Chapter 263

After his trip to Geneva, Simon flew to Florence, where Gucci's headquarters is located, the next day.

Sophia hopes that Simon can appear in the Gucci documentary. All day long on the 24th, Simon wandered around Florence with Tom Ford, the new creative director of Gucci, following the camera. Ford's September 1990 Gucci spring and summer collection will draw inspiration from the world's oldest cultural and Art Center.

The Gucci family, as the host, specially prepared a reception banquet for Simon at the manor outside the family in the evening.

To be exact, Simon was invited by Aldo Gucci, the second eldest son of Gucci.

Gucci founder Guccio Gucci's three sons, two of them have passed away, only eldest brother Aldo is still alive, that is, the one who was reported to prison by his nephew a few years ago for tax evasion.

In the last equity transaction, some members of the Gucci family emigrated overseas for tax avoidance. Only Aldo Gucci's second and third sons remained in Italy. Aldo's eldest son was also at odds with his father and lived in New York all the year round.

All kinds of twists and turns over the years have made Gucci's family lose its reputation in Italy, but there are still some details in the end. This time, the guests are Simon westero, a new world-class fortune and Hollywood tycoon. Therefore, for the first time in so many years, the Gucci family is full of guests again. Many Italian government and business celebrities have attended, and they have also attracted a large number of people from the Italian local performing arts circle.

Aldo Gucci, who still holds 20% of Gucci's shares, even though he insisted on not selling the family company at the beginning, because his attitude towards Simon has changed a lot at the dinner that brought the Gucci family back to glory.

Because there was no language barrier, Simon was able to socialize in the banquet crowd until 10 o'clock in the night before he left.

Aldo Gucci, who is 83 years old, still has no rest. He personally takes his two sons and a large group of celebrities to send Simon and Sophia out of the Gucci family's manor.

In the car, seeing Gucci family's splendid manor disappear, Sophia said: "now, it's more difficult for us to acquire the remaining shares of Gucci family."

Simon naturally understood what Sophia meant.

Over the past few months, Gucci's recovery has been obvious to all.

If Gucci continues to maintain its previous decline and survive for a few years, the Gucci family will surely sell all its shares. But now, even the children of the Gucci family no longer know that it is a long-term plan to hold on to their shares and rely on Simon westero.

"We can't take all the benefits. It's enough to hold the absolute control of Gucci. After the operation of Gucci is stable, we can just turn our resources and energy to other luxury brands," Simon said with a smile. "Moreover, the Gucci family may borrow some of my fame this time, but similarly, if we realize the 100% control of Gucci, the Gucci family will surely win If we don't go to Italy, we can only sit on the bench like an outsider with black eyes. So this kind of borrowing is mutual. "

Sophia nodded approvingly.

Simon was just a mere socialite at the party, but she really got to know a lot of local vipers who might be helpful to Gucci's operation in the future.

Think of this, Sophia just about to talk about Cannes, the speed suddenly slowed down, and finally stopped.

Simon looked at the front row suspiciously and asked, "Neil, what's the matter?"

Before Neil Bennett could speak, the car window was knocked a few times.

Simon looked out warily, but saw a woman's face looming out of the window. He recognized the woman's identity. He rolled down the window and asked, "Miss frilly, why are you here?"

Sabina frilly is an actress.

Prior to the Gucci party, Sabina frilly was very eager to take the initiative to talk with Simon several times, but also left a business card, Simon barely remember each other's name.

When the window rolled down and Simon asked, Sabina frilly looked pathetic and said, "Mr. westrow, my car broke down. Can you give me a lift?"

Sabina frilly said, pointing to a black car with a smoky hood on one side of the road.

Simon looked at the car in the light of the car's headlights, a little bewildered.

I didn't expect to encounter such a conventional trick. Moreover, looking at the smoking situation of the car, the woman really got her hands on it. The car is definitely broken down, or even scrapped.

This is the southern suburb of Florence where all kinds of luxury houses and manors gather. Simon's manor in this city is also not far away, less than five kilometers by car.

After all, it was impossible to leave a young woman in the countryside. Simon had to push the door open and let Sabina frilly sit in. He and Sophia were in the back row together.

There are two bodyguards in the front row.

It is well known that kidnapping cases are rampant in Italy. When Simon was still in Los Angeles, many people around him advised him to bring more entourage when he heard that he was going to Italy. So this trip to Europe specially brought four bodyguards. Jennifer didn't come here tonight. Simon left two bodyguards in his manor.With one more outsider, Simon and Sophia stop talking just now.

Sabina frilly appears to be very talkative. Her light clothes and hot body stick to Simon without any disguise. Balabala asks about all kinds of things about Hollywood. She also expresses her admiration for Valerie Gallino's role as cat girl in Batman, and boldly asks if Simon can take her to Hollywood for development.

Because it was not far away, Simon's car soon drove into another manor in the southern suburb of Florence.

Compared with other European residences, Simon is most satisfied with the manor in the southern suburb of Florence, which has a stone fence more than two meters high. The overall fence of more than 600 meters encloses the manor covering an area of five acres. Simon saw the information of the manor at the beginning. Although the Italian style villa in the manor was not in line with Simon's aesthetics, he did not hesitate to buy it because of the wall.

when everyone got off the train, Simon, who had been rubbed with perfume by Sabine Friley, asked, "where do you live, miss freery? I'll ask the driver to take you back."

Sabina frilly came up again, took Simon's arm and asked, "Simon, can I stay here for one night? I've been staying in a hotel these two days, and I always feel that someone is following me. "

Sophia blinked at Simon as he watched him being entangled and walked towards the villa with a smile on his lips.

Simon felt forced to send the woman away, and she might have another moth. Maybe she fainted in his arms, so he had to wave to the two bodyguards, let them go to the annex to have a rest, and take Sabina frilly to the main villa.

In the living room of the villa.

Before she had a rest, when she saw Simon coming in with a tall girl with a hot figure, her face suddenly showed a small expression of resentment. Her voice was a little bit cold. She changed her name and said, "boss, the awards of Cannes Film Festival have come out."

With that, the assistant handed Simon a folder and turned to walk upstairs.

Simon took the folder, then reached for the assistant who was about to leave, and said, "Miss frilly's car broke down. She's just staying here for one night."

Simon held her hand, and he explained to herself that the bitterness of her heart had gone away, and Simon was allowed to sit down on the living room sofa with her.

Sabina frilly is obviously a smart person. Seeing that Simon and Jennifer are friendly, the young tycoon clearly attaches more importance to each other. She wisely doesn't approach Simon any more and sits down on the sofa next to him. Seeing Sophia coming to the living room with a pot of coffee, she politely got up and went over to take the tray to pour coffee for everyone.

The living room unconsciously presents a situation of one man and three women's ups and downs of yin and Yang.

Janet has long said that Simon's personality is like a lion. Unconsciously, his personality seems to be more obvious. Even the top management of the company is gradually showing a trend of ups and downs.

Simon also found that although sometimes women's minds are no less than men's, he is still more adapted to this situation.

Florence and Cannes have about an hour's time difference. Tonight is just the time of Cannes closing ceremony. Simon had previously received an invitation from Cannes officials to attend the closing ceremony, but refused.

Pulling the female assistant to sit down in the living room, Simon opens the documents of Cannes awards results.

Although many films in my memory appeared as scheduled, the award results of this film festival were beyond Simon's expectation.

The biggest variable is undoubtedly the golden palm.

The winner of the Palme d'Or award in my memory is Steven Soderberg's sex, lies and video, because the chairman of the jury of this film festival is VIM Wenders. Simon previously thought that the German film director who always shows a kind of emptiness and alienation in the film should prefer Soderberg's about the confused life of young people at the end of the beat generation in the United States It's a great movie.

However.

As a result, the winner of this year's Palme d'Or has become Giuseppe tonadore's cinema paradise.

If you think about it, "cinema in heaven" is also eligible for the Palme d'Or, but it also favors VIM Wenders. Moreover, going deeper, Simon realized that the difference in the award results should be due to the fact that the publisher of sex, lies and video is different from the original time and space.

The original "sex, lies and video" was released by Miramax, and the Weinstein brothers are well known for their PR skills.

Now, the distributor of the film has become Columbia Pictures.

Although Columbia Pictures does not know how many ranks it has to surpass Miramax, who is now a small studio, its team is obviously inferior to Weinstein brothers, who focus on art films and have been in the European film circle all the year round, in terms of their contacts and experience.

However, "sex, lies and videotape" did not come back empty handed, but won the second Jury Award at Cannes Film Festival.

"My left foot" won only one award for best actor.Daniel Day Lewis's performance in my left foot is definitely worthy of this award.

Simon didn't plan to let "my left foot" hit Palmetto from the beginning, and he is also happy with the results now, especially when "Cinema Paradise" got palmetto.

This is not because "sex, lies and videotape" failed. The main reason is that the last golden palm was "vulgar novel", which is a Hollywood movie. If this golden palm is still a Hollywood movie, then in the next few years, for the sake of balance and other considerations, Hollywood will be very unlikely to get the golden palm again.

Although it is difficult for Cannes Film Festival officials to interfere with the award results, the judges participating in the award selection must also understand that it is not a wise move to continue to award palms to Hollywood. After all, most of the judges are usually European filmmakers. If they are too partial, it will hurt their own interests.

In addition, Simon's favorite Jane Campion's "sweet sister" is nothing.

After recovering from her recent jealousy, she took a play from the coffee table and said to Simon, "this is a new play from dorichman in the evening. It's called a journey to heaven. It tells the story of an old man who went all the way to visit his scattered children after he retired. Dorichman said that he had talked with him twice, But the other side should be waiting for the results of Cannes awards, and did not immediately agree to our invitation for cooperation

Sabina frilly, who was always sitting quietly, just heard that her country's director had won the golden palm, her eyes lit up. At this time, seeing the script in her hand, her expression was more emotional. It's not extravagant for Valerie Gallino to step into Hollywood with the best actress of Venice. If she can play a role in the Italian film invested by danielis entertainment, it will be a springboard.

It's a pity that she doesn't know much English. She doesn't understand the words in Jennifer's words that Denise entertainment didn't make an agreement with Tona Torre. She thought Simon would invest in the film.

Everyone was waiting for a price, and Simon wasn't surprised.

When he was in Geneva, he had seen Jane Campion's "sweet sister". Although the New Zealand Film Makers showed great enthusiasm, they also did not immediately agree to danylis Entertainment's invitation to buy the film, apparently waiting for the award result.

It's more than expected that Giuseppe donadore will make such a choice.

Even, because of the change of award results, Simon found that Denise Entertainment's possibility of getting "Cinema Paradise" at a reasonable price has been greatly reduced. Obviously, with the aura of golden palm, even if the original Italian version of the film seems to be very protracted, Hollywood film makers certainly don't mind fighting for it when danielis entertainment has already made a bid.

In my memory, the box office of the film in North America is only about 10 million US dollars, which is the result of an Oscar for best foreign language film by the Weinstein brothers. The North American cinema version of the film has also been deleted. Once the bidding war started, even if danielis forcibly got the film, there was not much profit to speak of.

Now, it's clear that the Weinstein brothers can't reach for the film any more. They don't have the strength. But the film fell into the hands of other Hollywood film makers, and the result was unpredictable.

Just like Luc Besson's Cannes opening film "blue sea and blue sky" last year, Simon likes this film very much. If it wasn't for Denise's entertainment strength at that time, he would definitely buy the North American distribution right of this film.

After its premiere in Cannes, blue sea and blue sky also made a record box office in France.

However, due to the strategic mistakes of Hollywood distributors, the box office of the film in North America is only a mere $3 million.

Many times, if a film wants to achieve commercial success, the appropriate publicity strategy is even more important than the quality of the film itself.