The magic of television: when was Saturday Night Live taped? Because on Saturday afternoon, Alec Baldwin who chatted with Sarah Palin on that night's show-- the conceit being that he thought she was Tina Fey when he referred to her as Caribou Barbie--was chatting in front of the East Hampton cinemas site of many of the Hamptons International Film Festival screenings. He had, a day before, interviewed Jacqueline Bisset at Bay Street. The legendary, gorgeous actress is surgery free, in case you were wondering. So his movements seem quite mysterious. The now burly Hamptons resident and HIFF board member in a navy cashmere coat said, he would extend the event to a week. Committed to the festival's success as a premiere venue, he'd wanted W. to open here, but director Oliver Stone said no. Meantime there's no question that the festival enhances the long weekend with exceptional international fare: I loved, for example, Christophe van Rompaey's “Moscow,Belgium,” a first feature filmed in his hometown area of Ghent. Describing the low budget compromises, lead actress Barbara Sarafian said they had to eat blood sausage all day, and make it look enticing, fresh and warm. Documentaries were also strongly represented: Arne Glimscher introduced his “Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies”, about the influence of action pictures on painting based on an exhibition the previous year at PaceWildenstein Gallery on 57th Street; “Four Season Lodge” is a rare glimpse at Holocaust survivors at a bungalow colony in the Catskills; a medley of Bruce Weber's films, “The Artist's Eye” revealed early footage of Robert Mitchum and Elizabeth Taylor as well as his obsession with young, well hung men. A biopic about 82 year old Dominick Dunne is especially frank about some tragic moments in this great writer on the trials of the rich and famous's life. I asked if this fine documentary had a distributor yet. You'll have to ask the filmmakers, he said raising his arm in a grand gesture, “I'm just a star.” And of course, fall weekends in the Hamptons have their own kind of magic.
Regina Weinreich
Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura
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