Chp 51 : Vandal Savage?

Hello, my loyal readers,

Sorry about the low update frequency, I got writer block and also getting busy with works this day but don't worry I will keep updating till the Vol.1 Ends.

Happy reading everyone!!

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Evening 9th May 1985, Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.

Al must be present at his movie premiere, the organizers were kind enough to give Al three screening room and he saw that his film premiere was full of film critics and film practitioners who were curious about his film qualities would be.

Al took his families and friends to the premiere like he did when he screened his short films at Chicago International Film Awards.

Some of his acquaintances like Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, Jodie Foster, Vivian Kubrick, and others came far away from America to Cannes only to support him.

Although Cannes is an International event, for Americans, Cannes was just like any film festival that American held, so people like Spielberg were not a loyal customer of the festivals outside of America.

When he greeted some of his acquaintances, someone seemed to miss Al very much. When Vi (Al's nickname for Vivian) saw Al, she immediately crashed into him with a hug. She hugged him so tight until he was out of breath.

Others who saw this were amused while the girls who had a "special" connection with Al were making an ugly face.

"Long time no see Vi, I missed you." He said after she released him from her Lucha Libre move. Maybe no one seemed to realize that behind her slim body, she had a power of a bull if she could take Al's breath away, pun intended.

"Yeah me too Al! I'm so busy helping dad to make theme songs for his movie. I saw your videotape audition a few days ago, and I'm impressed. If I was the director, I would definitely choose you." She said while smiling.

He took Vivian's hand then he introduced her to other casts of his films like Liam Neeson, Tony Todd, Sandra Bullock, and the others. Al's friends and families already knew Vi from CIFF (Chicago Fest).

Vi suddenly gave Sandra a cold look, greeted her with only one word and a nod then she talked happily with Alice and Mrs. K.

They were then told by the festival's organizer that the film's premiere will begin shortly.

Sandra approached Al and whispered, "Hey Al, why Ms. Kubrick seemed to hate me, she gave me a cold look all the time."

Al dismissed her speculation and said, "Nah, she just cold to all strangers. Did you know, I was tricked by her when we first met."

She then decided to trust Al's words but the look that Vivian gave to her was the same as the 4 girls gave to her yesterday, it made her uncomfortable.

Finally, the theatre was a full house and there were also a few juries from the Cannes Festival. There was no opening speech by the directors or producer, they just let everyone watched it and the judges would score the film. Beforehand, most of the audience knew that this was Al's films.

The winner of the Cannes Film Festival was determined by jury votes, they would discuss which film was worthy as the winner. So the Cannes Film Festival winners sometimes depend on the juries' connection. There was a case one time in the future that the Jury President was Quentin Tarantino.

He really liked one of the film participants <Fahrenheit 9/11> and insisted that this film would be a winner. Almost all of the juries disagreed with him because this film had political elements too much, but Quentin threw a tantrum until the jury gave up and fulfilled his wish.

The European filmmaker knew which one was a film that worthy of the winner's title, uncared which ones politically correct or not, unlike Oscar's judges but unfortunately they were too stubborn and their films were too heavy on art, the box office was bad and the investor back down to invest in their films

Al sat beside Mrs. K, he didn't want to sit with any of the girls and add more troubles for him. The theatre's lights were dimmed and his film finally started.

First, the logo of Muspelheim films appeared, and then the film began with a middle-aged man named John Oldman played by Liam Neeson, was packing his belongings to move out from his house.

As Al had said before, he made this film more interesting at the opening by giving the audience eyegasm and the use of lighting and coloring made the shot so beautiful.

He also made sure to use the thrilling back sound like the one used by Hans Zimmer to enhance this film. So it won't be weird if the audience heard mini-orchestra music on every tense scene he shot that could make the theatre vibrated.

Back to the film, suddenly his friends came over to help him packed his stuff and threw a farewell party for him. They were his colleagues in the university, there was Harry the Biologist; Edith, an art history professor; Dan, an anthropologist; Sandy, a historian.

Art, an archaeologist; and his younger student Linda were also coming after everyone entered his house.

The character who was played by Sandra Bullock, accidentally also named Sandy. Her character had a big crush on John from the way she looked at him.

She was sad that he was moving out from here, he said to his friends that he was moving out every 10 years but his friends didn't buy it and persuaded him to tell what was troubled him and why he moved out suddenly.

So John decided to ask his friend what were their thoughts about if a caveman from 14,000 years ago still lived through these days and live with them.

They were all amused by him and thought that this is must be about a book that he would write.

So they stated their opinions and theories, from a geography point of view, biology, and history.

John then continued explaining them in the first-person point of view about how he had lived for 14 millennia and that he relocates every ten years to keep others from realizing that he does not age.

He began his tale under the guise of a possible science-fiction story, but eventually stopped speaking in hypotheticals and began answering questions from a first-person perspective.

John told them that he was a Sumerian for 2000 years, later a Babylonian and eventually went East to become a disciple of the Buddha. He claimed to have had a chance to sail with Columbus, admitting that at the time he still believed the earth was flat and to have befriended Van Gogh.

His friends began to suspect that John had a mental illness because, from his expression, he believes himself was that caveman. So Art decided to call Will, a psychiatry professor to come and check him.

In the theatre, the film has been running for at least 50 minutes, the audiences of this film were divided into three types.

At first, all of them were so interested in how good the visualization, music, and intro. But after they were used to see the film's drug effects...

The first one is the one who bored easily, rude and had bad personalities. He felt this film was trash and started to make a ruckus. He complained in his mother tongue about how bad and boring this film was in a loud voice. So the security decided to kick him out and then beat him up until he crippled his legs and left him in the alleyway.

The second one was the people who didn't like a narrative film, they felt the film was a bit boring but they were more polite and decided to get out of the theatre silently to respect the audiences who were still watching. This kind of people was still acted as a human should be, and won't just bad mouth or swear to every film loudly because they didn't like it.

The third was the people who were really interested in Al's film and mesmerized by it. Liam Neeson who was playing as John Oldman got a heavy and magnetic voice that made the audience fascinated.

The film critics also gave these films a thumbs up at the plot and characters of this film. They were sure not to give this film a bad review, even some of them dubbed that this was the best Sci-fi film they ever watched. There were no special effects, no action scenes, only storytelling, and this film could be categorized as a good Sci-fi film.

The film continued, Will who was called by Art before came to visit and tried to talk to John and guilt-trip him. But then he started to mad at John's delusions and asked him about life and death.

John's answer didn't satisfy him and he left, but before that, he points a gun in John's direction to scare him so he would never joke about death. John then learned from Harry that Will's wife had died the previous day after a long illness. John run after him and apologized because he opened an old wound.

The discussion veered to religion, and John mentioned that he did not follow any. Even though he did not necessarily believe in an Omnipotent God, he did not discount the possibility of such a being's existence. Pressed by the group, John reluctantly revealed that in trying to take the Buddha's teachings to the west, into the Eastern Roman Empire.

The story continued until he was confessed that he WAS JESUS. After this revelation, emotions in the room run high. Not only happened in the movies but also in the theatre, with a back sound of eerie orchestra music, enhanced the tenseness. Mrs. K gave Al a look and Al could only reply to her by giving her nervous laughter.

All of the Al family, friends, and acquaintances also gave a weird look to him, except Vivian who had a star in her eyes. The audience felt they would become an atheist if they continue to watch this film, but they didn't want to move at all because they were all so curious about this film's ending.

Even the critics commend the director how he made a non-action film, so tense and thrilling.

Back to the film, Edith as the representative "true believer" of the group began crying. Will demanded that John end his tale and gave the group a sense of closure by admitting it was all a hoax, and threatened to have John involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation should he refuse to do so. John appeared to ruminate over his response before finally "confessing" to everyone that his story was a prank.

The audience in the theatre was finally relieved by this plot twist that Al gave them. They almost believed this film's theories were real.

John's friends left the party with various reactions: Edith was relieved; Harry indicated an open mind; Art never wanted to see John again; Will still believe John needs professional help; Sandy and Linda clearly believed John; Dan was heavily implied to believe John.

After everyone else but Will and Sandy had left, Will overheard John and Sandy's conversation, which suggested the story could be true after all. John mentioned some of the pseudonyms he had used over the years, and Will realized one was his father's name.

The audience in the theatre got another plot twist again! Now they are giving the director a hateful glare. Al felt the stare of 300 pairs of eyes suddenly felt in danger. They believed after watching this film they would question their belief and turn into an atheist.

Although they knew the theories from this film were all fictions, but there were also some similarities in these theories. They decided to continue to finish the film and discussed it further later on.

He asked John questions that only a very close acquaintance could answer. When John answered them correctly, Will has an emotional breakdown, suffered a heart attack, and died in their arms.

After the body has been taken away, Sandy realized that if the story is true this is the first time John has seen one of his grown children die. John wordlessly got into his truck and started to drive to an unknown destination.

Having apparently reconsidered, he then stopped and waited for Sandy, who gave him a sweet smile then walked over to the truck and gone with him. Some of the boys got in a trance after saw Sandy smiled.

Another audience was still fell into deep thought and thinking about the story and the theories. One applause was heard that woke the audience and they followed applauding this film.

Al stood up and received applause and hate glare from some of the audience. Mrs. K hit his head and he gave her an "I'm innocent" look. But she shook her head and hugged him.

Everyone also gave him congrats but they hit him first then hugged him. He was then told by the organizer to come up to the stage and gave a speech. He was confused because they never told him to prepare it before, but they just said that it was an exception for him because his film received a good response.

He came up to the stage, took the microphone, and said, "So..... How many people in this room hate me now?"

Everyone rose their hands, Al gave them a wry smile and everyone laughed seeing his expression.

To Be Continued...

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