The Destiny of Nathalie X Read Free Page B

Delphine, though.”
    The next day Bertrand showed Aurélien a small scarred automatic. It cost five hundred dollars. Aurélien did not question him about its provenance.
    He reshot the end of Nathalie’s
levée
. Nathalie, dressed, is about to leave her room, her hand is on the doorknob. Shepauses, turns and goes to a dresser, from whose top drawer she removes the gun. She checks the clip and places it in her fringed suede shoulder bag. She leaves.
    He and Delphine had a prolonged debate about whether they should reshoot the entire walk to the restaurant. Delphine thought it was pointless. How, she argued, would the audience know if the gun was in her shoulder bag or not? But
you
would know, Aurélien countered, and everything might change. Delphine maintained that she would walk the same way whether she had a gun in her bag or not; also they had been in Los Angeles for three weeks and she was growing bored;
Le Destin
had been filmed in five days. A compromise was agreed: they would only reshoot the pizzeria sequence. Aurélien went off to negotiate another night’s filming.
    B OB B ERGER . I hate to admit it but I was grateful to Kaiser Prevost when he brought the
Nathalie X
project to me. As I told him, I had admired Aurélien No’s work for some years and was excited and honored at the possibility of setting up his first English-language film. More to the point, the last two films I exec’d at Alcazar had done me no favors:
Disintegrator
had only grossed 13 before they stopped tracking and
Sophomore Nite II
had gone straight to video. I liked the idea of doing something with more art quality and with a European kind of angle. I asked Kaiser to get a script to me soonest and I raised the project at our Monday morning staff meeting. I said I thought it would be a perfect vehicle for Lanier Cross. Boy, did that make Vincent sit up. Dirty old toad (he’s my uncle).
    K AISER P REVOST . I’ll tell you one fact about Vincent Bandine. He has the cleanest teeth and the healthiest gums in Hollywood. Every morning a dental nurse comes to his house and flosses and cleans his teeth for him. Every morning, 365days a year. That’s what I call class. Have you any idea how much that must cost?
    Kaiser Prevost thought he detected an unsettled quality about Aurélien as he drove him to the meeting at Alcazar. Aurélien was frowning as he looked about him. The day was perfect, the air clear, the colors ideally bright; more than that, he was going to a deal meeting at a major minor studio, or minor major depending on who you were talking to. Usually in these cases the anticipation in the car would be heady, palpable. Aurélien just made clicking noises in his mouth and fiddled with the beads on the end of his dreadlocks. Prevost told him about Alcazar Films, their money base, their ten-picture slate, their deals or potential deals with Goldie, Franklin Dean, Joel, Demi, Carlo Sancarlo and ItalFilm. The names seemed to make no impact.
    As they turned up Coldwater to go over into the valley Prevost finally had to ask if everything was all right.
    “There’s a slight problem,” Aurélien admitted. “Delphine has left.”
    “That’s too bad,” Prevost said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. “Gone back to France?”
    “I don’t know. She’s left with Bertrand.”
    “Bitch, man.”
    “We still have the whole last scene to reshoot.”
    “Listen, Aurélien, relax. One thing you learn about working in this town. Everything can be fixed. Everything.”
    “How can I finish without Delphine?”
    “Have you ever heard of Lanier Cross?”
    V INCENT B ANDINE . My nephew has two sterling qualities: he’s dumb and he’s eager to please. He’s a good-looking kid too and that helps, no doubt about it. Sometimes, sometimes, hegets it right. Sometimes he has a sense for the popular mood. When he started talking about this “Destiny of Nathalie” film I thought he was way out of his depth until he mentioned the fact that