Chapter 334 Version 20

After sitting down, Scorsese did not talk about "Shutter Island", but first praised "Springtime for the Cowboys" and praised that the Berlin Film Festival awarded "The Best Film of the Jury" to "Springtime for the Cowboys" It is well deserved.

Zhou Yan has only watched Scorsese's movies before and doesn't know much about Scorsese's character, so he can't tell whether Scorsese is being sincere or just being polite.

But no matter what, since Scorsese praised him, he will also engage in a wave of commercial mutual praise.

Then he praised several movies that Scorsese had already made, especially the two movies "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas".

"I don't remember where I read an article. There is a paragraph in it that says that when a killer takes revenge on the structure that oppresses him, the explosive violence will have a positive effect on him."

"I think the film Taxi Driver takes advantage of this element and puts it at the forefront of the audience's attention. Violence is the only way for the protagonist to express himself, and he cannot transcend the obstacles that prevent him from seeing and sensing. Obstacle, when he exploded, this explosion was the only way he could express his existence to the city..."

Scorsese thought Zhou Yan was just saying polite words at first, but after he heard Zhou Yan's evaluation of "Taxi Driver", he actually felt a sense of sympathy.

When directors direct a movie, they want to express a variety of emotions, some of which they express purposefully, and some of which happen without purpose.

There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people, and this applies to the evaluation of any work of art.

After the creator presents his work, it is no longer something unique to the creator, but something that is exposed to the public perspective and analyzed and understood by the audience in various ways.

What it specifically expresses is no longer up to the creator himself.

For example, "Borrowing Cucumber" composed by Zhou Yan, the public generally feels that it is a song praising innocent love. This cannot actually be regarded as a misunderstanding by the audience, because it is no longer important what Zhou Yan wants to express when creating, but the audience is what matters. What did you understand from it.

Some creators, when they see others analyzing their works, say that they don’t think so.

But from the audience's perspective, it's "I don't want you to think, I want what I feel."

Idealists say that the audience is the largest.

What Zhou Yan just said actually belongs to the latter. These things are not what Scorsese deliberately wanted to express when he created it.

But Scorsese quite agrees with it, because although this was not something he expressed purposefully, it was still what he was thinking, but at the moment of creation, he didn't know exactly what he was thinking.

When the creator looks back at his work, he has changed from the identity of the creator to the audience, and his perspective will also change. The change of identity will also cause different feelings.

What Zhou Yan said coincides with Scorsese's feelings watching "Taxi Driver" when he was the audience.

When the movie "Taxi Driver" was made, Scorsese had already made his debut for almost ten years, but this movie can be regarded as his early work, and this movie also won the Palme d'Or, which is very important to him. It has a very special meaning.

When a director looks back on his early works, he will definitely find many shortcomings, mostly technical. But you often find that you have lost something, and these lost things can never be recovered.

As people age, they undergo changes that are irreversible. Things that can no longer be reproduced become particularly precious.

Seeing Zhou Yan talking freely, Chris also said next to him, "Mr. Scorsese, when Y handed us the script of "Shutter Island", he highly recommended you."

Chris' words helped Zhou Yan prove that he really admired Scorsese, and he successfully changed the topic to "Shutter Island". After all, that was why they met here today.

Scorsese pushed up his glasses and said to Zhou Yan with a smile, "Thank you for your recommendation. The script of "Shutter Island" is so well written. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the best script I have seen in recent years." Script. When I was reading the script, I had been waiting for the final ending, because I had a hunch that the ending would definitely surprise me. It turned out that my hunch was right, and the ending did give me a big surprise. The structure of the story is perfect, and the details are handled very well. The story takes the reader into a mess of threads, making the audience want to untie the threads, but in the end they find that the threads are not messy at all, and they unfold with just a slight pull. ”

"Thank you for your compliment. The script is just the beginning. The final presentation of the movie still depends on your hard work."

"This is our job." Scorsese smiled, and then asked, "I heard Chris say that you recommended three actors to play the protagonist, namely Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis Leith and Tom Hanks?”

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, I did recommend these three actors, but these are just recommendations. It's up to you to decide who to use in the end. I won't have any objections."

This statement made it very clear that he would not interfere with Scorsese's work.

Scorsese was not worried at all about Zhou Yan interfering in his work. Instead, he asked him very seriously, "Who do you think is more suitable among these three actors?"

Zhou Yan looked at Scorsese and saw that he didn't seem to have any other intentions, so he said, "If I were to rank them, Bruce Willis would be first, Kevin Costner would be second, and Tom Hanks would be third."

Hearing Zhou Yan's ranking, Scorsese laughed, "We both have similar opinions."

Scorsese's ranking was different from Zhou Yan's, but Bruce Willis was always first, just the second and third were in different orders, but the second and third didn't matter, because as long as they thought the most suitable actors were the same, that would be fine.

And Scorsese also made up his mind to invite Bruce Willis to star in this movie.

"What about the attending physician and the main doctor of the protagonist?" Scorsese asked again.

Zhou Yan shook his head, "I don't have any idea about these two roles. In fact, I don't know much about the actors in the United States."

This was half true and half false. He certainly didn't know as much about American actors as he did about Chinese actors, but he had an impression of any famous actors, otherwise he wouldn't have recommended three candidates at once.

Scorsese felt a little regretful. Although he might not necessarily follow Zhou Yan's ideas, he still wanted to hear Zhou Yan's ideas as a screenwriter. Screenwriters are the first creators, and their ideas are very important.

In fact, Scorsese also found that Zhou Yan was a little conservative when talking about casting, and seemed reluctant to express his true opinions. This may be a statement, or it may be Zhou Yan's personality.

Scorsese has not worked with many Asians, and even fewer pure Chinese. There is no Chinese who has reached Zhou Yan's level, so he has no experience to refer to when communicating with Zhou Yan.

Scorsese did not talk more about casting, and then asked some questions about the script.

"The structure of "Shutter Island" is very perfect, but I still have some doubts in some places..."

Scorsese's doubts mainly come from some errors in the process of translating from Chinese to English, such as the mystery of the protagonist's name. Chinese seems to give people a very direct feeling, while English is a direct translation, and the names are replaced by pinyin. Although there are notes next to it to explain the mystery of the name, it still seems a little lacking.

There are also some places where Zhou Yan made some changes based on China's national conditions, and they were not changed during the translation, so Scorsese looked confused.

Zhou Yan patiently answered Scorsese's questions one by one, which was also within his after-sales service.

As for the name, they could make one up in English on the spot, and Zhou Yan could also directly change back some of the details of the changes.

Just chatting casually like this, a morning passed.

At first, Chris and Zhang Youan were still accompanying him, but when they saw that Zhou Yan and Scorsese were discussing very attentively, they stopped accompanying him and went somewhere else.

It was not until lunchtime that Chris and the others came to call them to eat.

At this time, the two were still chatting, and there was no intention to stop.

Scorsese wanted to continue, he was not in a hurry to eat, but after looking at Zhou Yan, he nodded and said, "Okay, let's go eat first, fill our stomachs, and then continue the discussion."

Seeing Scorsese's expression, Zhou Yan smiled. All the directors he had come into contact with could be called workaholics.

Zhang Yimou is not to be mentioned, he is a workaholic among workaholics. Several other directors, including Chen Kaige and Wang Junzheng, are so busy with work that they forget to eat.

…

After lunch, Scorsese was very kind to give Zhou Yan a fifteen-minute break. When the time was up, he took Zhou Yan to the conference room to continue talking about the script, as if he would not stop until the problem was clear today.

Scorsese's questions were very detailed, some of which Zhou Yan could not even react to immediately, and needed to think for a moment before giving an answer. You know, Zhou Yan has read the original film and the original book, and he has been thinking about it for a long time to write this script.

Sometimes, Scorsese's questions can also open up some new ideas for Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan originally thought that before returning to China, he could take some time to help Maria arrange "Someone Like You", but looking at the current situation, it may be difficult. Scorsese's problems alone may not be solved.

Scorsese also knew that Zhou Yan was about to leave the United States, so he seized the time very tightly. After the afternoon, the two had dinner together and then continued to discuss in the evening.

It was not until after ten o'clock that Scorsese let Zhou Yan leave, and agreed with Zhou Yan to meet again at Warner at 8:30 the next morning.

There was no choice, Zhou Yan could only rush to Warner again the next morning.

The next day, the two started from 8:30 in the morning and discussed until 11 o'clock in the evening, a total of fourteen and a half hours, eating and going to the toilet and so on added up to less than an hour, and the remaining more than thirteen hours, the two were always discussing.

Zhou Yan had seen too many workaholics, and it was not the first time that he was dragged to work overtime like this, so he did not feel very tired.

When the day was over, Scorsese said that there were still some minor problems, but the impact was not great, and now the film has just entered the early preparation stage, they will have a chance to discuss later, even if they can't meet, they can solve the problem through the phone.

…

Before Zhou Yan returned to China, he received a call from Maria. Maria said sadly that she was still waiting for Zhou Yang to arrange the music for "Someone Like You".

Zhou Yan could only apologize and told Maria that he would arrange the music as soon as possible after returning to China.

When she was about to hang up the phone, Maria suddenly said, "If you see someone say something, don't take it to heart."

Zhou Yan was confused by this sentence.

"What do you mean, who are you talking about?"

"I didn't say anyone, just reminding you to have a safe journey and look forward to seeing you next time."

"Uh... goodbye."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan was still confused and didn't know what Maria wanted to say.

Was it about the gossip about them two days ago?

But didn't the heat of this matter quickly go down? And they had a brief chat, there was no problem.

...

It was not until the third day after Zhou Yan returned to China that he finally understood what Maria meant by what she said that day.

It was a call from Zhang Youan that solved his doubts.

Zhang Youan told Zhou Yan that the rumors about him and Maria had just died down, but suddenly they came up again, and advanced to version 2.0.

And the one who caused all this was Tommy Mottola, who was divorcing Maria.

Tommy Mottola publicly stated that Maria was the unfaithful one in their marriage, but he did not name her, so the media brought up the rumors about Zhou Yan and Maria a few days ago again.

The key point is that when the rumors were going on, Maria went to Zhou Yan's autograph session to support him, which made people think more.

Tommy Mottola accused Maria of being unfaithful to the marriage, while Maria denied his statement and accused him of spying on her and even eavesdropping on her phone calls.

The divorce farce between the two was very disgraceful, and Zhou Yan was the most innocent in the whole thing. There was really nothing wrong between him and Maria.

Fortunately, Zhou Yan has returned to China now, and this incident will not have much impact on his life.

After he returned to China, the school was about to close in half a month, which was a busy time, so he had to catch up on the work he had missed.

So during this period, he was always in school and had no time to take care of other things. (End of this chapter)