1:12:04
It's quite a set.
1:12:05
It's as if ordinary human beings,
living ordinary lives,
1:12:09
had suddenly vanished from the earth,
1:12:13
and the world was suddenly full
of butterflies shaped like people.
1:12:18
They are all happy, all the time.
1:12:21
Some of them are happy
because they are beautiful.
1:12:25
And some of them have to be happy
because they are nothing but rich.
1:12:35
Some of the international set
are happy because they are dogs.
1:12:38
Don't laugh. There's
a beauty parlour in Cannes...
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just for dogs.
1:12:45
But the happiest of
the international butterflies
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are those who live as if
they never left the cocoon.
1:12:50
They form in little groups, usually
around some piece of ex-royalty.
1:12:55
Bravano, of course, had the best
cocoon that money could buy.
1:12:58
To begin with, he had as his guest, for the
entire season, the pretender to the throne.
1:13:04
The name of the throne doesn't matter.
1:13:06
But, in the world of pretence,
a pretender is the best thing you can be.
1:13:11
So, to the international set, he was a king.
1:13:15
His wife was English.
She was a commoner.
1:13:17
And they don't come any commoner.
1:13:19
But together they ruled the Riviera,
1:13:21
by permission of the
copyright holder, Lulu McGee.
1:13:25
Lulu McGee runs the international set.
1:13:28
She never asks for money but, somehow,
1:13:31
she always happens to
help grateful rich people.
1:13:34
Hector Eubanks was
the fireball of our little cocoon.
1:13:37
Oil hit Hector one fine day, and
he just never came out from under it.
1:13:42
There was also Mrs Hector Eubanks.
1:13:45
She was a joint income-tax return.
1:13:49
And in the middle of all this
fantastic unreality was Maria -
1:13:55
more unreal, in a way, than any of it.
1:13:57
She moved among all these crazy people,