Last night, the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault case was finally decided, and the Manhattan Criminal Court sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison. It's so exciting!
Now, when we look back at the empire that Harvey built in the past, we will find that many clues have been revealed as early as the time of his entrepreneurship and development, but the evil is covered by the scenery, but at that time he will not believe that good and evil will eventually be rewarded.
Harvey rises and falls
Peter Biskender, author of Pulp Cinema, says in his book: "If Hollywood is like the Mafia, the independent film industry is like the Russian mob", "The life of the independent film industry is also full of dirty, cruel and shallow".
The Weinstein brothers and their Miramax had an astonishingly unique vision, [sex, lies and videotapes], [pulp fiction] all succeeded in their operations, but at the same time, they also made people in the industry aware of their ruthlessness and roguery. Frog at the bottom of the well
The filmmakers who worked with Weinstein used such words to describe the Weinstein brothers, "vulgar businessmen" and "unscrupulous and shameful", but Weinstein, at least Harvey Weinstein, thought he still had the feelings of a fan or a poet, as evidenced by the fact that he had been impressed by Truffaut's [Four Hundred Blows]. Harvey was more than happy to tell people how he felt about watching [Four Hundred Blows], and Mark Lipsky, the former head of distribution at Miramax, vowed that he had heard Harvey say it countless times, and that he had watched the film when he was 14 years old, and that "it changed my life."
[400 Hits]
The Weinstein brothers' mother, Milayam, was a strong, strict Jew who would compare other children to Harvey and Bob and force them to compete. Their father, on the other hand, was a jeweler and the way he inspired his children was through his own failed experiences.
Such a family has created the brothers' simple and rough, competitive and competitive character. In 1979, the Weinstein brothers founded the Miramax Company in the name of their parents.
Miramax company logo
Their job was to salvage some films that no one wanted to touch, mainly British X-rated films, to make it more suitable for american audiences by processing themselves, their closets were full of soft pornographic films, they didn't refuse, and they were happy to see the French film [Emmanuel] series endless sequels.
The Weinstein brothers knew nothing about film distribution, but they made a small profit on a musical.
The film is called "The Secret Policeman's Ball," and although Harvey hasn't seen it, he enthusiastically says he did it for Paul McCartney.
[Secret Police Ball] (1982)
Harvey won the film at a very low price, because the producers did not have any hope for the film, and when he learned that there would be a sequel to the film, he became more excited and constantly urged the producer to hand over the sequel.
For producer Martin Lewis, meeting Harvey can be a nightmare, and the more he tries to shake harvey off, the more harvey stalks.
Lewis failed to find a better distribution for the sequel, and the film fell into the hands of Harvey, who cut the two films into about 100 minutes and prepared to sell it based on his previous experience as a musical.
Weinstein brothers, bob on the left, Harvey on the right
Lewis's suggestion is estimated to have taught Weinstein a lot, and their previous so-called publicity was to write reviews and buy pages, but Lewis believed that it was necessary to create extreme, shocking, and exaggerated public opinion noise.
Lewis designed a televised talk show in which Graham Chapman of Monty Python sat down to boycott the film, criticizing it for being lascivious, frivolous, and offensive.
After the film was released in 1982 and collected $6 million, the Weinstein brothers squeezed every drop of the film's blood, and they repeatedly used, dismembered the film, and then sold it to different distributors. Weinstein has since promoted [Erandira] with the same routine, and the use of sexual and controversial topics has made the film adaptation of Márquez's novel a little successful.
Since then, the Weinstein brothers have also made a movie called "See the Share", hoping to follow the path of film creators.
[See the share] (1986)
Although Weinstein's experience is completely unable to control the film, with Harvey's stalking, he has polished the participation of some celebrities, such as Peter Townsend's soundtrack.
The failure of [See-it-All] put Miramax in a trough that was difficult to save, and Mark Lipsky of the distribution department recalled that they were rejected by the theater at that time, and when people heard that the person who came was Miramax' people, they would close the door.
Of course, the Weinstein brothers didn't have much of a business mind, but fortunately they realized from their failure that they knew nothing about filmmaking. Eager to learn the craft, Harvey met [Daydreame] producer Robert Hakeem in Paris and asked the influential man directly if he could teach him how to be a producer.
Hakim tells Harvey about working with Alain Delon about working on "The Dead In the Furious Sea", and he tells Harvey that if he wants to be a successful producer, to have control over the film, to take some threatening measures, this is a lesson that Harvey has used for life. Hunting vultures
The two brothers took the film [Working Girl] from Ritz Boden and her producers with their usual soft and hard methods, which came from Bob Weinstein's persistence, the director thought the film had nothing to do with sex, but the Webster brothers saw sex.
The Merriam-Webster brothers were old-fashioned, and in fact they couldn't accept this film about sexual minorities at all, but they gave it a price of 200,000 yuan higher than anyone else, and the film later made 1.8 million.
[Working Girl] (1986)
In 1988, Weinstein won his first Oscar, and Harvey won Billy Auguste's Pell the Conqueror at Cannes, a very stylistic, but apparently unsellable film, and without the sexual elements that the Merriam-Webster brothers were passionate about.
The Merriam-Webster brothers wanted to reinvent art films, [Pell the Conqueror] was a practice, and Harvey used some deceptive tactics, such as finding a naked shot in the film and putting it in the commercial, and selling it as a genre film, and Pell the Conqueror became an action hero.
[Pelle the Conqueror] (1987)
Harvey is also very confident that the lead actor Max von Sudov will be nominated for the academy, and he can also use unimaginable means to make this possible, the academy gave the best actor nomination, and also awarded the best foreign language film award. When [sex, lies, and videotapes] appeared on Sundance, Miramax wasn't the only company that realized its value.
A number of companies, including New Line, offered prices, new lines offered $20 million, but they also wanted the videotape rights, and turned their attention to Nancy Savoca's [true love] because they didn't talk about it, and Sam Goldwin also gave up because of the videotape copyright.
Bob is more fanatical, he sees the name of the film has "sex" and immediately thinks it will definitely make money, but Weinstein's reputation for rough editing of the film is outstanding, Andso Berger is worried that his film will be poisoned, and when he trades, he also proposes that there will be no additional editing, and miramax can not expect to agree.
The Merriam-Websters agreed to all the unrealistic demands of the Soderbergh side, so much so that the new lineman felt that he must be trying to destroy his company.
[Sex, Lies and Videos] (1989)
At this time, Weinstein needed more films to push himself to the forefront of the industry, and they also took a fancy to [Scandal] and [My Left Foot], [Scandal] because the sexual element naturally attracted Miramax, but Harvey would also be touched by [My Left Foot], and he liked some movies about the frustrated, so he later supported [The King's Speech].
They eliminated commercial propaganda conundrums for both films, made $8.8 million [in scandal], and Miramax gradually walked out of the pit that [the seer has a share] exploded.
[Scandal] (1989)
Miramax chose to put [sex, lies, and videotapes] in August, and after some of the exhaustion of some blockbusters in the late summer slot, he could show the audience something different.
This anti-slot approach was effective, and the audience reacted strongly at the end of the premiere, which made Soderbergh a little fluttery, and they later expanded the screening, and finally earned $30 million worldwide.
Both "Cinema Paradiso" and "Half-Life of the Last Heroes" were cut, the former being left untouched after the Cannes Film Festival because it was too long, harvey tried to cut it to an acceptable look for American audiences, and the latter performed badly at the test screening, and the film's producer Ismail Mochant fell out with Harvey over editing.
Editing became a reason Harvey was hated by the director and attacked by the media, and Stuart Birkin, who was in charge of the post-production, said that Harvey really liked the film, but he also loved money and fame, and he also had the same film as it was, [sex, lies and tapes], [my left foot] were examples. Quentin appeared in Sundance in 1992 with the Falling Water Dog, and many people at the time knew him well and were optimistic about his script, but the film caused controversy in Sundance, with some arguing that the film lacked a sense of social responsibility and legitimized violence, which was also ignored when the awards were presented.
[Falling Water Dog] (1992)
Harvey is not very confident in the film, he brings in his wife and sister to watch the film, the two as Harvey expected, sure enough, by the ear cutting scene, but he still rarely respects Quentin's opinion and does not cut the sadistic scene.
Quentin may be one of the few people who can go against Harvey's wishes and succeed, and perhaps because of this, Quentin and Harvey can continue to work together for a long time. Although so many actors have expressed their love for Harvey at the awards ceremony (1966-2016, the person who was thanked in the Oscar acceptance speech, Harvey Weinstein tied for second place with God, 34 times mentioned, the first place is "Olds"), but they must have realized how hateful Harvey is, matt Damon once compared Harvey to a scorpion in front of reporters, saying that he is difficult to move.
During the two brothers' directing,[see-it-all], Harvey and Bob inflicted a lot of pain on the set crew, taking turns shouting at the actors as a guide.
As the head of Miramax, Harvey was just as manic, and during Miramax's lows, it was a daily nightmare for those who worked there.
Alison Brantley, who was in charge of milamax at the time, thought that if you walked into Harvey's office and didn't feel like he was racking his brains and squeezing you, you must be a fool, but she thought it was part of Harvey's charm.
The Weinstein brothers are in the offices of Miramax, New York
After a certain success with Miramax, the actors, directors and writers were all apprehensive about the Webster brothers' evaluation, and Harvey was good at threatening, which may not require Hakim's guidance.
The Weinstein brothers had a vendetta against those who denigrated them.
When an employee leaves, or goes through a lawsuit, they ask the person involved to sign some restrictive clauses.
After dealing with Harvey, Biskend compares him to Mussolini, arguing that Harvey doesn't want to polish off his rough (or rough) body and saying that people who are too kind are not suitable for working at Miramax. Daniel Day Lewis's comments on Harvey are also one of Harvey's favorite quotes: He only has the ability to choose scripts and buy movies, and as for people, it is a complete disaster.
Bertolucci, on the other hand, said that Harvey was rough by nature, and that when he watched a sad Italian film, he wanted to go to the mirror and say, "Look, I'm in tears." ”
After Miramax's triumph in 1989, a downturn began in 1991, with the Weinstein brothers buying and distributing films in large quantities, about 40 a year, even more than the number of blockbuster studios.
Lewis's only ability to value Harvey is not used at this time, except for the success of Madonna's documentary [Bed with Madonna], it is difficult to have a box office hit.
Miramax suffered a huge loss because the two brothers frantically bought too many films, and the Weinstein brothers began to think about starting a branch called Dimen Pictures, or considering selling the company.
The box office didn't break through Miramax that year, at $2.5 million, though it has since made $20 million from sales in video stores.
Bob actually said he didn't want to turn Miramax into Disney, but they were about to go bankrupt.
Introduced, they met Disney's Katzenberg, who bought Miramax's music film [Running to the Sun] and the videotape rights to five films.
[Running to the Sun] (1992)
The Wen brothers were reckless, and although they could make money with one or two films, they had ways to put the company in crisis. When Katzenberg asked the treasurer to call Harvey on April Fool's Day to talk to him about the company's sale, the Merriam-Webster brothers quoted a high price of $90 million. Disney hopes that Miramax can be a bastion in its strategy, and their Oscars can get Disney some help in live-action movies.
Katzenberg and Michael Eisner also believe they are capable of fighting rough people like the Webster brothers.
Bob and Harvey were terrified that they were about to be included in the blockbuster system, but signed the agreement, and Disney helped Miramax with the debt and promised to pay the Webster brothers $1.5 million a year in pay.
Biskender believes that the acquisition for Miramax is like a Beetle car with cadillac engines.
(To be continued)