Chapter 163: Unpopular Factors
Chapter 163: Unpopular Factors
Inside a manor on a fog-shrouded British island, the mistress of the house, Grace, woke from another nightmare. She wiped the corners of her eyes, forced herself to gather her spirits, and began another busy day. With her husband absent, she had to remain strong.
For some unknown reason, all of the servants in the house had suddenly disappeared some time ago, so she posted an advertisement to hire new servants. Today, three people came to apply.
A white-haired old gardener, an energetic elderly woman, and a timid mute girl. The combination of the three looked extremely strange, but because no one had responded to the advertisement for so long, Grace still accepted them and introduced them to the many rules of the manor.
Perhaps because of the arrival of the three people, all kinds of strange incidents began occurring in the house. Her daughter Anne claimed she had seen a little boy. Grace also frequently heard strange sounds, and she discovered that the three newly arrived servants were always whispering together as if plotting something. Because of this, Grace became increasingly uneasy.
Until one day, her husband, who had gone off to war, suddenly returned. The excited Grace thought the family finally had someone to rely on again and that life would return to normal. But her husband did not possess the joy of reunion that Grace felt. Upon seeing his wife and children, he instead became sorrowful. After staying at home for several days, he suddenly left once more.
The strange occurrences in the manor continued. Coupled with her husband’s departure again, Grace’s nerves became increasingly strained. Finally, one day she discovered that all the curtains in the manor had been removed. Grace had repeatedly emphasized that the two sick children could not be exposed to sunlight, so the furious mistress blamed everything on the three servants and drove them out.
One night, the two playful children climbed out through a window and ran into the garden behind the manor. The little girl Anne discovered three gravestones. Looking closely, she was horrified to find that the names engraved on the tombstones were those of the three new servants who had appeared in the house some days ago. At the same time, the three servants emerged from the darkness once more. Anne called to her younger brother and ran toward the main door, while Grace, who had accidentally discovered the “truth,” rushed out with a shotgun, protected the children, and retreated back into the manor, shutting the three ghosts outside.
While Grace repeatedly begged the three ghosts to spare her family, screams suddenly came from the two children upstairs. Praying all the while, Grace climbed the staircase and pushed open a door. Because of a medium’s summoning ritual, Grace finally saw another family existing in the real world.
Everything forced Grace to face reality.
She, along with her two children, had already died.
Helplessly holding the two children in her arms, the grief-stricken mistress could only recall that tragic past.
Amid the dreamlike cries of Grace and the two children, the film officially ended. The ending credits had not yet been completed, so the lights in the screening room turned on directly.
“Eric, how was it this time?”
Jonathan Demme asked uncertainly. Although he had made major revisions according to Eric’s suggestions, Jonathan still was not sure whether Eric would be satisfied.
The Others had wrapped filming in mid-June. Part of the post-production was also carried out locally in Britain. Because they still needed to reshoot some scenes from time to time, the entire crew remained in Britain until July before returning to America.
After Running Out of Time finished filming, Eric had once visited the British set. After personally watching the filming process and reviewing some completed footage Jonathan had shot, Eric had been very satisfied with Jonathan’s work.
Perhaps because of Eric’s earlier approval, when Jonathan confidently brought Eric the version he had edited himself — the so-called director’s cut — he had been extremely confident that the version he spent so much effort editing would receive Eric’s approval.
But reality ruthlessly dumped a bucket of cold water over Jonathan’s head.
After watching Jonathan’s cut with a frown, Eric directly instructed the staff to replay the film from the beginning. While watching, he rapidly made notes. By the time the film finished a second time, Eric had already written down more than twenty revision suggestions in his notebook, involving everything from camera shots to soundtrack and editing. It practically amounted to completely overturning Jonathan’s edited version.
Although Jonathan had been somewhat unconvinced, he did not possess final cut authority. He could only honestly make major revisions according to Eric’s suggestions.
After finishing the revised version according to Eric’s instructions, Jonathan himself also felt that this version was indeed far superior to the one he had originally edited. Not only was the plot tighter and the suspense more mysterious, but it also placed greater emphasis on constructing a psychological suspense atmosphere. This made Jonathan admire the young man over twenty years younger than himself even more.
Although Jonathan had made extensive preparations in order to secure the director’s position for this film, and some of the concepts he originally proposed aligned with Eric’s vision, many of his techniques still could not escape the conventions of old-fashioned horror films. It was not that Jonathan did not want to change. Rather, many habitual things could not simply be changed at will. Innovation was something easy to talk about but difficult to accomplish in any field.
Hearing Jonathan’s question, Eric did not rush to answer. Instead, he leaned back in his seat and carefully compared the differences and similarities between the original version in his memories and the film he had just watched.
Among the three films Firefly had additionally invested in — The Others, Steel Magnolias, and Scent of a Woman — Eric was most optimistic about the box office prospects of The Others, so he devoted the greatest attention to it.
As for the other two films, Steel Magnolias and Scent of a Woman, Eric had delegated authority to a much greater degree. Steel Magnolias was completely handled by Herbert Ross from start to finish, and Eric had not even participated in editing. Although the final cut authority for Scent of a Woman remained in Eric’s hands, when post-production began in the future, he would still highly respect Al Pacino’s opinions.
Compared to those, the production of The Others appeared somewhat “dictatorial.”
He also knew that completely overturning Jonathan’s director’s cut was very hurtful, but for the sake of the film achieving box office success, he had no choice but to do it.
The reason he had been able to list so many revision suggestions in one breath after seeing Jonathan’s edited version was naturally not because of Eric’s own talent, but because he had the original film from his memories as a reference.
Even if he once had a bit of exceptional talent in his previous life, it had already been worn away through years of frustration. What remained were only professional skills engraved into instinct and habit. It was like an old chef who had spent decades in the kitchen. Without thinking at all and relying purely on habit, he could still cook a table full of dishes rich in color, aroma, and taste.
For a film, even with the same script and the same footage, the final products edited by different people could vary enormously.
In his previous life, Eric had heard of someone who, through re-editing shots, turned a classic serious historical film into a vulgar comedy, even though not a single line of dialogue, piece of footage, or bit of music had been changed. Only the arrangement of the shots had been altered.
Therefore, Eric did not demand perfectly recreating an identical version of The Others from his memory. Besides, the original film from his previous life was not without flaws either. For example, the plotline involving Grace’s husband returning felt too flat and failed to create the tense suspense atmosphere a horror film should possess. Eric had therefore modified some of those scenes in this version.
After spending around ten minutes carefully comparing everything, Eric finally nodded lightly.
“Not bad. It’s basically good enough now. Just make one or two small adjustments to some details. As for distribution, Jeffrey, notify the heads of the other four major film companies besides Fox and Columbia. Ask whether they’re interested in attending one of our internal test screenings.”
Upon hearing Eric’s approval, Jonathan finally let out a sigh of relief, while Jeffrey hesitated slightly.
“Eric, wouldn’t it be inappropriate not to notify Fox and Columbia? After all, our cooperation with those two is the closest.”
Eric spread his hands and explained, “Judging from the current situation, Columbia will definitely undergo major personnel changes after being acquired by the Japanese. It’s hard to say how the Japanese will operate Columbia after taking over. Frankly speaking, I’m even worried now about whether I’ll be able to receive the Running Out of Time revenue share on time. So for the short term, it’s better not to cooperate with them anymore. As for Fox, they already possess the distribution rights to my next two films. Giving them another one would only create competition between our own films for resources.”
Jeffrey suggested, “How about this? We invite Fox and Columbia as usual. Whether we cooperate with them in the end is still up to us, isn’t it? But if we don’t invite them at all, it’ll seem rather discourteous.”
Eric lowered his head and thought for a moment before nodding.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way. Also, include Steel Magnolias in the screening. As for Scent of a Woman, leave it alone for now. Let Al keep tinkering with it slowly. As long as it can begin limited screenings before the end of the year, that’s enough. Anyway, he’s using that film to aim for the Oscars.”
After the two finished discussing film distribution, Jonathan Demme finally had a chance to speak again.
“Eric, are you going to Venice in September for the film festival?”
“I will. At the very least, I’ll attend either the opening ceremony or the awards ceremony,” Eric replied.
Among Europe’s three major film festivals, the Venice Film Festival had the closest ties with the Chinese-language film industry. Eric had already been very interested in the Venice Film Festival in his previous life. Now that he finally had the opportunity, of course he wanted to go.
Speaking of it, it had already been an entire year since his rebirth. Eric had remained in a constant state of busyness the entire time, without even a proper chance to relax. Perhaps the Venice trip could count as a vacation.
As for winning an award, Eric did not hold particularly high expectations. Although The Others had a very novel plot setup, this film was not only a commercial movie, but also a horror movie. Either category alone was heavily discriminated against by film festival judges, and this film happened to combine both of the least popular factors. Being selected for the Venice main competition was already a very good result.