SOURCE: "Henry and June," in American Film, Vol. XV, No. 12, September 1990, pp. 22-29, 46-48.

In the following essay, Klinger talks with some major players in the production of the film Henry and June, the screenplay of which was adapted from an excerpt from Nin's Diary.

How would you react if you found out your wife was having sex with another man? Would it make any difference if she were only doing it for the money? What if the two of you were broke and starving? Or suppose you were an artist, and your wife's belief in your talent was so unrelenting that her adultery was a purely selfless act? Would you try to stop it? Would you look the other way? Or could you watch as it happens?

On a winter afternoon in Paris, a heavy snow is about to fall. Well, not exactly snow, but pounds of...