"I began at the top and have been making my way down ever since." Orson Welles

Whenever Nina bemoans not having already achieved all her artistic aspirations, I remind her that Orson Welles, whom she admires, certainly didn't live a happy and fulfilling life and neither did Mozart, despite having hit the big times by the time they were 25 and 6 respectively. Then again, one never thinks about the advances we’ve made in medicine and how we live longer these days. Sure Mozart was an accomplished musician and composer by age six, but if folks back then only expected to see age forty who now experience a life expectancy of eighty with the help of purple pills and organ transplants, then Mozart was really twelve years old when we think in terms of age to life span ratios…that’s a little less impressive. Since Orson lived to be seventy, Nina’s going to have to hit it big with a critically acclaimed film that's a box office flop and way ahead of her time by age thirty-five and expect to live until she’s a hundred in order to match Orson’s age to life span ratio, age twenty-five being when he made Citizen Kane. Fortunately for Nina, she's got lots of esoteric ideas and she seems to come from good genetic stock…at least her grandma Mimi bodes well for Nina’s life expectancy. Then again…who really wants to be washed up by the time they’re thirty, be known as a commercial failure, and not to mention appear bloated in nearly all their films…I suppose one who aspires to create art might take those odds.