pauline Carr.

The title of the interview is "Entering Carl's Vortex - Eyes Staring at the Screen, Past and Present..."

Ronald was so angry that he cursed. He had so many employees and experts serving him, but he didn't even have a chance to talk to Pauline Carr about any misunderstandings. How could Entertainment Weekly give Pauline a long interview?

“This is not the best time to be a moviegoer,” Pauline Kael observed. “Action movies have taken over… [and] after you’ve seen the special effects, what’s left to say?”

At 75 and in declining health, the world's most fearless film critic still has enough energy to watch nearly every movie that comes out.

"Fuck, you have the energy to watch all the movies that are released, but you don't have the energy to answer my calls?"

The first paragraph made Luo An tremble with anger. The reporter praised Pauline Carr's courage and fighting spirit, which immediately made the saying that she was tired and closed the door to visitors after retirement a joke.

“There’s always hope, because film is a great medium,” Pauline Kael, who takes her privacy very seriously, said in an interview conducted mostly by fax machine.

She points out that even the bad movies coming out now won’t lose their audiences forever. “There’s something about the medium that’s going to attract people no matter what.”

"Oh, so it was an interview via fax..." Ronald's anger subsided a little, as this was consistent with the information given to him by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Now Pauline Carr was unwilling to talk to people on the phone, and if there was a request for communication, she would usually send a copy of her answer via fax.

Pauline Kahl was ruthless in her criticism of the movies released last year, except for "Wild Rivers," starring Meryl Streep, which she praised, saying she and her grandson enjoyed watching it.

This is actually also the "action movie" she just criticized. Meryl Streep plays a mother who is rafting with her family on the Mississippi River. Two criminals kidnap the family and ask them to slide into a more dangerous river area.

The mother played by Streep not only has to protect her family, but also has to try to break free from the control of criminals and lead everyone out of danger safely.

It's no surprise that Pauline Kael likes this kind of thrilling action movie with family elements. She has always liked movies that the whole family can watch together.

But then Pauline Kael surprised Ronald again by criticizing a family-friendly film like The Lion King.

“I didn’t go see The Lion King,” Pauline Carr said, before adding, “I’ve cut my ties with Disney.”

"Huh?" Ronald picked up the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards list and saw that Disney was not on the list.

"Pulp Fiction? I loved it... but it's so overrated, it shouldn't be taken seriously."

Oh, and now Pauline Kael is directing her criticism at Pulp Fiction again, but this criticism is a lot less severe than the others.

But if Pauline is criticizing all movies, why is she targeting herself in particular? I wonder what she said about Forrest Gump.

"What does she think of Forrest Gump?"

"I hated it completely," said Pauline Kael, citing Forrest Gump's many "Old Ronald-era (the first eight years of the '80s)" perspectives on the "rebel culture" of the '60s.

"Totally disgusting?" Ronald was stunned. Is this still the Pauline Kael who encouraged him to shoot a great era story?
"Pauline, Pauline, I want to hear in person why you say that." Ronald felt hurt, and he called his assistant and asked them to notify the Los Angeles Film Critics Association that he would attend their awards ceremony.