Chapter 1276: Mystical Powers
Alain Delon is indeed very powerful and capable in France.
The dinner on the night of May 13th further proved this point.
Alain Delon entertained Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko at the oldest restaurant in Cannes, France - Provencal.
This restaurant is located on St. Antoine Street. It is famous for its traditional French cuisine and country flavor. It is also a gathering place for artists.
European celebrities like to dine here, but for this reason, this high-end restaurant requires a reservation to dine, and it is difficult to get a seat.
In fact, it is not only full during the Cannes Film Festival, but also during the entire tourist season, the seats have been reserved.
If you are an ordinary customer, you can only try your luck by leaving your contact information.
See if you can encounter a situation where a guest changes his plans before you can enjoy a meal, otherwise you will have to leave disappointed.
To put it bluntly, consumption here is high, but it is not a place where problems can be solved simply by spending money.
For ordinary people to have a meal here, apart from parting their wallets, they also need to work hard on their luck. The chances are quite slim.
For Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, they are not familiar with the place, and being able to eat here is entirely due to Alain Delon's credit.
In fact, after returning from Martinez Beach, they changed their clothes at the hotel and then called a taxi to go to the Provencal restaurant for an appointment. Unexpectedly, they were in the car before they arrived. On the way there, I heard the driver talking about how difficult it was to get into this restaurant.
When we arrived at the door of the restaurant, as expected, just as the driver said, we saw a long queue, all of them people who had not made a reservation to try their luck.
Fortunately, they were Alain Delon's guests. The waiter at the door heard them announce Alain Delon's name and immediately sent someone to lead them in.
But it's not without its embarrassing moments.
Because they followed Japanese time habits, they arrived twenty minutes earlier than the agreed time. At this time, not only had the host not arrived, but even the available seats had not been arranged.
Thank you Alain Delon did not reserve a seat in advance. Although the restaurant was very proud of him, when the guests came, they could only add a temporary seat.
In this way, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko watched helplessly as the waiters in the restaurant temporarily moved tables, chairs and tablecloths, occupying part of the space on the dance floor, and provided them with food in the overcrowded restaurant. A seat was arranged.
So much so that many customers gave them a look of dissatisfaction, with disgust and disgust on their faces.
Some people even stopped the waiter and asked them about it, as if they were protesting to the restaurant.
This makes it somewhat unnatural for these two thin-skinned people to stay here.
But ten minutes later, when the host of the treat arrived, everything changed.
As soon as Alain Delon, who was over fifty years old, and his twenty-year-old girlfriend Rosalie appeared, everyone's eyes were focused on him.
As he walked in, at least a third of the people in the entire restaurant were greeting him.
The people who smiled at the big star were not only the waiters but also the guests, and even the guests at the tables around them who had initially expressed their dissatisfaction.
Even some actors and directors who ate in this restaurant were proud to know Alain Delon.
As for Alain Delon himself, it didn’t look like he was here for a meal, but rather like he was here for a press conference.
Even after he pulled Rosalie to find a seat and sit down, the sensational effect was not over.
Before Alain Delon had time to say a few words to Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, a waiter from the restaurant came to him on behalf of the guests at other tables and presented him with champagne.
It can only be said that Alain Delon is a real big star, and his influence has already spread all over the world.
Not only is he favored by the French film industry and the French people, he also has a pivotal position internationally, and celebrities and wealthy people are also willing to be friends with him.
I have to admit that in this era, even though he is already old and semi-retired, the influence of this handsome old French guy is far greater than that of the later "Little Plum" and "Tom".
It was precisely because he witnessed this scene with his own eyes that Ning Weimin understood that Alain Delon had actually restrained himself enough when he was in the capital.
When he celebrated his birthday at Maxim's Restaurant, he once asked during his meal, "Today I am fifty years old. If there are fifty guests in the restaurant, just close the door and thank the guests."
Now that I think about it, it's not too much, because this guy is undoubtedly more rampant in France, and all his bad habits are actually picked up by people here.
As for outside rumors that he is deeply involved with the Corsican gang, the origin of the mafia organization, although Ning Weimin was unable to obtain any clear evidence.
But from a feeling point of view, it seems that it is really interesting. Anyway, he is becoming more and more convinced of this "rumor".
For no other reason than because Ning Weimin took the initiative to expose his family scandal during the meal and mentioned that they had just been harassed by a few drunkards while walking on the beach.
And he was quick to talk, revealing his intention to spend money to hire two bodyguards in Cannes and rent a car.
Unexpectedly, Alain Delon laughed for a while and then took the matter into his own hands.
Ning Weimin doesn’t need to worry about this matter anymore. Someone will have a car and pick him up at the hotel early tomorrow morning. He didn’t even mention the money.
As a result, the next day came May 14th, and Ning Weimin was almost not frightened by the two burly men who came to the hotel early in the morning to report.
Not only did these two men have guns on their bodies, they looked cold and ferocious, and that was all they had tattoos.
The key is that both of them have scars on their heads and faces. At first glance, they are people with stories, and they are by no means bodyguards in the ordinary sense.
Even if they are all wearing black suits, that's not the case.
In Beijing terms, these two people are not good friends. Anyone who sees such a master on the street will avoid them.
Ning Weimin regretted it greatly. He felt that following them out would make him feel less safe, as if he had been kidnapped.
It can be seen from this that Alain Delon's background may not be so clean.
His heroic demeanor on the screen may not be staged at all.
To paraphrase what a small-eyed star in China said decades later, that is, "What's so hard about acting in the underworld? I have a life."
So there was nothing to do. Ning Weimin returned to the room and started playing The phone was given to Pierre Cardon's assistant, Takada Mei, and she was asked to contact bodyguards and rent a car on her behalf.
After thinking about it, he thought that maybe it was hard to find someone in Cannes, so he added that if not, it wouldn’t matter even if he transferred someone from Paris, he didn’t care about the cost.
And he didn't dare to let Matsumoto Keiko get in the car with him at all. He just went to the appointment alone and took two "bodyguards" in the car to meet Alain Delon.
But there is one thing to say, although Alain Delon sometimes uses too much force when doing things.
Just like these two bodyguards, although the selection was not in line with Ning Weimin's wishes.
But his vigorous and decisive style of acting on his own initiative satisfied Ning Weimin in some matters.
Just like the implementation of the screening of "Li Xianglan", and the purchase of a booth in the underground market of the Palais des Festivals.
When Ning Weimin came to the cafe near the Festival Palace, Alain Delon had basically negotiated the specific conditions for him.
The screenings are held on the third day after the opening of the festival. There is an 80-seat screening hall in the morning and a 300-seat screening in the afternoon. The morning screening is 100,000 francs and the afternoon screening is 200,000 francs. franc.
It will take four or five days at the earliest for a booth to become available, and a standard booth costs about 200,000 to 300,000 francs.
Ning Weimin has no objection to this. Although it is a bit expensive, it is for a filmmaker with insufficient funds, and it is not a big problem for him.
After all, this is a temporary queue. It’s good to settle things so easily. It’s much better than trying to find the temple gate with a pig’s head.
So after he arrived, under the introduction of Alain Delon, he got to know a Frenchman who was in charge of the screening work of the organizing committee, and then everyone sat down to have breakfast together and chatted by the way. Just some tidbits from the film festival.
After eating and drinking, several people returned to the organizing committee office at the Festival Palace. Ning Weimin came to sign and pay the money. The matter was basically settled without any twists and turns. The only thing worth mentioning is that through Alain Delon, Ning Weimin discovered an incredible hidden rule of the film festival.
For truly international celebrities, the Cannes Film Festival Organizing Committee has stipulated that paid interviews are a way to make money.
For example, the interview price for American director Babette Schroeder in this year's competition "Drinking Love" was 10,000 francs, while last year Martin Scorsese's interview with "Eight Hours Away" "When I came to Cannes, the interview fee reached fifteen thousand francs.
As for people like Alain Delon who have no films participating in the exhibition and are just here to join in the fun, as long as there are enough coffee spots, each reporter will need to pay a fee of 5,000 francs.
But this part of the interview fee is only for reporters outside Europe and the United States. Interviews for European and American reporters are free.
There is no doubt that this is a kind of regional discrimination based on cultural discourse rights.
In fact, while accompanying Ning Weimin on matters, Alain Delon was interviewed by more than a dozen reporters.
Sometimes, because several people were interviewed together and the interview took less than half an hour, he could easily get thirty to forty thousand francs.
It must be said that European and American celebrities in this era have a very prosperous life, and they can earn half a year's income of ordinary French people in half an hour.
In this half hour alone, he makes money faster than Ning Weimin, who can get 1.2 million francs in interest every day.
Next, of course, it’s entertainment time.
When it comes to this, it must be said that the French people’s nature of enjoying themselves is really unshakable.
In fact, there was no need to look for another place. Alain Delon, an experienced person, was there to guide the way. Only then did Ning Weimin find out that there was a nightclub-like casino in the Palais des Festivals.
Downstairs is a serious cultural event like a film festival, and upstairs is a depraved gold-selling cave. Such nonsense actually happened.
Shocked, Ning Weimin didn’t know how to evaluate it. He could only use traveller’s checks like Alain Delon to buy 200,000 francs in chips and follow this playboy to see Ichiban.
Of course, people like Alain Delon would not gamble in the lobby. They would have to enter the big room.
There is no threshold for large rooms, but the minimum betting threshold is relatively high. The outside lobby has different starting points such as one hundred, two hundred, and five hundred, while the VIP room has a minimum of one thousand francs per game.
Alain Delon saw that he was a regular customer here, so he sat directly on the blackjack table and started playing hard.
Ning Weimin stood next to him and watched for a while. He felt that it was not interesting, so he leisurely moved to other gambling tables.
Decades later in the information age, it is almost universally known that Chinese people are world-famous gamblers.
When you stand in a casino and look around, you will see that at least half of the faces are Oriental. You don’t need to go up to ask. Nine times out of ten, they are either overseas Chinese or Chinese.
So decades later, most casino managers always treat Chinese people with special preferential treatment and are extra attentive to people with oriental faces.
Because everyone here knows that the Chinese people called "Lao Zhong" are the best at gambling. They never blink an eye when tipping on the gambling table and are generous.
No matter what profession they are engaged in, whether they are from restaurants or garment factories, from bosses to workers, from chefs to garment workers, they will all give their hard-earned money to the casino.
Some old overseas Chinese have worked hard all their lives and gave all their income to the gambling table.
If you ask him why he does this, they will smile and say, "I will get it back sooner or later one day." Casino owners around the world are widely aware of this.
Ning Weimin, as one of the few oriental faces here, did not attract much attention whether he stopped at the blackjack, roulette, baccarat or dice table.
And Ning Weimin is indeed an alternative element among the Chinese.
With the blessing of God, he already knows how the world will change in the next few decades, and he can casually use the stock market as a cash machine.
If he is still interested in the "killing without blood" game in the casino, then he has seen the devil.
I am afraid that he will be the most boring and boring person in this world regarding any gambling game.
So he wandered around without placing a bet, and finally went to the lobby outside to drink free drinks and watch the show of the singing and dancing girl.
After feeling bored and returning to Alain Delon, Ning Weimin discovered that the thirty to forty thousand francs this guy had just earned, together with his own tens of thousands of francs, had all gone to the bottom. , will soon lose everything.
So he was simply generous and put all the chips of 100,000 francs in front of Alain Delon as a favor.
Alain Delon was stunned, "Ning? You..."
"It's nothing, I don't want to play anymore, so you don't have to change again."
As he said that, Ning Weimin started to drive He joked, "Friend, calm down and take your time. You might as well try my chips. Maybe with the help of the magic of the East, you will be lucky soon."
"Haha! That's really the case, that would be great. ”
Alain Delon laughed, no longer polite, and directly bet 10,000.
Unexpectedly, Ning Weimin's words came true. This time, he actually won a grand slam blackjack.
Before he spoke, the dealer had already given him one and a half times the chips, and the four two thousand and five chips turned into ten.
Just like that, his luck really started to go smoothly.
Because he was talking happily to Ning Weimin, the dealer had already dealt out the cards before he had time to collect the chips.
When he lit the cigarette and took a puff, just when he was about to spit out the smoke, well, ten chips turned into twenty-five.
Another slam blackjack.
This is so smooth.
It’s so smooth!
So he was completely excited.
In just a few minutes, the ten thousand francs he threw on the table turned into sixty-two-five thousand!
Can you imagine it?
At this time, Alain Delon looked at Ning Weimin again, his eyes were really shining, and he regarded him as his transport boy.
And strange to say, once gambling luck comes, it can't be stopped.
In the next hour, he lost less and won more. Alain Delon seemed to bet no matter what, and unknowingly won one million and several hundred thousand francs.
This made Alain Delon so happy that he forgot everything. He forgot that his model girlfriend Rosalie was still waiting for him in the hotel, and he forgot to promise Ning Weimin. Today I have to take him to see Catherine Deneuve.
It wasn't until Ning Weimin looked at his watch and urged him for the third time, "If you don't leave, the oriental magic on the chips will dissipate."
He stopped out of superstition, and this was not only a beautiful bikini Miss, brought him cigarettes and wine.
Even the casino manager came up to congratulate them on their victory.
He also held his hand and said, "Mr. Delong, you are such a lucky man today!"
Then he enthusiastically gave them two cards, one for each person. The card entitles you to a free meal at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.
When Alain Delon converted the chips into cash, he not only returned Ning Weimin's money to him, but also gave him half of the winnings.
However, Ning Weimin refused and said with a smile, "I don't want any money, I just want you to promise me one thing."
"What is it?"
"Don't gamble anymore today. Betting on this thing depends entirely on luck. The casino gives us free meals because it is afraid that you will leave and hopes that you will come back. Don't be fooled. Irrational people are always losers, too. The most popular person in the casino. There are so many things to enjoy outside, let’s change our pastime.”
This was definitely a reminder. Alain Delon was stunned for a moment and said, “Friend, you said so.” Yes! Okay, let’s go to dinner now! Call your wife and Rosalie! I want to buy them gifts!”