fully aware of his presence there and, at some point, they would meet.
God alone knew what would come of that meeting. Igor, an orthodox Catholic, had made a promise and sworn an oath in a church in Moscow before the relics of St. Mary Magdalene (which were in the Russian capi- tal for a week, so that the faithful could worship them). He had queued for nearly five hours and, when he finally saw them, had felt sure that the whole thing was something dreamed up by the priests. He did not, however, want to run the risk of breaking his word, and so he had asked for her protection and help in achieving his goal without too much sacri- fice. And he had promised, too, that when it was all over and he could at last return to his native land, he would commission a golden icon from a well-known artist who lived in a monastery in Novosibirsk.
At three in the morning, thebaroftheHotelMartinezsmells of cigarettes and sweat. By then, Jimmy (who always wears different colored shoes) has stopped playing the piano, and the waitress is ex- hausted, but the people who are still there refuse to leave. They want to stay in that lobby for at least another hour or even all night until something happens!
Theyre already four days into the Cannes Film Festival and still nothing has happened. Every guest at every table is interested in but one thing: meeting the people with Power. Pretty women are waiting for a producer to fall in love with them and give them a major role in their next movie. A few actors are talking among themselves, laughing and pretending that the whole business is a matter of complete indiffer- ence to thembut they always keep one eye on the door.
Someone is about to arrive. Someone must arrive. Young directors, full of ideas and with CVs listing the videos they made at university, and who have read everything ever written about photography and scriptwriting, are hoping for a stroke of luck; perhaps meeting some- one just back from a party who is looking for an empty table where hell order a coffee and light a cigarette, someone whos tired of going to the same old places all the time and feels ready for a new adventure.
How naive!
If that did happen, the last thing such a person would want to hear about is some really fresh angle on a hackneyed subject; but despair can deceive the desperate. The people with power who do occasion- ally enter merely glance around, then go up to their rooms. Theyre not worried. They have nothing to fear. The Superclass does not for- give betrayals and they know their limitationswhatever the legend may say, they didnt get where they are by trampling on others. On the other hand, if there is some important new discovery to be madebe it in the world of cinema, music, or fashionit will emerge only after much research and not in some hotel bar.
The Superclass are now making love to the girl who managed to gatecrash the party and who is game for anything. Theyre taking off their makeup, studying the lines on their faces, and thinking that its time for more plastic surgery. Theyre looking at the online news to see if the announcement they made earlier that day has been picked up by the media. Theyre taking the inevitable sleeping pill and drinking the tea that promises easy weight loss. Theyre ticking the boxes on the menu for their room service breakfast and hanging it on the door handle along with the sign saying Do not disturb. The Superclass are closing their eyes and thinking: I hope I get to sleep quickly. Ive got a meeting tomorrow at ten.
However, everyone knows that the bar in the Hotel Martinez is where the powerful people hang out, which means theres always a chance of meeting them.
It doesnt even occur to the hopefuls that the Powerful only talk to the Powerful, that they need to get together now and then for lunches and suppers, to lend allure to the big festivals, to feed the fantasy that the world of luxury and glamour is accessible to all those with the courage to pursue an idea, to avoid any nonlucrative wars and to pro- mote aggression between countries or companies where they feel this might bring them more power and more money, to pretend that theyre happy, even though theyre now hostage to their own