The writing in La Nuit de Varennes and Calvin Trillin's remembrance of Denny Hansen, Remembering Denny are tours de force of craftsmanship. Trillin's book moves back and forth in time and mind from what he remembered and assumed to what he now knew or could summise. The book has special resonance as I get older and details fade. The intensity of emotions are more remembered than felt.
La Nuit de Varennes follows a fascinating host of historical characters including Casanova at the beginning of the French Revolution. The elegance with which Casanova demurrs from a tryst, assuring the lady that the loss is surely his and not hers and the seemless explanation of a hoary pun are just two of the scenes I treasure. (About the pun, a character declines to let someone ride in a carriage, saying, "I do not want to be uncharitable." The screen goes sepia as the audience is informed that those single passenger carriages were known as "uncharitables" because the carriage could only accomodate one person comfortably and could deny someone a ride without seeming uncharitable.)
These also remind me of an introduction given to Robert Caro. The presenter quoted a reviewer as saying that Caro's biography of Robert Moses (The Power Broker) ruined the field for everyone else because no one else could ever top it.
In a similar vein, the blog How to Write Screenplays. Badly by Jeremy Slater and Dan Whitehead should give caution to anyone venturing to write humor.
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