Since all journalists and writers were barred from the shooting of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, actor Bob Balaban's diary is a rare on-the-spot account of the making of Steven Spielberg's classic sci-fi film. This is a making of book written from an actor's-eye view, and Balaban (who played Laughlin inthe film, opposite Francois Truffaut as Lacombe) provides a detailed account of Steven Spielberg at work, as well as a portrait of the late Truffaut.