Intending to become a fighter pilot until the allure of writing insinuated itself into his ambitions, James Salter developed a purity of prose and a remarkable power to evoke the erotic. He also carried on a lifelong love affair with France, unforgettably expressed in his 1967 masterpiece, A Sport and a Pastime. This documentary features passages of the novel (read by the author Reynolds Price) interwoven with sublime footage of provincial France, photographs by Ralph Gibson (whose images, imbued with eroticism, offer haunting visual parallels of Salter’s work), and Salter’s own reflections on his writing and life. Also interviewed: contemporary authors and editors as well as actor Robert Redford, for whom Salter wrote the screenplay Downhill Racer. A luminous depiction of the making of a writer and the genesis of a classic novel. (54 minutes)