vallée served as the real-life model for lacombe, the researcher portrayed by françois truffaut in steven spielberg’s "close encounters of the third kind". he also attempted to interest spielberg in an alternative explanation for the phenomenon. in an interview on conspire.com, vallée said, "i argued with him that the subject was even more interesting if it wasn't extraterrestrials. if it was real, physical, but not et. so he said, 'you're probably right, but that's not what the public is expecting — this is hollywood and i want to give people something that's close to what they expect.'"