Chapter 14
2007 Words
Friday, December 26th.
In the late afternoon at Pilgrim Middle School in north Hollywood, Daisy Bell is participating in a photography club activity.
Every now and then she looks up to check the time, like she has something important scheduled.
Outside the door of the Photography Club classroom, fellow student Blake White was leaning against the wall, pointing a wristwatch on his hand through the glass in the door toward Daisy.
He looked like he wanted to rush into the photography club and grab Daisy out and take her away with him.
When the day's club activities finally ended, Daisy practically stormed out of the classroom.
Blake grabbed the car keys in his hand and headed out the door, "Oh my god, we're going to be late."
The two had gone ahead and met a few friends for the trip to the Los Angeles premiere of The Adele Hugo Story.
Living in L.A. gives Daisy and Brett the unique advantage of being star-struck.
Whether it's a charity dinner or a movie premiere, Daisy and Brett have been outside the venue more times than they can count at the tender age of seventeen.
And the reason the two are so nervous today is because Margaret Ajani will be attending the premiere.
The newcomer actress, apart from that charity dinner a couple of months ago, has not attended a single grand party.
And in contrast to her low-key personal schedule, Margaret Ajani has pretty much swept the major outposts of the awards since the beginning of December for "The Story of Adele Hugo".
The movie hasn't been released to the public yet, and it's unclear how North American audiences will feel about her, but Hollywood critics are clearly going crazy for her.
"This is by no means a simple romance movie; Ajani gives Adele the power to compel, and in her role it's as if you're being clutched tightly to the heart, a romance and madness that soaks into the bones, as perfect and pure as idealism." --Vanity Fair
"She is about to pounce on darkness and destruction, the power of an absolute that should not exist on earth, and if it weren't for Margaret Adjani, there would be no Adele who seems to be holding a sword and stabbing you in the chest." --The Hollywood Reporter
"I wonder if the camera Truffaut used is still there? The camera glass that withstood a gaze like Ajani's must be shattered, if not insane." --The Times
"Margaret Ajani's captivating face and desperate eyes make this movie of a lifelong, madly chasing love escape the superficial surface of male bonding and become so deep and sharp as to resemble a throat-slashing blade." --The Daily Planet
The literary film, "The Story of Adele Hugo," has been making a big splash at the major outpost awards in recent days, winning the hearts of critics alone.
As for commercial films, Pierce Brosnan is gaining momentum, and his mesmerizing charisma makes "007 Tomorrow" look more like the box office boss of the year, while "Titanic," which opens on the nineteenth, is in some danger.
The $20 million-plus first-week box office isn't bad, but combined with the whopping $200 million it cost to make, as soon as the first-week box office came out, many media outlets immediately proclaimed - this is the worst money-loser of all time.
Fox executives wanted to jump off a building.
There are even critics already scoffing "This is a $200 million movie?"
If it continues to flop later in the season, Cameron is really going down with the ship this time.
Even the cast isn't immune, and if things go as expected, leading man Leonardo DiCaprio will soon be strapped with a box office poison title.
Thinking about Leonardo, fan girl Daisy Bell simply doesn't have the courage to look up Titanic movie reviews.
Leo, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars and Golden Globes for A Different Kind of Sky and won Berlin's Romeo and Juliet, has always been a favorite of professional critics.
But when the heavily invested "Titanic" came out, he was drowned in verbal abuse.
Everyone on this big ship seemed to become precarious.
When Daisy and Blake arrived at the theater, a number of fans and reporters had gathered outside the doors.
As the latest independent film that the Weinstein brothers have given a lot of hope to, "The Story of Adele Hugo" took a good release theaters.
Especially with the year-end blockbusters piling up, it was surprising enough for a literary film that the organizers took the Los Angeles premiere seriously.
The fans gathered at this time, in addition to indie film enthusiasts, a large portion of director Truffaut's longtime followers, and another not-so-minority of young people, came for Ajani, who recently swept the major outpost awards.
One of the most fascinating things about Hollywood is the legendary ability to create a star who may have been a newcomer just a few months ago, but who will be noticed by thousands overnight and will be on her way to the top.
This incredible legend is even more powerful to some than the movie itself.
The Weinstein brothers would not miss a chance to get some box office and attention, not to mention the fact that this was Margot's first starring role in a movie, so of course she had to be at the premiere.
Margaret was sitting in the limousine on her way to the theater, flipping through a newspaper.
Brian Lord, who was in the same car, looked at the military section of the New York Times in her hand and mused for a second, "Mr. Stark has been missing for nearly three months, and no terrorist group has claimed the matter."
"I know," Margaret closed the paper, "The media, all over the world these days, are using Stark as a recipe for boosting sales aren't they?"
It's not unlikely that some people are looking forward to his death in the Bay Area, it's best to provide them with a big story anyway, disappearing without a word can't be good for newspaper sales.
Brian reminded Margo, "Stark wasn't a good choice anyway, even if I put together a PR team of hundreds for you, it won't stop the Nuggets Girls from being a bad title."
Brian Lord certainly wouldn't have said those words if Margaret was just a pretty girl with mediocre talent.
But he had expectations of Margot that went beyond the ordinary--the
He wants Ajani to be a shining name in the movie world, and how can he compromise his reputation for a playboy when her beauty and talent give her the chance to be the most precious jewel in the crown of Hollywood laurels.
Who will be remembered years from now?
A great actor in the glory of world cinema, or one of a billionaire's countless ex-girlfriends?
The theater's sign had come into view, and the noise was faintly heard.
For some reason, Margaret suddenly thought of that dead morning - the middle-aged anchor on the TV screen, broadcasting the attack and disappearance of Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries.
Margaret couldn't figure out what she was thinking at the time, and she actually dialed the mutant leader's phone number-
"Mr. Xavier, I hope you'll forgive me for taking the liberty of calling, I think I do need some help."
"Perhaps, you would like to handle a missing person case."
Voices clamored outside the limo, and the corner of Margaret's mouth quirked up, "Don't worry, Brian, I certainly know what's more important."
She just didn't want that tart and egotistical fellow to somehow be buried in a desert country.
That just didn't go well with his demeanor.
It's like he was born to be a playboy, a billionaire, sleep with all the pretty girls in the world, and then jerk his chin up in an underhanded way, "I'm a real-life genius."
The limo finally came to a stop, and Margo flashed a charming smile at the crowd of photographers outside, drilling out of the car in an impeccably elegant pose.
She was stunningly beautiful in a white gown with dark hair and blue eyes.
In an instant, even those fans who had come for director Truffaut were stunned by her regal beauty and aura.
"Man, it's like she has Medusa's eyes, I feel like my heart is frozen."
"Because of the smile at the corner of her mouth, I felt like a teenager in hot love."
The staff struggled to stop the interviewer, and Margot stepped inside the theater, in the front row, between director Truffaut and Jude Law.
On the other side of director Truffaut sat the Weinstein brothers.
She had just sat down when she heard Truffaut's voice, "Margot, this gown of yours seems to resemble the white dress in the last scene of the movie."
"My stylist went to great lengths to get the news buzz the two Weinsteins demanded." Margo raised an eyebrow.
Harvey Weinstein smiled broadly and replied, "Gee, honey, there's simply no more thoughtful young man than you."
At that moment, the picture floats on the screen and the movie begins -
"Adele Hugo's story is a true story about some real people."
In 1863, the United States had been divided for two years due to the Civil War.
Whether or not Britain would recognize the independence of the Confederacy and join in the opposition to the Yankees became a political focus of world attention.
Since 1862, British troops had been stationed in Halifax, the provincial capital of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Originally an Acadian colony of the French, the place was in turmoil and the townspeople worried day and night about smuggled goods and wanted Yankee criminals.
Instead, the French girl named Adele traveled thousands of miles and crossed the ocean alone to the war-torn New World of America in search of Albert Pinzon, the English soldier she was infatuated with.
But Pinzon did not value her infatuation, and she was so disoriented by the successive heavy blows that she could not even recognize the man who had haunted her and was willing to give everything.
On the dilapidated street, Adele, with her hair dirty and fluffy, turned her gaze away from Pinzon as if she didn't recognize him, and for a moment it was as if there was a connotation of a Shakespearean tragedy, a grief colder than death.
A deathly silence fell over the theater.
Eventually, Adele was sent back to France to spend the rest of her life in an institution.
She lived there for forty years, enjoying gardening and playing the piano, and insisting on keeping her diary, in a language all her own.
Adele was the longest living member of the Hugo family.
Her father died on 5/22/1885.
On the day of the funeral, all of France observed a moment of silence, Victor Hugo's body rested under the Arc de Triomphe all night, and the next day, two million Parisians, escorted his coffin from the Place de l'Etoile to the Pantheon.
Adele died on April 25, 1915, and due to the chaos caused by World War I, her death did not attract any public attention.
Fifty years ago, as she was about to leave Guernsey for the war-torn New World of America to find the love of her life, she stood on the seashore of the heaving sea, her stunningly poignant face reflected on the wide screen--
Her eyes were so wild, obsessed and compelling, "To meet you over a thousand mountains, such a thing as only I can do!"
Everyone leaned against the back of the theater chair, their whole body chilled, in their eyes were tears under the shock, unable to fall easily, but their whole body almost wanted to tremble.
It had nothing to do with the plot, the technique, the mannerisms, or the age, Margaret Adjani had so easily, so lightly, cut a fatal knife in your throat.
In the deathly silence, someone murmurs, "Only she could do it."
"Only she can do it."
- Writer
