Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Unheimliche Begegnung der dritten Art
© Courtesy of Park Circus / Sony
Roy Neary works as an electrical lineman in a small town in Indiana. While carrying out repairs during a power outage, he is burned by a mysterious light phenomenon. Single mother Jillian Guiler experiences the same phenomenon and shortly thereafter, her son Barry disappears. Not long after this first night-time contact with UFOs, the two become obsessed with visions of a mountain. This turns out to be the site where a team of the military and scientists, under the leadership of French researcher Claude Lacombe, have gathered to give the extraterrestrials an official welcome ... A case of onscreen détente. With his film of “conciliation”, Steven Spielberg undertook a fundamental re-working of the genre fantasies marked by the Cold War. Instead of promoting xenophobia and hate, his dreamlike and magical lightplay carried the message “don’t be afraid”. Indeed, with the overexposed images created by Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, and the bright, glittering optical effects of science fiction whiz Douglas Trumbull, the film owes much to the ideals of the Enlightenment.
With
- Richard Dreyfuss
- François Truffaut
- Teri Garr
- Melinda Dillon
- Cary Guffey
- Bob Balaban
- Roberts Blossom
- Merrill Connally
Crew
Written and Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
Editing | Michael Kahn |
Music | John Williams |
Sound | Gene Cantamesa |
Production Design | Joe Alves, Dan Lomino |
Special Effects | Douglas Trumbull, Steven Spielberg |
Costumes | Jim Linn |
Make-Up | Bob Westmoreland |
Producers | Julia Phillips, Michael Phillips |
Produced by
Columbia Pictures Corp.
Additional information
Copy: Park Circus, Glasgow