Chapter 168 – A Gentleman’s Country
Alan Wilson had even been in two minds, figuring out how to carry out the sinful plan. Like many countries, the majority of British citizens, in this day and age, did not consider acting to be a noble profession, but of course that was not wrong.
Actors have always been associated with the flesh trade, especially in England, where they can be said to have nothing to do with high society.
This was also the case with Vivien Leigh, who dreamed of becoming a great actress, but her mother didn’t support her dream because she didn’t consider theater acting to be a high society profession.
Of course now Vivien Leigh is famous, earning figures beyond the reach of the average citizen, and is undoubtedly the envy of the world in the eyes of the average citizen, but for the upper class, Vivien Leigh’s situation hasn’t changed.
Englishmen born in British India were, by and large, one of two types of people, either civil servants or soldiers, and sailors who went on adventures were not going to have a stable life.
So even if it was a guess, Alan Wilson could tell that Vivien Leigh’s family of origin should not be bad.
Alan Wilson introduced the situation of British India, a rare case of not focusing on a negative image, but rather pretending to be a reasonable Chinese guest, while also stating that compared to the British mainland, British India was indeed relatively backward.
“In fact, Ms. Vivien Leigh’s image, can be completely for the British Empire to serve, the actor as a profession to say, I personally do not have the slightest prejudice, the same think that the actor if you can play a role, as much as to help the empire to serve.” Alan Wilson objectively discusses the role of the actor.
Just that group of rednecks in the United States could develop cultural hegemony, and since that group of rednecks could, Britain could try as well.
Cultural hegemony refers to the act of imposing ideological and cultural values between countries and nations, between nations and peoples, a kind of cultural power, cultural colonization, as long as the countries and nations that have economic power and attempt to impose their ideological and cultural consciousness will develop cultural hegemony, and will cause other national cultures to be affected.
Hollywood in the latter days can be said to have attacked the globe, except for ruffling a few countries that are immune to it. As for a certain movie city that was dominated by kung fu movies and claimed to be the second largest in the world, it was similarly decimated.
Hollywood produced about ten percent of the world’s film volume each year, but accounted for more than half of the world’s screen time, and its box office revenue accounted for more than seventy-five percent of the world’s total box office revenue.
Long before World War I, American cinema one-upped Europe’s oldest cinematic power, and also France, which invented the movie.
However, so far, in the field of literary films European films are still not false to the U.S. American films crushed Europe is after the outbreak of special effects technology, completely make all the rivals are out of the ability to fight against.
In front of Vivien Leigh, Alan Wilson said no one knows more about movies than I do, and has a set of words for the development of movies.
The more Foltseva heard, the more wrong it was, talking to an actor with words?
“Mr. Allen, how do you say an actor’s influence?” Vivienne also wanted actors to be a respected profession, but never had a clue.
“Maybe there needs to be a public service movie, definitely tied to charity. Put in some hard work and let the citizens of European countries know that there are still many countries and regions of the world in poverty.” Alan Wilson said with a compassionate mood, “By the way, Miss Vivian, you were born in British India, I believe that if you arrive in British India one day, you will be able to have the effect of thousands of people, because you represent the civilization and philosophy of the British Empire, and some of the things that you do are even more believable.”
This was Vivian? Foltseva watched as Vivienne seemed to be getting more and more intent, and opened her mouth to interrupt, “I didn’t expect Mr. Allen to know something about movies, I wonder if Soviet movies can get some good advice?”
This is of course not difficult to defeat Alan Wilson, Soviet films have had an important impact on half the world, and without pause, he replied, “Soviet films are based on realism, and have had an important impact on many places. The Soviet Union was a literary powerhouse, and its excellent literature and strong literary tradition provided a solid foundation for the development of Soviet cinema. One phenomenon that should not be overlooked is that almost all the best movies in Soviet history were adapted from excellent literary works. The cultural heritage was a booster for the Soviet movie business.”
What does Vivien Leigh, an ordinary actress, know about cultural exchange between two countries? The real exchange is still Alan Wilson, covering for Vivien Leigh as a protector, facing off against Foltseva, the Soviet cultural czar a decade or so later.
For the game between the officials of the two countries, this is something that Vivien Leigh has never encountered before, and one thing she has discovered is that this young man knows so much.
“This knowledge, ah, it’s all learned and mixed.” Alan Wilson’s mouth was non-stop like a machine gun, starting from the birth of French film history, all the way to the United States coming up later with the size of the market, and then starting to chuck in personalities, stating that there was no way the Soviet Union could be able to compete with American movies simply by relying on administrative power.
“Treatment is the soft underbelly of any class in the Soviet Union, a good actor deserves good treatment, this is not a problem that can be solved by mere awareness, of course like the United States is also too extreme, the genius of any industry is a rarity, and there aren’t a lot of people inside the civil service who are like me with such a strong knowledge base.”
The corner of Foltseva’s mouth twitched gently, compared to the seemingly huge knowledge reserve, the shamelessness of this imperialist bureaucrat in front of her was truly a rare sight.
The cultural exchange representatives on the British side were better, as for the Soviet part, the annihilation of alcohol was significantly faster than my Great Britain, which made Alan Wilson sigh that the funding of the Foreign Office had to go up a bit to make it work.
Foltseva had to leave for a while first, let the Soviet cultural exchange representatives, do not be too obsessed with alcohol.
“Alan, you’re not too old, are you, I’ll call you that.” Vivien Leigh asked after Foltseva left, “Is what you said about improving the social status of actors feasible?”
Of course it’s not feasible, people’s prejudices will only be passed down from one generation to the next! Alan Wilson spoke slowly, “It depends on the effort one puts in during the course of one’s life. In fact, I have an idea that a public service film of the British colonies should be filmed, so that the citizens of the country can understand how the British Empire is leading a backward civilization to progress. Of course the actors are all individuals, we can’t force the actors to do anything, it all has to be talked about, and it has to be patriotic.”
Alan Wilson was an old imperialist when he opened his mouth, in his mouth many places were doomed to be undeveloped without the guidance of the British Empire, he could even find examples, like India after independence.
“I can talk about it too, and I can be patriotic. If there’s a chance that my country needs me, I’ll definitely give it a try.” Vivien Leigh nodded blankly, actors could also be patriotic, and could contribute to the country just as well.
Fei Wenli asked Alan Wilson if he had seen his movie, the truth is of course no, but Alan Wilson once again demonstrated the basic qualities of an imperial civil servant, stating that he was able to feel from the movie, there was not a trace of timidity and artifice in Fei Wenli’s acting, but there was a mixture of untamed and untamed in the unintentional softness and charm that was available to her.
In Gone with the Wind, she seems to have been born for the role of Hao Sijia, like a cat-like girl, cunning and charming and lovely, those eyes are simply superb.
“But I still like the happy ending.” Alan Wilson spoke eloquently, responding with a long reserve of words, not in the least seen by Vivienne.
Foltseva’s return had saved Allen Wilson, who was stepping into a state of wordiness, but in Vivien Leigh’s mind, she had already made a deep impression on the young diplomat.
“A man must be able to blow!” It was already late at night, there were very few cars on the road, under the moonlight, the highway was like a white ribbon leading into the distance, the street trees on both sides of the road were flying back, and the surroundings were so quiet. Opened the car window, the cold wind whistling in, suddenly let Allen Wilson’s mind clear a lot.
Fortunately, in 1945, there were no rules about drunk driving, otherwise he might not have been spared the fate of being fined.
He very much wanted to take the opportunity to serve the country, get Fei Wenli to British India, to his own territory, how Fei Wenli can not fly out of the palm of his hand.
This is not a momentary thought, but is ready to put into action plan. This is all for the interests of the British Empire, to British India’s subjects, to take a certain degree of paralysis attitude, in order to facilitate the next action.
The vast rural areas of the untouchables Allen Wilson care, but as long as the townspeople do not act rashly, has been considered a success, as long as the elite of British India is stable, British India is stable.
The most critical Allen Wilson got Fei Wenli’s contact information, and so on which day Fei Wenli’s husband is not there, he can go as a friend to be a guest.
Arrived at the hotel Allen Wilson got off, behind a row of cars slowly stopped, for reasons of courtesy as well as security reasons, he could not let a group of Soviets, in a drunken state after the London streets flaunted.
For this reason it had to risk the two countries being at war, and have an MI5 agent drive and return these Soviet cultural representatives.
“These Russians are clearly more interested in alcohol than in cultural exchange.” An MI5 agent, frowning, commented to the drifting Soviets.
Even Foltseva was walking unsteadily, only on the surface there was nothing serious yet, Alan Wilson sighed and said, “Let’s send these people up, the British Empire is after all a land of gentlemen.”