Soon Tim and Eric pointed the way. We would walk through a dead-looking forest slope of about 100 yards to reach our destination. As we started our trek I saw little except snow and mist. I took about two steps into the forest--and then discovered that the cold ground cover below was much different from the slush I had left behind in Cambridge. My left foot sunk below the surface, and I pitched forward, dropping my sleeping bags before me and sinking into about three feet of snow. No sooner did I collect myself and my bundles, than I fell again. By the time I reached the cabin--about five minutes later--I was thoroughly cold and wet.

There were two cabins: the small one where Eric had seen the ghost and in which no further shooting would take place; and a larger, modern structure next to it, where most of Eleanora's filming had taken place and where we would spend the weekend.

WE NOW entered this larger cabin, the summer retreat of a friend of Eric's. It was nearly as barren and devoid of warmth as the landscape. It had two rooms--a large living room with two walls of glass doors looking out on the abandoned quarry (now totally invisible), and a small bedroom. The floors were flagstone, the walls were granite the ceilings were low and wooden.

There was little in the way of furniture (a red couch in the big room, a large raised bed in the other), no heating, no lights, no plumbing. For warmth and light there was the one fireplace (in the living room) and the half-dozen or so tall standing lights to be used in the shooting. For a bathroom, there was the woods. For running water, there were the gas-station johns in town.

Tim took me from the main room, which was cluttered with left over food and props (the unit had been commuting between Cambridge and Milford for ten days), to the bedroom. Tonight was to be the first time anyone would spend the night in the cabin. "This is a great bed," he said, pointing at it. "Nora dies in this bed."

A few minutes later, we were outside and Tim was taking me for a ride on a ski-doo (a snowmobile), which had been rented for the purpose of hauling camera equipment between the cars and the cabin. I didn't know what kind of ride to expect from Tim, who was silent as always, and not one for excess. So, as the ski-doo started to roar, and Tim drove off wildly--almost hysterically--into the mist, the forest, the hills, I was scared. Trees appeared out of nowhere; the cold air slapped me in the face at every turn. Soon, after a bump that sent me a foot in the air, I lost my grip and fell into the snow. As Tim went zoomnig off without me, I sank into the ice. I tried to get up, and I tripped. Twenty or 30 yards later, he realized what had happened. I got up and stumbled towards him, shouting profuse embarrassed apologies. Tim waited, revving up the motor. His face was red and he was smiling, crookedly. "You'll have to do better than that, Rich," he yelled over the sound of the motor and then turned around. When we finally reached our destination, another hill overlooking the invisible, haunted quarry, I was sweating, sopping wet, panting and exhausted.

While we were out in the snow, the others arrived at the cabin: Phoebe Barnes, who was assisting Tim in the production work; Tommy Lee Jones, the male lead of Eleanora; and Nora Paley, who played the title role.

An hour later, Nora was standing near the edge of the same bluff Tim had taken me to on the ski-doo. Her back was facing the mist-engulfed quarry. About ten yards in front of her was Tim, looking through his camera, which was on a tripod balanced on the show. Between Tim and Nora was Eric, who had leather encased tape recorder strapped over his shoulder, a headset over his ears, and a long mike in his hand. Behind Tim and leaning on the ski-doo were Phoebe and myself. We were shooting the first take of the day.

Tim had written Eleanora for Nora, whom he has known for about five years. (She has been in one other Hunter film, Desire/Fire.) One day he had gone up to Franconia to ask her to do the film.

Nora explains, "I had gone to Franconia for a year, and now I was working ten hours a day as a chambermaid and waitress. I was sick of it. Then Tim came up in a shiny rented car and said, 'You know why I'm here.' I didn't, but then I came down anyway."

Tim would not have made the film without her. He wrote the lines to fit his actress' phrasing and speech patterns--not always a wise idea, but definitely so in the case of Nora, who has the unusual and perhaps slightly frightening ability to be herself in front of a camera. Ordinarily, even the most gifted actor cannot be himself on screen.

So here was Nora/Eleanora, wrapped in a yellow blanket, standing starkly against the white, in front of the deep pit I still had not seen. She was about to say the last line of the movie. At this point, at the end of the film, she is a ghost, but she isn't always.

Eleanora is a hitchhiker, who is picked up one afternoon by a jeep diving writer, Steven (played by Tommy). He takes her back to his cabin in the woods and they fall in love immediately. Eleanora is a girl who has no past, no roots. Her life has been a series of changes--shocks that caused her to reform her life's perspectives at every turn. (As Eleanora explains to Steven, "Change was something awful that happened when I didn't even know it. Like a punishment for living and everything. I'd wake up mornings and know all of a sudden that there were things I couldn't do anymore, or say or feel.")

One day, as she sits with her lover, overlooking the snow-filled quarry, she tells him that pretty soon she is going to die. Before she does, Steven promises her that he will never fall in love again. If he breaks this vow, she can return from heaven and turn him to ashes. (Eleanora: "I'll watch you, Steven. If I am permitted I'll return to you visibly in the watches of the night. . . . ") She dies, without Steven ever finding out her last name, and a year later Steven falls in love with another girl in New York. Back in the cabin, Steven is visited by Eleanora. She misses him, but her new existence beyond an earthly one has given her different "perception." She releases Steven from his promise.

WE WERE now filming thiso final speech, in which Steven is released "for reasons which will be made known in heaven." Nora looked at Phoebe, and Eric looked at both of them. They started to giggle; Tim looked up from the camera.