After dinner, Judy, who had promised to go back to the Angle Manor with Eric, suddenly went back on his word, feeling a little emotional for the woman, and Eric had to send the woman back to the residence.
Thursday, January 21st, the opening day of the 15th Sundance Film Festival.
Eric took Julia to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah that afternoon. The plane from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City only takes one hour. Park City, where the Sundance Film Festival is held, is more than 20 miles east of Salt Lake City. kilometers of valleys. From Salt Lake City to Park City, it was less than four o'clock in the afternoon, and the opening ceremony was at seven o'clock in the evening. Eric and Julia rushed to the reserved resort apartment first.
Adjacent to the foot of the Park City Ski Resort, as soon as Julia walked into the apartment of the resort, she couldn't wait to take off her heavy white long down jacket, and she still complained: "It's so cold, if I knew it earlier, I wouldn't have come here .”
Compared with Los Angeles, which is as warm as spring, Park City, which has just had a snowfall, even has temperatures below freezing during the day.
The heating in the apartment had already been turned on in advance. Eric sent away the manager of the purchasing department of New Line Films, and put the stack of film lists and film festival party materials that the other party handed over to him on the coffee table in the living room, and walked over. Reaching out to help Julia take off her clothes, she said with a smile, "Haven't you been here a few years ago?"
"No," Julia shook her head, and said, "If it wasn't for Robert's personal invitation and "Secret Legacy" as the opening film, I wouldn't have come."
"Secret Legacy" is the new film of Hollywood director Robert Altman. This veteran director who is good at shooting various types of satirical films appeals to Hollywood stars as much as Woody Allen. Moreover, because Robert Altman He is extremely good at shooting group scenes, and groups of big-name Hollywood stars can often be seen in guest appearances in his films. In addition to shooting mainstream commercial films, in order to improve her style and qualifications, Julia has also passed roles in several Robert Altman films, so she came to join her this time.
"If you don't like it, then we can just go back tomorrow." Eric hung Julia's down jacket on the hanger, took off the windbreaker himself, walked to the sofa by the fireplace and sat down. Pick up the stack of documents and look through it.
Julia came over and leaned against Eric, and said, "I don't want it, Eric, can you spend the weekend with me here?"
He is always too busy on weekdays, and Eric did not refuse the rare opportunity for the two of them to get along, saying: "Okay, let me see if there are any good movies."
Julia leaned her head to look at the list of exhibitors of the film festival. After reading a few copies, she lost interest. She took out another file and said, "These movies are not interesting, let's go to the party."
While it has garnered more and more attention, the Sundance Film Festival is far from the peak it once was.
The most obvious gap is that among the dozens of participating films in hand, none of them are produced by well-known directors, nor do they feature any well-known Hollywood actors. However, this just reflects the essence of Sundance Film Festival's support of independent films and newcomers. More than ten years later, although it has attracted more and more Oscar-level filmmakers, the Sundance Film Festival has become more and more commercialized.
Flipping through the movie list in his hand, Eric accidentally saw a German movie called "Run Lola Run", directed by Tom Tykwer, which was a nominated film in the World Film Unit.
Eric has not seen the movie, but he has heard of it.
Moreover, he also knew that in the past, this film had a great influence on Doug Liman's filming of "The Bourne", and Doug Liman therefore invited the heroine of "Run Lola Run" Lanca Potente stars as Marie in The Bourne.
I glanced at the screening time of "Run Lola Run", and it happened to be tomorrow morning, so I folded the information on this page.
The parties in Park City are naturally not comparable to those in Los Angeles. Julia lost interest in watching a series of after parties of unknown movies in her hands. However, as long as she can spend a few days alone with Eric quietly, she is willing to do nothing, so she throws away the party materials and puts her arms around Eric's arm.
"Hey, let's go to see this movie tomorrow morning." Eric gestured to Julia the information of "Run Lola Run", looked at the time, and said, "What clothes are you going to wear, it should be get ready?"
"It doesn't matter, and there is no red carpet." Julia shook her head and said, "I wear the clothes on my body."
Although the winter sky is very short, because the entire Park City is covered with snow, the sky is still very bright in the evening, but the temperature is getting colder.
In front of the theater where the opening ceremony was held, reporters with cameras and movie fans who came to the film festival specially gathered around in twos and threes. Although their expressions were filled with curiosity and anticipation, they did not have the excitement of watching movie fans at large awards ceremonies. .
In fact, this is quite normal, except for Robert Redford, the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, so far, the biggest star that everyone can see should be the "Secret Legacy" crew who entered the theater not long ago, but this This kind of big name is only relative to those unknown independent filmmakers.
The director of "Secret Legacy" is Robert Altman, and the leading actors are Julianne Moore, Chris O'Donnell and Liv Taylor. There are some old Hollywood actors playing supporting roles, but they can't excite the young fans who are watching.
He raised his camera and took a few photos of the crew of "The Adventures of Cole" who had just entered the venue. The reporter from "Hollywood Reporter" Tony Gerson glanced around listlessly, and began to talk to the people beside him who were also from Los Angeles. A colleague from the media chatted about how to get tickets to the North American Composers Society's party in Park City on the weekend.
Although not in the film industry, many first-line singers will attend this party, and they will definitely get a lot of useful news by then.
A black Land Rover slowly stopped at the entrance of the theater. Tony didn't pay much attention to it at first. Anyway, there are many shooting opportunities during the journey from the roadside to the theater. However, after a glance at it, the eyes of his colleagues widened suddenly. He reached out and poked Tony vigorously, and said, "Look, God."
Feeling that his colleagues were making a fuss, Tony turned his head and looked over. The first thing he noticed was Julia in the white down jacket. He was just about to raise the camera to take pictures, but he immediately noticed that the young man Julia was holding casually seemed to be, It seems, Eric Williams? !
How could Eric Williams be in this shitty place
However, obviously, it is impossible for Julia Roberts to hold other men so intimately.
Tony was still a little dazed, but the entrance of the small theater was already boiling. The originally scattered media reporters rushed forward and began to frantically press the shutter. The surrounding fans also gathered around, screaming and trying to get past the bodyguards and take the autograph book in their hands. Pass it to Eric.
The scene was chaotic for a while, Eric could only hug Julia tightly in his arms, and hurried into the theater under the protection of several bodyguards.
Seeing the disappearance of Eric Williams, the unwilling media and movie fans almost rushed into the theater. Fortunately, Eric's bodyguards and theater security responded in time and stopped the raging crowd together.
Robert Redford, who heard the commotion outside, also came out quickly, greeted Eric warmly, made a few jokes, and then introduced a hale and hearty white-haired old man beside him: "Eric , this is Robert Altman."
"Mr. Altman, hello," Eric shook hands with the other party politely, and greeted him with a smile. Robert Redford introduced several other young directors to Eric, and everyone walked together into the theater.
At this time, the screening hall, which is the venue of the opening ceremony, also seemed a little commotion. I just heard the news that Eric Williams will attend the opening ceremony tonight, and the first reaction of many people almost thought it was a joke. It wasn't until Eric walked in with Robert Redford and others that many people finally believed it.
Feeling countless pairs of eyes with different emotions staring at him, Eric himself felt a little uncomfortable. Robert Redford personally arranged for Eric to be seated. The opening ceremony will start in a few minutes, so he also Sitting down, he joked, "Eric, I suddenly regret inviting you over. Depending on the situation, Sundance will definitely be very lively in the next few days."
Eric shrugged and said with a smile: "Sorry, Bob, I definitely didn't mean to come here to steal your limelight."
"Haha," Robert Redford said with a quick smile, "To be honest, if you can come here every year, I'd even be willing to give you up as the organizer of this film festival. Everyone needs the opportunity so much, you It just happens to be able to bring opportunities that many people may not necessarily meet in this life."
Hearing what Robert Redford said, Eric just smiled. He didn't think he was an angel, and he never had such awareness. If there is a dark horse work in memory in the screening film, Eric doesn't mind making a move, otherwise, he will just treat himself as a passerby and stand on the sidelines.
Speaking of it, maybe someone can buy that "Run Lola Run", which is considered a leak.
But if you think about it carefully, there is no need to explain it specifically. Since it can be selected into the world film unit and is very likely to win the award, this film is naturally on the watch list of several major Hollywood film companies.
After all, although not many Hollywood big names are interested in the Sundance Film Festival, the film purchasing departments of the seven major Hollywood film companies have all sent teams to Sundance, Firefly, MGM, Fox, Columbia, the four There are quite a few families. If none of the four families took down "Run Lola Run", Eric would have to question the vision of these people afterwards.
The commotion caused by Eric's arrival gradually subsided, and the opening ceremony soon began.
Like the opening without any red carpet ceremony, the opening ceremony also seemed simple and plain. Robert Altman and several other Sundance-born directors came to the stage and delivered a simple speech, and then entered the opening ceremony film "Secret Legacy" screening stage.
Like the opening ceremonies of many film festivals, many guests usually give up watching the opening ceremony films and leave early after the ceremony. But today, after the speech was over and the opening film was about to be played, no one in the auditorium got up, and everyone seemed to have instantly become a loyal fan of Robert Altman.
Eric has watched several Robert Altman films, and the one that impressed Eric the most and even surprised him was the super long shot of the opening eight minutes of "The Big Player".
Eric is currently producing "Gravity", the opening two long shots will be 18 minutes long, but if you compare them carefully, the long shots of "Gravity" are more a test of the director's creativity, and, With the help of special effects technology, the technical difficulty of this long shot is not too great, and the shooting process is not really done in one go, it is just synthesized through post-production.
But the opening eight-minute long shot of "The Big Player" is a real one-shot to the end. Robert Altman's master-level perfect scene scheduling for this long shot interspersed with dozens of characters is even more amazing. .
In comparison, "Secret Legacy", which is the opening film of the Sundance Film Festival this time, seems much mediocre.
This is a suspenseful film about the love and hatred between generations of women in a small town in Mississippi.
Robert Altman is very fond of using death as the plot of the film, and "Secret Legacy" is no exception. The sudden suicide of an old woman in a small town completely detonated the decades-old grievances between the two women. Although the plot seems absurd and ironic, the plot concept of the film is intertwined. In the end, when When the mystery was solved, everyone couldn't help but let out a sigh.
Speaking of it, Robert Altman seems to be very similar to Woody Allen. Both of them are very prolific directors, and the standards of their works are also uneven.
However, the difference between the two masters is also obvious, Robert Altman is better at narrative, Woody Allen is better at writing people. Therefore, while Woody Allen himself was nominated for an Oscar, his films also created a large number of Oscar performance award nominations, but Robert Altman's films are mostly technical awards related to scripts and directors. There is not much room for the actors in his films to play.
The video of the opening ceremony was played, and it was already past nine o'clock.
It was getting colder in Park City at night. After the ceremony, Robert Altman returned to his residence early to rest. Eric and Julia were invited by Robert Redford to go to the next after-party together.
However, although they both belong to the film circle, in the final analysis, the independent film group of the Sundance Film Festival and Hollywood are still two worlds. Hollywood may send 'tickets' to some budding filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival, but most filmmakers with ambitions or dreams will only show up at Sundance briefly, and then continue to be unknown.
Because of this, Eric didn't stay at the party for too long. He just ate some food at the party with Julia, and then left early.