Chapter 514 513 [Goddess Released]
Although Bernard Shaw was subdued by Zhou Hexuan, he was still very popular. There were even scholars from the cultural circles who came down from Peiping and Tianjin to pay a visit.
Arthur Henderson is relatively low-key, and hangs out with Zhang Junmai all day long. The two have similar political ideas, so they get along very well.
When Arthur Henderson, accompanied by Zhang Junmai, stayed in Nanjing for inspection, Bernard Shaw was invited by Mrs. Sun to Shanghai to carry out anti-Japanese propaganda activities. Every time George Bernard Shaw made a speech, he would attract countless students to listen to him. People on the left hailed George Bernard Shaw as the "sage of international pacifism".
However, George Bernard Shaw, the "sage", soon got tired of staying in China, and instead traveled to Japan by boat. He claimed that he was doing an international investigation, but after living in Japan for a period of time, he praised the Japanese for their order and execution.
Zhou Hexuan was extremely disappointed with Chang Kaishen, so he simply ignored everything and wrote "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" and sent it to the UK while playing with Vivien Leigh.
At the end of October, this was the last day of Zhou Hexuan's stay in the south, and he would take Vivien Leigh to Tianjin in a few days.
Nanjing, Confucius Temple.
There are many traditional buildings of Ming and Qing Dynasties preserved in this area. Between these buildings is an exquisite three-story reinforced concrete building - the Capital Theater.
The Capital Theater was completed early last year, with a total of more than 1,400 seats upstairs and downstairs, and its scale is among the best in the country. When it first opened, it advertised in "Central Daily", claiming that it was "the most magnificent theater in the capital, and the most magnificent paradise in the East".
I don't know if it is the most magnificent paradise in the East, but it must be the most magnificent theater in Nanjing. Domestic blockbusters and new imported films are often screened here, and it has the priority release rights of many film companies, so everyone from politicians and celebrities to ordinary people likes to come here to watch movies.
During the period of the Republic of China, the development of the film industry was not perfect. When a new film first came out, the number of copies of the film was very small, at most ten or twenty copies. It must be screened in one cinema for a period of time before being screened in another theater, so cinemas with priority screening rights are very popular.
Why can the Capital Theater get the priority screening rights of various companies?
It's very simple, in addition to the large scale here, but also because there are important members of the National Party among the shareholders of the theater, how dare the film company not come to curry favor?
Film censorship in China is also very difficult nowadays. The Nanjing National Government prohibits the promotion of feudal superstitions, and even the "Journey to the West" series of films have been banned, and films such as "Liao Zhai" are even more out of the question.
If a traveler wants to shoot "A Chinese Ghost Story" in China in the 1930s, hehe, he will definitely lose everything, and maybe he will be labeled as a propagandist of superstition.
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, animals were not allowed to become fine.
Because a Hollywood movie was released today, Zhou Hexuan took Vivien Leigh to the movie. When the two came outside the theater, they could see two promotional posters standing on the street, one was the Hollywood film "Red Dust", and the other was the domestic film "Goddess".
"Red Dust" is the second work of Hollywood film emperor Clark Gable. It was only released in the United States a few months ago, and now it can be seen in Nanjing, which shows Hollywood's strong overseas distribution capabilities.
In fact, as early as the 1920s, the eight major film companies in the United States, including MGM, Paramount, and Fox, successively set up offices in Shanghai. In order to grasp the pulse of the Chinese market, major companies specially hire foreigners who have lived in China for a long time as managers, and only import Hollywood films that best suit Chinese tastes, so almost all American films are popular in China.
Since China had no independent tariffs at the time, American films only had to pay a very low import tariff once when they were released in China. However, due to the lijin system, domestic films are taxed during transportation and are taxed when they are screened in various places. As a result, the domestic distribution cost of domestic films is actually higher than that of American films.
Since the Nanjing Nationalist Government withdrew its tariff autonomy and abolished the lijin system, domestic films have prospered rapidly, which could not be achieved during the Beiyang rule.
Holding Vivien Leigh's hand, Zhou Hexuan walked into the box office of the Capital Theater, and found that there were quite a lot of audiences watching the movie, and they had to line up slowly. When he arrived at the theater, Zhou Hexuan felt as if he had returned to modern times. The decoration style here is modernism, and the floor is covered with very fashionable terrazzo marble, which is not much different from the situation in later generations.
There is a kind of magazine-like printed matter in the box office, which is the theater journal. Although the quality is a bit rough, it is better than the pictures and texts. There are also many stills and star photos, which contain new movie trailers, movie descriptions, movie reviews, etc.
Zhou Hexuan was quite surprised that professional film critics appeared these days. The new movie trailer in the journal is also very detailed. For example, on a certain day of the month, a certain movie will be released, and the ticket price is very clearly written. The description of the movie is also very interesting. The cast and crew, the outline of the story, and the behind-the-scenes story are all clearly explained, which greatly facilitates people to watch the movie.
For example, in the movie description of "Goddess", it focuses on the screenwriter Mr. Zhou Hexuan, as well as the details of the original novel, and enumerates the difficulty of filming this movie.
The filming process of "The Goddess" has indeed gone through ups and downs, and it has been almost two years since the filming process. Because it is the latest sound film technology, it took only one month to train the sound engineer and two months for the director to master the corresponding technology.
The most difficult thing is that Zhou Hexuan asked to use Mandarin dialogue. It is too difficult to find actors who can speak Mandarin in the south. Ruan Lingyu learned Pinyin with Zhou Hexuan for half a month, and after a lot of daily practice, her accent was still so-so. Many actors can only dub, and they dub simultaneously during shooting, which is even more difficult-there is no post-dubbing technology.
As a result, halfway through the filming, the "September 18" and "January 28" incidents broke out one after another.
Luo Mingyou, one of the investors, has six theaters in the Northeast and was busy replacing audio playback equipment at the time. Once the Japanese invaded, all the investment in these theaters was in vain, and the funds were suddenly stretched. The room leak happened to rain overnight, and soon the Battle of Songhu started, and the filming of "Goddess" was completely put on hold.
Not only did the crew of "Goddess" suspend work, but the entire Lianhua Film Company fled Shanghai, and all managers and employees took refuge in Hong Kong. It was not until the signing of the "Songhu Armistice Agreement" that Ruan Lingyu and other talents returned to Shanghai to continue filming. During this period, there was a full delay of half a year, and it took nearly two years to finally shoot "Goddess".
Zhou Hexuan looked at the movie manual of "Goddess" and couldn't help showing a wry smile: I'm afraid it will be difficult to recover the cost of this movie.