"To stay alert?" he asked.

"It helps you stay alert."

"Screw that," Tim said grinning.

NORA shifted her eyes back and forth and no one spoke. Who is this girl? I asked myself. I wanted to look at her, feast upon her--but something scared me. This haunting face, the eyes, the silence in the room, the shadows, the fire, the quarry outside where men had plunged to unearned deaths, the black trees, the snow, the strange story that Tim was filming, these people who did not talk to each other.

"Tim," said Nora, breaking the silence and my train of thought. "Tim," she said, "I'm beginning to feel like a ghost."

Tim had turned his attention to the lighting. "Ghosts don't have shadows," he said. And then the lights blew.

"Tim," said Nora, the tremor cutting through her voice like a knife. "Someone turned that light off. I'm not doing any more." But when the circuit was fixed, Nora continued to act.

At about 8:30 we were shooting Steven and Eleanora's embrace.

Steven: Can I touch you?

(She embraces him tightly.)

Eleanora: I've missed you, Steven. I still miss you.

For a while, Nora had trouble getting her speech right. Tim gave her some more direction. The next take was way off.

"Nice try but no cigar," said Tim. "Eleven million they spend for this picture and all of a sudden it's for borscht?" He did this in a flamboyant Hollywood accent. The quote was from a Jane Russell picture called The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown. And after that, the takes went beautifully.

TOMMY and Nora were to embrace to the side of the camera, with Phoebe catching their reflection on a piece of semi-reflectant tinted glass held in front of the camera lens. The lens was pointed towards the fireplace, so the embrace would be superimposed on the flames. Someone said this shot had been done before, in a Melina Mercouri picture.

"This has been done," said Tim, with mock concern, "In a Melina Mercouri picture! Which movie?"