The good reviews for The Tuner spread fast. Soon, everyone wanted to see it. The lines got so long that many people, especially the media reporters, couldn't get in!
They stood in the long, long lines, watching more and more people arrive. They were starting to get desperate.
"Ugh, I hate the Cannes Film Festival!" one reporter with a yellow pass complained. "Can't they just get rid of this stupid pass system?"
The other reporters around him, who also had the lowest-level yellow and blue passes, all nodded.
"That's right!" another one said. "If I can't see The Tuner today, how am I supposed to write my review? My boss will tear me apart!"
"It's just too hard!"
"I'm so jealous of the big newspapers. They all got to see it already."
"Yep, so we just have to wait in this awful line."
"I just hope I can get in today..."
All the reporters were gritting their teeth, feeling very frustrated.
Anyone who has been to the Cannes Film Festival knows about their pass system. It's a place where you wait in line forever. The passes have different colors.
If you have a white pass (for the really big, important newspapers), you don't have to wait at all.
If you have a pink pass, you wait a little.
But if you have a blue or yellow pass (like most of these reporters), you have to wait in line until you feel like you're going to lose your mind.
So, at Cannes, you always see hundreds of reporters waiting in the hot sun, sweating and getting grumpy. After waiting for hours, they finally get inside.
If the movie is good, they're happy. But if the movie is bad... you can just imagine how angry they are. They will write the meanest reviews and curse the director. That's why Cannes is famous for having the toughest, "boo-ing-est" media in the world.
However, today, after their long wait, the reporters all came out of the theater breathing a huge sigh of relief.
"'The Tuner' was good!" one said. "That's right!" said another. "Thank goodness! If I had waited two hours in that line just to watch a bad movie, I think I would have gone crazy!"
"My gosh, I really didn't expect that. That Zane Blackwood guy... he's a billionaire, but he actually made an excellent short film. And he's so young!"
"That kid is really impressive. Even if he wasn't already rich, he'd probably become a billionaire just from making movies."
"I bet The Tuner is going to be on the front page of all the newspapers tomorrow."
"Guys, what are we waiting for? We have to hurry back and write our articles!"
As soon as the movie was over, all the reporters ran back to their offices, hoping to be the first to publish their story.
Just as they guessed, that evening, all the newspapers were talking about The Tuner.
The Cannes Film Biweekly, which is the official newspaper for the festival, posted its review right away. The title was: "A Short but Powerful Film About a Human Tragedy!"
The article said: "The Tuner is less than 14 minutes long, but the story is very deep. It's a clever idea about a fake blind tuner, and it shows all the bad parts of people—like greed, being a coward, and being a fake. We bet everyone who watches it hopes the tuner doesn't get killed in the end. But the director gives us a lot of hints that it must be a tragedy. The open ending just makes you think even more."
People who read the review loved it. All this good talk just made more tourists and movie fans want to see the film.
A tourist from Iceland, who was reading the paper, saw the review. His eyes lit up. "'The Tuner'?" he said to his friend. "It stars that Paul Walker guy. And the director... wow, it's that young, super-rich kid from America, Zane Blackwood! Since everyone says it's so good, we have to go see it."
The next morning, Zane was enjoying a beautiful breakfast in his fancy hotel suite. He had invited his director, Christopher Nolan, and his new star, Paul Walker, to eat with him.
Paul was so excited he could barely sit still.
"Mr. Blackwood, you have to read this!" he said, holding up a newspaper. "It's from the 'French Mirror.' They're praising my 'excellent performance' and said my 'superb acting skills' added a lot to the movie!"
"Oh! And this one, too!" Paul said, pointing to another paper. "And this one! They're all reporting on The Tuner! Almost all of them are good reviews!"
Paul was a young guy, and this was his first big hit. He was just chattering away, full of happiness.
Zane just sat back, sipping his coffee with a big, proud smile. He was so happy for his new friend.
Hehe, Zane thought to himself. He knew he had a little secret help (from the system), but as far as the world knew, this was all his idea. Many newspapers were already saying The Tuner would definitely win first place in the new short film contest.
Zane couldn't help but feel excited. If he won, it would be his first personal award for making a movie!
"Okay, okay," Zane said with a warm laugh, cutting off Paul's excited chatter. "Let's just stay humble, my friend. We don't want to get too proud." He was trying to keep his own excitement down, too.
"Okay, Mr. Blackwood," Paul said, calming down.
Zane really liked Paul Walker. He admired his talent and his good attitude. In fact, he liked him so much that he had already asked his writers back in L.A. to start working on a secret, new movie script... one just for Paul. It was called The Fast and the Furious.
Zane then turned to Christopher Nolan. "Nolan, eat slowly. Your big premiere for Memento isn't until 10 a.m."
"Don't worry," Nolan said. He was always calm.
Later that day, at noon, the premiere of Memento finished. As the audience came out of the theater, they looked... stunned. But they also looked hooked.
They were stunned because many of them didn't quite understand what they had just seen. But they were hooked because the movie was so smart and so thrilling!
Martin Scorsese, the head judge of the whole festival, walked right up to Christopher Nolan. "Director Nolan," he said, "congratulations on your masterpiece. That was a very beautiful film."
Zane stood by, beaming with pride for his new director. He knew that when a movie is that smart, it makes people want to go back and watch it two or three more times, just to catch all the secrets.
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