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put up quite a fight for a little thing. Did something to my shoulder too, she twisted it in some way, never been the same since. Aurélien got the whole thing on film. I hear it looks great.
    Aurélien sat outside the Alcazar screening room with Kaiser Prevost and Bob Berger. Berger combed and recombed his hair, he kept smelling his comb, smelling his fingertips. He asked Prevost to smell his hair. Prevost said it smelled of shampoo. Prevost went to the lavatory for the fourth time.
    “Relax,” Aurélien said to them both. “I’m really pleased with the film. I couldn’t be more pleased.”
    Berger groaned. “Don’t say that, don’t say that.”
    “If he likes it,” Kaiser said, “we’re in business. Lanier will like it, for sure, and Aurélien will apologize. Won’t you, Aurélien? Of course you will. No problem. Lanier loved him. Lanier loved you, didn’t she, Aurélien?”
    “Why are we worried about Lanier?” Aurélien said. “Delphine came back. We finished the film.”
    “Jesus Christ,” said Bob Berger.
    “Don’t worry, Bob,” Kaiser said. “Everything can be fixed.”
    Vincent Bandine emerged from the screening room.
    Aurélien stood up. “What do you think?”
    V INCENT B ANDINE . I believe in candor. I have a theory about this town, this place: we don’t put enough stock in candor. I am into candor in a big way. So I take Aurélien aside, gently, and I say, “Aurélien, or whatever your name is, I think your film is goatshit. I think it’s a disgusting boring piece of Grade A manure. I wouldn’t give the sweat off my balls for your goatshit film.” That’s what I said, verbatim. And I have to give it to the kid, he just stood there and looked at me, sort of a slight smile on his face. Usually when I’m this candid they’re in deep shock, or weeping, or vomiting by now. Andhe looks at me and says, “I can’t blame you for thinking like this. You’re not a man of culture, so I can’t blame you for thinking like this.” And he walks. He walks out jauntily. I should have had his fucking legs broken. I’ve got the biggest collection of Vuillard paintings on the West Coast of America. I should have had his fucking legs broken. We had to pay the waiter fifty grand not to press charges, keep the Alcazar name out of things. The girl went to a clinic for three weeks to dry out … Aurélien No. Not a man of culture, eh?
    K IT V ERMEER . Ah, Lanier took it badly. I don’t think that. Do you mind? Thank you. Bats and lemurs, man, wow, they didn’t get a look in. Bats and lemurs. Story of my life.
Weltanschauung
, that’s what I’m up for. No,
Weltschmerz
. That’s my bag. Bats and lemurs. Why not owls and armadillos? No, I’m not looking at you, sir, or talking to you. Forsooth. Fuckin’ nerd. Wank in a bath, that’s what an English friend of mine calls them. What a wank in a bath. Owls and armadillos.
    M ATT F RIEDRICH . Aurélien came to see me before he left, which was gracious of him, I thought, especially for a film director, and he told me what had happened. I commiserated and told him other sorry stories about this town, this place. But he needed no consoling. “I enjoyed my visit,” he said. “No, I did. And I made the film. It was a curious but interesting experience.”
    “It’s just a dance,” I think I remember saying to him. “It’s just a dance we have to do.”
    He laughed. He found that funny.
    END ROLLER
    BOB BERGER
is working from home,
where he is writing several screenplays
    DELPHINE DRELLE
plays the character “Suzi de la Tour” in NBC’s
Till Darkness Falls
    KAISER PREVOST
works for the investment bank Harbinger Cohen in New York City
    MARIUS NO
is in his first year at l’Ecole Supérieure des Etudes Cinématographiques
    BERTRAND HOLBISH
manages the Seattle band “Morbid Anatomy”
    NAOMI TASHOURIAN
has written her first novel,
Credits Not Contractual
    MICHAEL SCOTT GEHN
is chief executive critic and on the editorial board
of film/e
    KIT