Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion

Link talked on and on.

"What dream?"

Marion Cotillard asked.

"I once had a dream, a nightmare actually, I dreamed that I had run out of azithromycin, and then I went to the dentist, and they had no novocaine, you understand what I mean, they had no antibiotics at all."

"What are you talking about?"

Marion Cotillard looked at Link, her beautiful face showing some confusion and incomprehension.

Director's area.

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Woody Allen watched Marion's performance through the monitor and exclaimed, "So sexy! A girl like Marion would be pursued by high society no matter which era she lived in Paris... It's a pity that beautiful girls have no taste, like Jacqueline Roque, and Marion Cotillard too, they all like bad men, damn it!"

Woody Allen stared at the monitor, his expression becoming very angry.

Assistant director Frank Arela and associate director Maroni Balestra exchanged glances and smiled secretly; they had worked with Allen many times and had some understanding of him.

Allen was talking about Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's second wife, and also an object of Allen's secret adoration.

Woody Allen had gone to Paris for a study visit in the fifties and encountered Jacqueline Roque. He was immediately attracted by her beauty and had pursued her.

But at that time, he was just a screenwriter with no fame, short in stature, and not particularly good-looking. Aside from humor, he had no particularly noteworthy talents.

Jacqueline Roque had turned him down decisively, and in 1961, she married Picasso, who was an eighty-year-old cad. After Picasso died in 1973, Jacqueline took her own life in 1986.

In the movie "Midnight in Paris," there is also a character of Picasso, whom Woody Allen, probably out of disgust for Picasso, had depicted as a man who looked like Sittler, brutish, cruel, and heartless.

Marion Cotillard's character, Adriana, is Picasso's lover, but in the movie, she is drawn to the male protagonist and leaves Picasso to choose the protagonist.

Woody Allen also used this as a way to take his revenge on Picasso.

In history, Picasso had two wives and more than a dozen openly acknowledged mistresses, and he had children whom he did not care for; he was a true womanizer.

Link was also a playboy, rumored to have had liaisons with more than a dozen actresses. Although his fame couldn't compare to Picasso's, upon hearing that Link had slept with Marion Cotillard, Woody Allen transferred his disgust for Picasso onto him.

This made Link's character extremely complicated, not only bearing his own traits but also elements of Woody Allen, and he had to be viewed with hostility by Allen as if he were Picasso.

Frank also felt Link's difficulty in performing, he looked at the monitor and said, "Link is also doing quite well, he has a deep understanding of the character, it's hard for ordinary people to portray this kind of temporal confusion and complexity."

"Humph!"

Woody Allen, with folded arms, didn't respond. Looking at Link's handsome and elegant face in the monitor, and hearing him deliver the lines fluently and emotionally, he knew that the guy was doing a good job, but the better Link performed, the more irritated Allen felt.

Before joining the crew, Link's acting was rough. He hadn't received any professional training, nor had any good director to guide his acting; he was like an unpolished stone.

Over the past month, Allen had been constantly directing Link, pouring many acting techniques into him through each performance, making him more and more proficient in acting, and even gradually developing a unique personal acting style.

For an actor, having a personal acting style is one of the signs of mature technique.

At only twenty-one, Link was starting to show his acting style, which not only meant he had a decent talent for acting, but also that his director was teaching him well.

He should have been pleased with this, but Link was too much of a scoundrel, recklessly seducing women during the shoot, treating the production like his hunting ground with no regard for his director's feelings.

Naturally, Allen wouldn't let him off easily.

"Cut!"

Director Allen called a break and reviewed the footage just shot, which was somewhat better than what had been filmed last month.

Last month, Link was under too much pressure and his acting always felt tense. At the time, he had grudgingly given it a 'pass'.

After a few days of rest, when Link returned to the set, Director Allen thought to shoot the scene again to see how it would turn out. The result was good, Link's performance was more relaxed, with a suddenly enlightened feel, which was precisely the element needed in this part of the play.

But Director Allen wasn't ready to let Link off the hook. He first lavishly praised Marion Cotillard and then criticized Link for not putting his heart into the performance, asserting that if he did, he could do much better.

"Link, you need to do the scene one more time, put more into it. I need all your acting chops, quick!"

Director Allen shouted.

On the set, Link felt helpless. The male lead in the scene he had just performed had 227 lines spanning five pages, which he had memorized over many days to be able to deliver at his own pace and understanding.

Having done it twice during the performance, and now being asked to do it again, was quite taxing on him.

"Link, you acted very well, there's no issue. It's Director Allen who's purposely giving you a hard time."

Marion said.

"I know, the old guy is up in years; stirring up a little trouble is about the only pleasure he has left. So, let's do it his way, one more time. Consider it a daily line drill."

Link said nonchalantly.

"Dear, you're amazing. So talented and yet so magnanimous. What am I gonna do, even more in love with you?"

Marion leaned into his embrace, her eyes full of infatuation.

Link wrapped his arms around her soft waist and leaned down to kiss her red lips.

Over at the directors' area, when Director Allen looked up to check how ready Link was, he saw the two of them locked in a passionate kiss in front of dozens of people on set, with no regard for the surroundings.

Director Allen smacked the table in anger, just about to give Link another tongue-lashing.

Boom!

Suddenly, there was thunder overhead, and the western sky was covered with dark clouds, a sign that rain was imminent.

"Change set! Continue shooting!"

"Link, stop kissing, get ready for the next scene."

Frank Arela called out.

But Link and Marion Cotillard continued to kiss until it started to rain, kissing in the rain as if no one else was there.

Director Allen held an umbrella, watching the two kiss in the rain with undisguised envy and jealousy on his face. Kissing a sultry French woman in Paris in the rain was the most romantic thing he had imagined.

But it was something he only dreamed about in his heart, never experiencing it himself.

And there Link, the playboy, had effortlessly achieved it, kissing the hottest French actress on a rainy day in Paris.

"Such an enviable bastard!"

Director Allen cursed.