Big Apple
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, and the Venice Film Festival was slowly coming to an end, but the highlight had just begun. For all film festivals, the most attractive part was definitely the awards ceremony, especially when a number of outstanding works were showcased this year. For example, England's 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead', New Zealand's 'An Angel at My Table', Chile's 'The Moon in the Mirror', and America's 'Goodfellas'. Of course, there was also one that the crowd was astonished at, which was 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', a pure British-styled dark humor film produced by a new American director, Adrian Cowell.
So far, 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' was one of the top five most-watched films at the film festival, but 60% of the attention was given to the disorderly yet neat shooting technique, whereas 40% was given to the contrast between the director's nationality and the film's genre. Everybody knew that it was due to a few factors—historical, cultural—the British people despised the Americans, yet a new American director's debut film was a British-styled dark humor film, which was interesting.
There were American directors who made British-styled films as well, but most of them were famous, whereas Adrian had no previous works before this—not even a short story, hence he was basically an extremely new director. Besides, he was born and raised in America, but his debut film was purely British-styled, thus it was normal that the people were amazed.
The British media explained that Mr. Adrian's grandmother was British and that he lived in London when he was younger, which was why he could produce a British-styled film. Needless to say, it was Gary Brook from Tuchnan Film Company who disclosed it. Of course, nobody knew how many people believed it.
No matter what, the people who followed the Venice Film Festival were curious about the film, especially those from England and America. As such, 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' built a good foundation for its popularity.
Apart from that, the film gained even more attention after Adrian won the Best First Work award at the awards ceremony. Honestly, Adrian did not expect to win an award at all. Though 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' was great in terms of its story, it did not have "artistic" aspects that the European movie critics and directors took a liking to. Therefore, he was shocked when the award presenter announced the winner, so much so that he only went on stage after Laverne nudged him to.
"Thank you, judges, for awarding me with the Best First Work award, I'll continue to deliver great stories through my future works." Adrian waved his trophy after giving a brief speech, then returned to his seat.
In actual fact, Adrian hoped that he could win one or more awards as it would boost his popularity, and would benefit the film's publicity, but he undervalued it when he really won one.
'It'll be great if it's the Golden Lion award, what's the point of winning the Best First Work award,' Adrian thought to himself. 'How many famous films in my previous life actually won consolation-typed awards like this?
'People are always like that, we're never content with what we already have.' Nevertheless, he quickly got rid of that thought. In any case, it was still an honor, and it was the first he earned after he was reborn. This marked the first step of building his reputation, so a celebration was still in order.
However, since nobody expected it too, they did not make reservations at a restaurant or anywhere else, and many places were already full due to celebrations after the awards ceremony. At last, they settled down in a small pub near their hotel. Even so, everyone was very happy, including Laverne who had been bustling about during the film festival. He did not think that Adrian actually achieved what he said more than 2 months ago! Though their film company could only earn from the distribution fee, it was undoubtedly a light in the dark. Laverne was certain that their new boss would not just stop there.
Since it was a small-scaled party, and that the venue was not quite suitable, their celebration ended very quickly, and Adrian returned to his hotel room with his lovely partner. While Kate was unlike the other female celebrities from around the world for at that moment, her delicate features and youthful spirit made her beautiful in her own way, especially her charm that was unusually attractive—ever since she recovered from losing her virginity, the two of them had enjoyable nights almost every night. Kate was addicted after having her first experience, and since Adrian would tease her on purpose, she was completely drawn to it.
Other than that, Adrian specially picked a one-shouldered royal blue evening gown for her according to his past life's impression and his present life's experience, which complemented her character very well. Additionally, he also found a hairdresser and a makeup artist to doll her up, thus she attracted a lot of attention when they walked the red carpet.
"I should congratulate you, Eddy… Ah…" As soon as they returned to their room, Kate was pressed by Adrian against the wall. She chuckled, then wrapped her legs around his waist.
An intense activity naturally followed after that, but it was much more intense than the previous times. They moved from the wall to the floor, from the bed to the couch, from the bathroom to the window, and essentially left their traces of love everywhere. Not only did they try a number of positions, but they also took turns to demand from each other as though they just could not get enough.
They both knew that they would soon be separated.
Anyhow, Kate had to graduate from high school, and Adrian had to return to America after the film festival to turn his plan into reality. Hence, their separation was inevitable, and the wild activities were unavoidable even when they would meet 2 months later.
Once the Venice Film Festival ended, Adrian sent Kate back to London after putting Laverne in charge of the distribution matters for 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. He later flew back to America reluctantly, but his destination was not Los Angeles. It was New York.
The Big Apple was the United States of America's economic center, and Wall Street was the Big Apple's economic center. It was a place filled with greed, schemes, traps, grim, and scams. Nonetheless, countless people still found their way there, which was due to the power of capital. Despite that, Adrian was not there for capital—of course, it would soon be—he was there to meet someone.
"I told you long ago, Eddy. Don't idle your time away, but when do you ever listen? You did nothing apart from drinking and partying," An old man said after putting his fork and knife down, and taking a sip of wine. He had a slightly bald forehead, a high nose, red cheeks, and brown hair that was neatly combed. He was slightly similar to Adrian's dad, but he did not have many expressions, and he treated Adrian disdainfully.
"I know, Uncle Anderson, I'm changing now," Adrian replied respectfully even though he was rather unhappy.
"Change? Shooting films? Becoming a director?" The old man ridiculed, "You're still fiddling around. Did you think that you could prove that you're capable by purchasing a film company? The Cowell Family didn't last until today because of petty tricks, when are you really going to mature?"
Adrian was furious but he listened patiently. Luckily, another elder spoke at that moment, "Alright, Anderson, at least Eddy's working hard for himself now, can't you encourage him?"
"Working hard? By making films?" Anderson scoffed, then left the dining hall.
The other elder sighed and looked at Adrian apologetically. "I'm sorry, Eddy, you know your uncle… He actually loves you."
"It's okay, Aunt Marsha, I understand." Adrian wiped his mouth with a napkin and suppressed his unhappiness.
"Let's have some coffee in the living room, tell me about your film." Marsha stood up and smiled.
"My pleasure." Adrian nodded and stood up too. The servants cleared the table after.
Anderson Cowell was Adrian's dad's brother. He was a typical wasp as he was stubborn, old-fashioned, and reserved. He used to have a good relationship with Adrian's dad in terms of business but was not an easy person to deal with. Furthermore, he always related everything to the family, and Adrian disliked him whether it was the past or the present.
The Cowell Family had a long history indeed. According to a record kept by Adrian's dad at home, their ancestors traced way back to a passenger on the Mayflower! Their family had glorious days over hundreds of years, but there were always ups and downs. As they scattered all over America after the family expanded, it was no longer how it used to be, so Anderson was only comforting himself by mentioning it from time to time.
Nevertheless, Adrian purposely visited his uncle in New York who had a lot of connections in Wall Street. As mentioned before, public relations were very important no matter which country one was at. Even though there were rarely any unspoken rules in America because of those relationships, there were still exceptions.
In the past 2 years, Adrian almost lost all of the connections that were established by his dad, because he led a muddled life by being an alcoholic. After all,
Since the past Adrian was taken over, the present Adrian was going to rebuild connections as he was ambitious. Fortunately, only two years were wasted, hence the tea had not completely cooled yet, or he could not have gotten in touch with a few big film companies. In spite of that, it was impossible to fix what was lost in those two years in a short period of time.
Adrian understood that very well, so he decided to visit his uncle and aunt in New York. He would start by striking casual conversations with them, because it was best to take things one step at a time.