Wang Ruoye
Chinese hear Cannes, it is often customary to add the word red carpet at the back. It is really because in the past few years, Chinese micro-business people are extremely obsessed with the Cannes red carpet, which has led to large and small business agents embarking on the journey, wearing strange costumes to scratch their heads on the Cannes red carpet. Their red carpet photos were transmitted back to China, and even the gold content of the word Cannes was reduced.
In addition to micro-business, the fame of "rubbing" the red carpet also flows to female stars who have no works shortlisted but want to occupy a place on the red carpet with their clothes. A reporter once asked Gong Li, "There are more and more Chinese actresses walking the Cannes red carpet, as the first actress in the mainland, can you evaluate their outfits?" After politely praising everyone's beautiful costumes, Gong Li changed his tone and said, "If I didn't participate in the competition in a movie but walked so many times, everyone might think that I had something wrong with my brain." ”
In this atmosphere, the Chinese people also show a polarized attitude towards Cannes. As one of the three major international film festivals, the Cannes International Film Festival plays an important role in the hearts of filmmakers and audiences. But blanket stars, Internet celebrities, micro-merchants and other groups continue to appear on the Cannes red carpet, and also let "Cannes red carpet give money to go?" "It has become the most deeply related question to Cannes in Baidu's Q&A when every film festival is held.
So, is the Cannes red carpet really like the neighborhood market next door to your house, you can come and go? The answer is somewhat complicated.
Official quotas are given and lost
After the opening of the 76th Cannes International Film Festival, Gong Li was invited by the L'Oréal brand to attend the festival and walked the Cannes red carpet twice. Unlike in the past, this time Gong Li was neither a shortlisted work nor a judge, so someone took her previous statement as a sarcastic statement, "Gong Li walked the red carpet this time to hit herself in the face." ”
On May 14, 2023, L'Oréal officially announced that brand spokespersons Gong Li and Zhu Yilong were invited to participate in the Cannes International Film Festival. It's just that Zhu Yilong not only received an invitation from the L'Oréal brand, but also invited him by the Chopard brand, and his film work "Mistake by the River" was also shortlisted for a kind of attention unit at the Cannes International Film Festival. In contrast, Gong Li walked the red carpet and seemed less confident than before.
But in fact, brand invitation has always been the mainstream way to invite guests at the Cannes International Film Festival. The guests who actually participated in the Cannes Film Festival because of the shortlisted film were far less than the number of guests invited by the brand.
Following L'Oréal, other Cannes International Film Festival sponsor brands have also officially invited many co-actors to Cannes to participate in the International Film Festival. BMW invited Yi Yangqianxi, Celine invited Zhang Jingyi, Qeelin invited Liu Shishi... Including Cheng Shi'an, Qianhui here, Wang Hongxingquan and other Internet celebrities, they were all invited by the brand to walk on the Cannes red carpet.
Internet celebrity blogger Ampaga who walked the red carpet of the 75th Cannes International Film Festival in 2022 told Bone Duo, "The Cannes red carpet is very common in the eyes of French or international celebrities. It's not just international superstars who walk the Cannes red carpet, which is full of internet celebrities and unknown actors. ”
Ampaga was invited to the Cannes International Film Festival in 2022 precisely because she bought jewelry worth about 30 million from a brand in 2021, and the following year she received two Cannes red carpet invitations from the brand. Before buying a large luxury item, brand sales often inform customers in advance of the relevant additional benefits, which can be regarded as a means of sales and unique after-sales service. The Cannes red carpet spot is one such perk.
According to Ampaga, the number of Cannes red carpet spots scattered by each brand varies depending on the depth of the brand's binding with the Cannes International Film Festival. "Brands like Chopard, which sponsor film festivals every year, have more red carpet spots at their disposal." Many sponsor brands also choose to host their own branded dinners during the festival cycle. Generally, as long as you attend the dinner, you can get a place on the red carpet in Cannes.
Every year, like Ampaga, nearly 100 guests get red carpet invitations through the brand, "Some of them don't want to walk the red carpet themselves, and it is reasonable to sell or transfer the spot to others." Ampaga said she is currently living in Australia and it takes at least 24 hours to fly to Europe, "After arriving in Cannes, I have to prepare red carpet dresses non-stop, ask photographers to take pictures, and I am very tired." Next time I get the chance, I don't really want to walk the red carpet anymore. ”
And this part is officially allowed, then given by the brand, and finally through the guest outflow of the quota, where will it eventually go? At least around 2017, when micro-businessmen were popular in Cannes, the return of these places was not a mystery.
Chinese drivers string together the chain of interests
Li Xing, another Internet celebrity blogger who bought a place on the Cannes red carpet in 2017, told Bone Duo that places on the Cannes red carpet, premieres, dinners and other events can basically be purchased in the hands of local Chinese drivers in Cannes. "From red carpet invitations, down to costumers, stylists, photographers, those Chinese drivers who drive Alpha can help you get it."
According to the quotation list circulated on the Internet, the red carpet price of the opening ceremony of the 69th Cannes International Film Festival is 20,000 euros, equivalent to about 150,000 yuan. Despite repeated official rebuttals at the Cannes International Film Festival, invitations are issued by the authorities, and selling and reselling is illegal. However, invitations that are not strong real-name systems can be easily transferred, giving unofficially invited "guests" an opportunity.
With the great momentum of the Cannes International Film Festival, various local industries closely related to the festival have developed rapidly in recent years. After landing in Cannes, Ampaga realized that the dress he had prepared in advance was not suitable for the grand red carpet atmosphere, so he wanted to rent a more gorgeous and imposing dress in Cannes.
During the festival, haute couture dress designers from Arab, Lebanese, Russian and other countries will set up studios in Cannes to provide red carpet dress rental services for guests in need. "Like Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li, movie superstars, their dresses must have a special styling team responsible for communication. But for many celebrities, as well as people like us who only walk the red carpet once in a while, it's convenient to rent a dress in Cannes on a temporary basis. Ampaga said the match for the gown was the photography of the red carpet area.
GettyImages usually contains high-resolution images of every guest walking the red carpet, and dress designers search and download photos of their dresses being worn on the Cannes red carpet and upload the photos to their brand websites. Guests walked the Cannes red carpet wearing designer dresses, which featured on the Cannes red carpet as a promotional element for their brands.
The red carpet retouching pictures posted by Li Xing on his social media account also need red carpet photographers to shoot for them. "When you buy a red carpet invitation, the red carpet picture is already counted in it. After all, the most important thing to walk to Cannes is to take a few sets of red carpet pictures. Li Xing said that photographers can also be arranged by Chinese drivers.
Outside the red carpet, photographers with long guns and short cannons meet people by dress. Li Xing needs to send a photo of the dress he wants to wear to the photographer in advance, and the photographer will also tell Li Xing in advance where to pose the spot on the red carpet and which step to smile back.
"Drivers, makeup artists, stylists, photographers, every link is closely related, they each have the resources to introduce customers to each other. Where there are Chinese, there is business. Ampaga said that fashion is a pillar industry in France, and Chinese people may only be exposed to some fur from afar, but whether it is the Cannes International Film Festival or Paris Fashion Week, the interest chain for Chinese tends to be perfected.
CCTV reported in 2019 that Cannes red carpet invitations have become a way for some beauty pageants and travel agencies to make money. The person in charge of a beauty pageant company in Guangzhou told CCTV that when the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival was held in 2019, he would take a group of nearly 50 people to Cannes to walk the red carpet. At one point, Cannes became Chinatown.
But it is also undeniable that the Cannes International Film Festival has never taken effective measures to explicitly prohibit carpet rubbing, which is also one of the reasons why micro-businesses, Internet celebrities, and unknown actors turn the Cannes red carpet into a check-in place. The tourism industry in Cannes due to the film festival is also full of contributions from Chinese "blanket stars".
Why influencer bloggers love Cannes
Unlike previous years, when walking the Cannes red carpet without a work is bound to be ridiculed, Chinese people have been absent from the international stage for three years, and Chinese people now encourage Chinese stars who appear at international fashion weeks, film festivals and various events.
Guan Xiaotong, Zhang Yuqi, Gong Jun, Gao Ye, Haiqing, Liu Shishi, Zhong Chuxi are all actors who walk the red carpet with zero works, but everyone's attention on this is focused on their red carpet performance. In addition, two Chinese films, "Burning Winter" and "Mistake by the River", stood out from the red carpet news and were highly discussed.
Even, Cheng Shi'an, Wan Qianhui, and Wang Hongxingquan, who walked the red carpet as Internet celebrities at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival, have also received varying degrees of praise from netizens. First, all three of them posted official brand invitations, and there is no suspicion of buying red carpet places to rub the heat; Second, unlike the micro-businessmen who dressed up strangely on the red carpet, the brilliant but not out-of-place red carpet styling made them lose a certain degree of topicality, but also retained more decency for them.
After walking the Cannes red carpet in May 2022, Ampaga posted his retouched pictures on the Cannes red carpet in Little Red Book, but was frantically complained by netizens, and finally had to delete the blog post. Fast forward to the 2023 Cannes International Film Festival, Ampaga chose to publish photos again, this time the style of the comment area changed abruptly. Many netizens are praising her beautiful dress and exquisite makeup.
"If you are invited by the brand to participate in the Cannes International Film Festival, the brand side will monitor the relevant public opinion online, and the blog post you posted is too badly complained, although the brand side does not say it explicitly, but you can feel the meaning of persuasion." Ampaga said that the public is more tolerant of Internet celebrity bloggers walking the red carpet this year.
The act of throwing a lot of money to check in on the red carpet in Cannes can be understood in the eyes of Li Xing and Ampaga. Li Xing said, "The moment you walk on the red carpet, whether those cameras are filming you or not, the clicking shutter sound gives you the illusion of star-studding." At that moment you feel like an international superstar. "On the Cannes red carpet, not only Chinese Internet celebrities, but also many foreign Internet celebrities are also enthusiastic about this.
Once upon a time, the significance of Cannes to micro-businessmen, Internet celebrities, and unknown actors was to return to China after walking the red carpet to send countless press releases, publicizing that they are different from the past and that they are the people who can walk the Cannes red carpet. But when the gold content of the Cannes red carpet was inflated by the "non-superstars" that appeared in Zatui, it made the Cannes red carpet return to its originality.
The Internet celebrities who came to Cannes this time are no longer willing to advocate the "international influence" of nothingness. Even if you still want to use the title of Cannes to add color to your image, the simple "rub" is more generous and decent than before. As Ampaga said, the Cannes red carpet itself is not special in the eyes of international celebrities, but just a gathering of film and fashion industries, and the artistic and commercial value of it is not contradictory. Internet celebrities rub the carpet, excusable.
"Guests invited by sponsored brands come to Cannes more often to attend the dinner hosted by the brand. These dinners can be understood as sales scenes, with celebrities and actors dressed in branded clothing and jewelry to showcase the brand to invited celebrities. Ampaga said that along with the red carpet invitation, she was also given a movie ticket for the premiere, "That movie was a bit literary, and many people left halfway through when they saw half of them bored." ”
The 76th Cannes International Film Festival continues, and there are still Chinese stars and Internet celebrity bloggers walking on the red carpet of various premieres every day. Outside the red carpet, there are red carpet spots on sale and Internet celebrity faces from afar.
With the help of a well-established chain of interests, it is becoming easier and easier to achieve through the Cannes red carpet gilding. But for influencers, when it becomes easy to walk the Cannes red carpet, it is already out of the top choice. It is still unknown who will spend the next "Cannes red carpet", but the important thing is that when everyone is accustomed to the appearance of Internet celebrities on the Cannes red carpet, it is a good thing that the attention to the Cannes International Film Festival returns to the film itself.