Over the past decade, the three major European film festivals have been actively making adjustments, hoping to keep up with the times, and Venice is no exception.

After the new century, Venice also tried to openly accept Hollywood movies - not only art movies, but also other star-studded movies. After all, Hollywood's powerful influence cannot be ignored in Europe. However, due to the strong protests and opposition within the Italian film industry, it was not able to be implemented unswervingly, and sporadic cooperation was carried out. Unfortunately, fate has not been able to form a system intermittently, and influence has not been able to be condensed.

When Mark Muller was the chairman of the festival, his public relations skills and strong connections were undoubtedly awe-inspiring, which also made Venice completely closely linked to Asian films, and at the same time brought it closer to Hollywood. But it was precisely because of Mark Muller's long-standing dance that he also understood the importance of "weighting". He often bowed his head to compromise with conservatives and diehards in the country and sought a moderate balance point, which made Venice's artistic positioning not fully established.

When Alberto took office as chairman of the Venice Film Festival, they needed to find clear ideas in the chaos. Among them, how the United States, as the largest market in the global film industry, should cooperate? This is still a difficult problem that Alberto needs to think about and solve, and the situation he faces is even more complicated.

At this time, the entire "Cannes" style has become a climate, and the intimate relationship between Hollywood movies and Cannes cannot be cut off. Most of the best American movies to participate in the film festival are Cannes, and Venice can only find a bargain. Then they still have to face the positive impact of Toronto, and most of the time they can only pick among the leftovers. There is really no choice, and then a vicious cycle is formed, like a quagmire.

Since taking office, Alberto has been trying to adjust little by little.

In 2012, three American films were shortlisted for the Venice main competition, Paul Thomas Anderson's "Master", Terrence Malick's "Traveling to Wonderland" and Harmony-korine's "Spring Break", all of which received great praise, including "Master" and Best Actor Award.

In 2013, five American movies were shortlisted for the Venice main competition, James Franco's "Son of God", Errol Morris's "Rumsfield's Self-Report", David Gordon Green's "Joe", Kelly Reichardt's "Operation Night", and Peter Landesman's "Parkland Hospital".

Among them, David Gordon Green and Kelly Rechard are both excellent directors in the field of independent films, while Errol Morris is the big names in the field of documentaries, but neither Peter Landsman nor James Franco have ever delivered any works worth mentioning in the field of directorships, and can even be said to be new players.

As a result, the average quality of the five works is far lower than expected, which makes Venice controversial - compared with the "Drunk Country Folk Songs", "Only Love for Eternity", "Nebraska" and "behind the candlestick", it is more than one level different from the "Standards" that landed in Cannes in the same year. In addition, the Golden Lion Award was awarded to the Italian local film "Rome Ring Expressway" - which is known as the worst Golden Lion in Venice since the millennium, and it has even made Venice controversial.

Whether it is Italy or other countries, all media are complaining about Venice: in order to please Hollywood and to please Italy, they forget the core essence of the film festival. After all, they still need to be based on works. Excellent works are the unshakable soul of the film festival. Alberto tried to complete the checks and balances but ended up with Zhu Bajie looking in the mirror:

Not a human inside and outside.

In fact, this cannot be blamed for Alberto. His position is very difficult. The chairman of the Venice Film Festival is just a crack in the cracks. Any little reform faces numerous interferences. There are countless opinions from insiders and outsiders. Even Mark Muller, who is good at dancing, has not been able to change such a deadlock. No wonder everyone says that Italy is the China of Europe.

However, after two years of running-in and exploring, Alberto still found a little idea: I don’t know if this is the correct answer for the time being, but in the end, I still need to try it to know the result, right?

Hollywood.

The answer is Hollywood.

The Venetian Film Festival was held in a head-on collision with Toronto. With the rise of Toronto, more and more American films are more willing to premiere in Toronto, and then they will take advantage of the situation to launch the public relations operation of the awards season; but Toronto's disadvantage is that it does not set up a jury award, it is just a People's Choice Award, which is still lacking in the operation of professional reputation in the awards season. This is the opportunity for Venice.

In any case, Venice is one of the three major film festivals in Europe and the oldest film festival, isn’t it?

Last year, the best sample was: "Gravity" chose to premiere in Venice, and even Cannes was extremely jealous. Unfortunately, this work failed to participate in the main competition unit, and then "Rome Ring Expressway" topped the Golden Lion Award, which made more media exclaim.

Later it also proved that the powerful influence of "gravity" was swept from box office to awards. Even though he regretfully missed the Oscar Best Picture in the end, he was still the most influential work in the world in 2013.

Assuming that "Gravity" was shortlisted for the main competition in Venice and topped the Golden Lion Award, then this should be enough to become the most highly-watched event in Venice in the ten years after "Brokeback Mountain" reached the Golden Lion Award: it has attention, popularity, and reputation.

For Alberto, this is an arithmetic problem, and it is not difficult. If the Venice Film Festival can truly become the starting point of the awards season, attract all Hollywood superstars and excellent Oscar-based works, then-

Excellent works are not a problem, and popular superstars are not a problem. Venice's dilemma can be solved in the short term; and it can also grab the limelight of Cannes - Cannes is too far from the Oscars. From the perspective of publicity strategies and discussion popularity, Venice is more suitable for awards season works.

Of course, this also requires risk: At the risk of Venice becoming the "Award Season Back Garden", it is natural to Toronto become the back garden of Hollywood, but what about Venice?

This is the decision Alberto needs to make. In addition, this is the key link for Alberto to convince professionals in the Italian industry - how to find a balance between Italian and American films, how to use American films to create topics and attract other films to participate in the competition, and how to find a Venice position in the awards season movies. All of this is a problem that Mark Muller could not solve at that time, and now Alberto also needs to face it.

Today, I made a special trip to New Orleans to visit the set, which was related to Alberto's next plan.

If it was just for the actor Renly, there was no need for Alberto to visit the crew, and the one-on-one separate telephone invitation would be fully sincere; but Alberto also hopes to open up the strategic cooperation plan for Hollywood independent films through Renly:

Alberto has heard of the rumors about Sundance Film Festival and Sisyphus Films; Alberto also knows about the news that Lanley is close to the Berlin Film Festival; coupled with Lanley's strong influence and appeal on the global film market, this has become a decisive factor.

Alberto's trip was specifically designed to invite Renli to the Venice Film Festival, which is crucial to the future planning of the entire film festival.

A little surprised was that the short meeting between Alberto and Renli burst out inspiration uncontrollably, with some unstoppable meaning—

If Renly can serve as the chairman of the jury of the Venice Film Festival, there is no need to mention the attention and popularity. The most important thing is Venice's artistic positioning.

Over the past few years, Lan Li's vision of choosing movies reflects his artistic taste and professional qualities, and the hereditary aristocratic background is even more icing on the cake, which makes Lan Li have enough prestige in the industry: his artistic appreciation ability is worthy of recognition, and many art creators are bound to be willing to communicate, discuss, argue, and debate with Lan Li. This is undoubtedly a crucial link for the atmosphere of the film festival.

On the one hand, this can set an artistic tone for the film festival; on the other hand, it can also attract more works to register for Venice. In turn, it will form a virtuous cycle, and stabilize the turbulent Venice. Of course, Renli is not the savior of Venice, and it is impossible to easily solve the many stubborn problems of the film festival; but at least, this can provide the film festival with a direction and a beacon, allowing Alberto to find more effective solutions: have a start.

The position of the jury chairman is far from as simple as imagined, both Berlin and Cannes, and Venice is no exception.

But... the situation in Italy is really complicated. What Mark Muller could not accomplish, and Alberto could not accomplish it overnight.

Although his thoughts were very, very tempting, Alberto calmed down after all, temporarily put away the inspiration that burst out in his mind and focused on his original plan:

He still needs to avoid being too hasty and not become fat in one bite. He first invites Renli to participate in the main competition unit, and then gradually enhances the connection between Renli and Venice. He looks forward to making Renli the chairman of the jury of Venice's main competition unit in the future, and ignites the chemical reaction between Venice and Hollywood movies, grows step by step for the camp, and truly allows Venice to gain a foothold in the global film industry.
Chapter completed!