What Shupein feared was a replay of the scene that had occurred at the French Film Festival many years before, when Tao Zen starred in "The Accident".
Tao Cen's performance at that time was also impeccable, but because of her status, the audience's expectations of her were much higher than those of Jiang Se at the time.
Therefore, when "The Accident" and "The Devil" competed for the same spot, all the audience, including Shu Peien, agreed that Jiang Se's performance that year was more amazing than Tao Cen's mediocre performance.
The loss that Tao Cen suffered in the past has now turned to Jiang Se.
If Jiang Se put in 100% effort in her previous works, she must put in 120% effort in this movie, perhaps to meet the audience's expectations.
"No more, no more."
Cui Zhangcheng heard Shu Peien talking endlessly about the movie, so he stopped him in time and asked about his health. Anyway, the quality of the movie would always be revealed after it was released.
At this French Film Festival, more media paid attention to Jiang Se than in previous years.
"God's Redemption" is still in the spotlight, and she still has marriage issues to ask about. The media who want to interview her have been making appointments all the time.
On the opening day of the French Film Festival, Jiang Se and Tao Cen followed Huo Zhiming and appeared in the media's sight.
Tao Cen had her long wavy hair swept to one side, and wore a black strapless dress. Her skin was white and her red lips were particularly eye-catching, giving her a cool, mature and sexy allure.
Jiang Se wore a lotus pink tight-fitting dress, which perfectly showed off her slender and tall figure.
The two of them arrived in France at the same time these days. Although they stayed in the same hotel, they didn't meet each other very often. Most of the time they were busy with their own things.
The moment Jiang Se appeared, the media from all over the world who came to participate in the film festival all focused their cameras on him, and the assistant beside Tao Cen showed a little embarrassment on his face.
Some domestic media quickly took a few photos of Tao Cen and then turned their cameras away.
Tao Cen looked indifferent to this situation, as if he was not angry at all.
Jiang Se's eyes met hers from a distance, and he smiled faintly and nodded slightly at Tao Cen. She also smiled, then turned her head away naturally while waving to the reporters.
Compared to the resentment on her assistant's face, Tao Cen's reaction was naturally much more generous.
Jiang Se accepted a brief interview from several media reporters. They talked about movies and were inevitably asked about her husband, but she just glossed over the topic.
Shu Peien had already selected the screening seat for "Criminal Suspect" online long ago. Due to health reasons, he did not plan to watch many movies during this trip to the film festival.
In the current movie list, except for "Criminal Suspect" and the works of several big directors that he marked as must-sees, he plans to wait until the word of mouth comes out before deciding on the rest of the movies.
When he entered the movie palace, he also saw the crew surrounded by the media.
Shu Payen originally wanted to talk to Jiang Se, but seeing this scene, he put his hands in his pockets and waited for a while. There were many people around Jiang Se, so he was stunned for a while and had to give up the idea of greeting Jiang Se.
He checked the time and saw that there was still nearly half an hour before the show of "Criminal Suspect" he had selected would be broadcast. He took out his mobile phone and took a picture of Jiang Se being surrounded by reporters. After thinking for a while, he sent it to his wife's mobile phone and said jokingly: Four years ago, I still remember that it was also the French Film Festival. Zhao Rang took Jiang Se and his group to France with "Devil".
At that time, Jiang Se was not well-known. Among the few people, Liu Ye was the most famous. He was known by some foreign media because of his filming of Zhang Jing'an's "Rescue Operation".
But even so, the initial treatment received by "The Devil" was still a bit shabby.
Shu Payen still remembers that he originally wanted to watch Tao Cen's movie, but accidentally walked into the theater of "Devil".
He hadn't booked tickets in advance, but at that time, "Devil" was not well-known, so there was no need to book tickets in advance. The theater was still empty. When he went in, several foreign reporters entered the theater, as if they were preparing to take a break.
Jiang Se was a little immature back then. When she was outside the theater with the crew, not many people even passed by to say hello, let alone interview her.
It is no exaggeration to say that the theater of "Devil" was deserted. After Shu Payen came out of the movie, he was still able to chat with her casually.
It’s just a few years now, but people are already lining up to talk to Jiang Se and interview her.
He smiled, rubbed his hands, and felt happy for Jiang Se.
She became famous, which was naturally different from the situation when she was ignored.
Shu Payen turned to leave. During the interview, Jiang Se vaguely saw an acquaintance through the crowd of people.
"Excuse me."
She apologized, gave an apologetic smile to the reporters who came over, pushed through the crowd, and saw Shu Payen who was about to leave.
"Teacher Shu."
She shouted in Chinese. Shu Pain didn't expect that she could find herself surrounded by this group of people. She thought that she had misheard the previous call.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Se called out again:
"Teacher Shu."
This time Shu Pein really heard it. He turned sideways and saw Jiang Se communicating with the media quickly in English. After sending people away, he walked towards Shu Pein.
She was still sorting out her clothes when several assistants stopped the media who wanted to follow her.
"I thought I had the wrong person, but it turned out to be you."
Jiang Se was indeed a little surprised to see Shu Pain here. She had met Shu Pain several times. When her movies were released in recent years, Shu Pain had written film reviews for her and praised her a lot.
"I just came in and saw you by chance." Shu Peien laughed twice, "I wanted to say hello, but you seemed to be busy, so I was about to leave when I didn't expect you to see me."
Jiang Se nodded. There were many people here, and there were also media reporters in the distance. It was really not a place to talk. The two of them entered the movie palace. Jiang Se glanced at Shu Peien:
"At first I thought I had the wrong person. Are you feeling better?"
This circle is very small, and if you pay a little attention, you can find out about any movement.
At the beginning of the year, there were reports that Shu Pain was unwell. At that time, someone in the industry spread the news that Shu Pain was very likely to retire and might not participate in this year's French Film Festival.
In recent years, Shu Peien has actually been in a semi-retired state. He has not written many film reviews, and his columns are mostly in the form of special invitations.
But no matter how few film reviews he has written, he has watched every movie released by Jiang Se in the past few years.
So when the news came out this year that Shu Peien was unwell and might have to leave the circle, some people thought of Jiang Se first.
As we all know, "Criminal Suspect" starring Jiang Se and Tao Cen will be released in March this year. This movie has an uncertain factor like Huo Zhiming, and it also brings together Jiang Se and Tao Cen, so it is very watchable.
The public is already looking forward to the film even before it is released.
He is a fan of Jiang Se. In previous years, when Jiang Se released a new work, everyone thought it was natural for him to write a review of Jiang Se's new work. However, this year, at this time, Shu Peien announced that he was going to retire, and everyone was speculating whether he would still write a review of Jiang Se's new work.
After all, Jiang Se and Tao Cen have rival scenes in "Criminal Suspect". If Shu Peien wants to write a film review, he will inevitably mention the performance of the two actresses in the movie. If he is not careful, he may offend one of them.
He may use his poor health as an opportunity to give up his plan to write a review of "Criminal Suspect" this year.
"Much better." Shu Payne had also heard about the rumors on the Internet. Many people had speculated about it, and some even posted messages to place bets on it.
Jiang Se's eyes were filled with concern, and Shu Penn smiled:
"I didn't set too many goals for this trip to France, so I won't be too tired." He said this and asked Jiang Se:
"I heard that when Mr. Huo reported the "Criminal Suspect", your name and Tao Cen's name were both in the female lead reporting column."
Such news is no longer a secret in the industry. Almost everyone who is not isolated from the news knows it. Shu Peien originally valued Jiang Se very much and would pay special attention to finding out about her. It is not surprising that he knew about this.
Jiang Se was also very calm:
"I heard that."
He coughed twice, took out a thermos cup from his pocket, drank two sips of water, and then cleared his throat:
"Are you sure?"
Jiang Se shook his head:
“I don’t know.”
Her words were quite interesting. Shu Peien wondered whether her "I don't know" was because she was nervous about her performance in "Criminal Suspect" or because she missed the grand prize in the previous two sessions.
Speaking of this, Shu Payen actually felt a little emotional.
It’s not that she has bad acting skills, nor does she lack the ability to pick good scripts. In fact, Shu Pain thought the films from the first two seasons were very good.
But either he lost to the invisible rules and systems, or he helped the director and the crew. To this day, Jiang Se has been in the industry for quite some time, has produced many works, and has won some awards.
Not to mention domestic awards, even the truly internationally meaningful award, such as the '100 Years of Filmmaking', "Salvation" even won such an authoritative award as Best Film, but she did not get a certificate to certify her acting skills.
When she was filming "Devils", she lost so much weight that she was out of shape and gave up her image to challenge the role of a mother who lost her daughter. However, this did not change everyone's impression of her - incomparable beauty.
Such a label is worthy of joy when it is attached to anyone, but it seems a bit helpless when it is attached to an excellent actor.
"Criminal Suspect" has not been released yet, but the public's impression of the two female protagonists in the play is that Tao Cen is more of an acting talent, while Jiang Se is more pleasing to the eye.
Even though everyone knows that she has acting skills, the first impression people have of her is still mostly her beauty.
"How do you think you performed in "Suspect"?"
Shu Payen actually hopes that she can win an award to prove that in addition to her box office appeal and beautiful face, she also has acting skills that are worth remembering.
She smiled:
"I should leave this to you to judge. After all, you are a professional film critic, and I am not."
She lowered her head, her slender neck was like a swan, and her every frown and smile was quite pleasing to the eye, almost reaching the textbook level of etiquette norms. Her eyebrows and eyes had a gentle feeling, and she did not show an overbearing attitude because of the attention she received, nor was she displeased by Shu Payen's slightly "questioning" attitude.
It was as if the two of them were just chatting about a very light topic, and she seemed unaware of the public's attention on the Internet for her new work after the movie "God's Redemption".
“I did my best when I was shooting.”
After she said this, Chen Shan and the other man hurried in. Seeing Jiang Se, they breathed a sigh of relief and came up to greet Shu Payen.
Mo Anqi stayed outside to block the reporters. These people saw Jiang Se and would not let her go easily unless she revealed something. After Xia Chaoqun said that he wanted to train her, Mo Anqi herself also consciously cultivated her abilities in this area.
Shu Payen got the answer he wanted, raised his wrist to look at his watch, and saw that there were still about ten minutes before "Criminal Suspect" was released, so he did not disturb Jiang Se from talking to the two assistants and quickly said goodbye and left.
At this film festival, "Criminal Suspect" attracted a lot of attention among the participating films because of Jiang Se's fame. The screening hall was not the same corner as before. Shu Payen found it quickly. When he entered the hall, there were still five or six minutes before the movie started.
At this time, the large theater that could accommodate 300 people was almost 90% full. In addition to some Asian faces, most of the foreign media were also there, and they obviously came to see Jiang Se.
When Shupein sat down, more people came in one after another, some whispering, occasionally mixing in the names of "Jiang Se" and "Cesare", until two minutes before the show started, when the lights in the theater went out, the talking stopped.
In the last row of the theater, Huo Zhiming and his crew also sat in the corner.
They swiped their cards to enter after the lights were turned off, and did not attract the attention of others. Even the media people sitting in the back row did not notice that Jiang Se, who they were discussing earlier, also came in.
Before the film started, Shu Payen had looked at the time several times. Until the last second of the countdown, the screen went black and "Criminal Suspect" was finally officially broadcast.
The screen lit up. In a communication room, several staff members were sorting letters. After sorting each letter, a slightly plump man in his fifties picked up one of the letters and frowned.
"This one has no name on it. It only says "Wangjin Corps" to receive it." He scratched his head. "Isn't this situation a little strange? How many letters like this have you received during this period?"
He grabbed the letter and turned it over and over. There was no recipient's name or sender's information on it. The address was Wangjin Corps, and the phone number was still the office number.
The person who was speaking bent over and opened the drawer, and took out several similar letters. This was considered a prank, but after sending so many letters in a row, shouldn't there be an end? (To be continued)