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<\/a><\/i> – by Bob Balaban<\/a>. Balaban, of course, was in Close Encounters<\/i> – which was one of the largest films he had ever been in – they were filming it BEFORE Star Wars<\/i> came out – so Balaban, without knowing it at the time, was part of the wave of the future. He was participating in it. So this was his backstage diary that he kept during the long LONG filming of this movie. There were times when I just threw back my head and howled with laughter. We all know how funny Bob Balaban is. I love him so much. It’s one of the best making-of-a-movie book I’ve ever read (and believe me, I’ve read them all!) I’ll post some excerpts. Some of the insights into Francois Truffaut were just wonderful – Balaban, of course, played Truffaut’s partner so he spent most of his time hanging out with the great French director, who was really concerned about his English pronunciation, and worked on it really hard. Balaban speaks French so he would speak French with Truffaut – and in general, Truffaut sounds like a lovely lovely guy.<\/p>\nAny time there were kids around, Truffaut would gravitate towards them. He loved children, he loved them for their spontanaeity and how in the moment they always were. There’s that one scene where Balaban and Truffaut talk to the army major – a cigar-chomping military man – and they hadn’t had times to really learn their lines for the scene, and Truffaut was terrified of forgetting – so he taped his lines TO THE MAJOR’S CHEST. You can see Army Major kind of from the back, and he’s talking to them – and they’re talking back (anyone remember the scene?) And I just love the image of this big strapping dude having Francois Truffaut’s lines TAPED TO HIS CHEST.<\/p>\n
Many other great stories – especially about the little 6 year old girls who were hired to play all the extraterrestrials. They had all of these dance classes and training days – where they were taught to move like that – to glide around like that (with these huge heads put on them) – but, you know, they were still 6 year old girls – so there was much fooling around. At one point, during the shooting of that scene – one of the little girls, obviously annoyed with one of her fellow ETs, whipped off her rubber hand and started beating the ET next to her over the head with it. Spielberg, exhausted, calls: “CUT.” hahaha Back to the beginning. Also, they had some issues because the 6 year old girls were apparently really into disco dancing (hahahaha) – remember it was 1976 during filming, 1977 – and so there were many times when the girls, getting slap-happy from the long hours, of having to stand around and wait, of having to wear these huge rubber heads and hands – would start to do the hustle. Sometimes when the cameras were rolling. Please imagine that scene – the glowing Mothership – the door opening – the gliding ETs appearing – and then suddenly … it’s like Saturday Night Fever<\/i> and they start to do the hustle down the loading ramp. Again, Spielberg calls out, exhausted, “CUT! LET’S DO IT AGAIN.”<\/p>\n
Amazing insights into Spielberg as a director, too. I just fell in love with him.<\/p>\n
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