Scenario: The Dirty Deal and My Ex Wife…
To Henry Dean the task is proving much more trouble than anticipated. On top of that, Henry has promised a shady group of financiers to place a story in Variety about their new film company - Mount Everest Limited – but can he persuade the reporter from Variety to write it?
“A steady Mediterranean breeze kept the crowds indoors”…
Café Reggio’s…Little Medici back room… “the air acidic with tobacco and… cakes”.
A Southern Italian Feast… the Ex Wife, Angie, would have taste… for amongst all the magnificent Southern delectable tarts, it would be such a wondrous analogy to gently enter into the folds of this indulgent mixture and set at the Little Medici, paralleled with the ingredients for The Capri Almond and Chocolate Cake. The vision of the movie tax shelter perhaps like the making of the Torta Caprese, notable for a splendid result that is obtained with relatively little effort. “A piece of cake,” you might say,
METHOD
Turn on the heat.
Break up the chocolate, put it in a pan with the butter and melt over a low heat. Leave to cool.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and pale, then fold in the flour and baking powder. Carefully fold in the chocolate mixture, almonds and Strega liqueur. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and then gently fold them into the mixture. Pour into a buttered shallow 25cm cake tin (10”) and bake for 30 minutes, until well risen. If you test it with a skewer, the cake should still be a little moist in the centre. Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool, then dust, with icing sugar.
Hmmm… "breezy" Angie "in bright tangerine sundress that billowed... like the sails on one of the rollicking yachts bobbing in the distance" thought… it had been “Plenty of miles and oceans of booze”… and passing The Little Medici she observes “a collage of Pop Art party stills viewed through her fuzzy lens of alcohol”… on her mind was how to proceed to Count Rassi’s luncheon…“her mascara was smeared”…
This could be another “documentary of an era”… she could hear “the soundtrack playing bouncy tunes from” “across time and continents”, oh “the late nights”… she reminded herself “I’m making a documentary for the BBC”… “It’s the locals I’m interested in”…and recalling “her biggest hit, "Soho Red Light," the controversial exploration of prostitution in London, for which she befriended a half dozen whores and followed them around with her camera”… she adjusts the lens and starts to shoot “Groucho style” … “Their vision”… in the back room of the fading Café Reggio.
“The owner, a made-to-order Sicilian complete with greasy hair and scar down the left cheekbone”, “nodded” and put on “The Sixties” S“wing Ding” record.
“Jeffries got out his reporter’s notebook”… ”Jeffries glanced at Ari Safta. Gordon looked at Heath, Heath looked at Delfont, Delfont just shrugged. Safta had his own style. He was also the money and, as such, not to be argued with”… “their passion” was “Exclusive to Variety”…“Big means big”…“It’s Brian fucking DePalma directing”… Ari Safta said, “It’s all about the money. It ain’t about art.”
“Ari, you sound like a pimp”… the ultimate compliment…
“That was off …the record”
“What’s on the record here?” Delfont repeated hilariously.