photographs courtesy of Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com
On its twentieth anniversary year Hamptons International Film Festival was incendiary with red carpets at every turn spiced with celebrities (Alan Cumming, Meryl Streep, Richard Gere, Stevie Nicks, Dave Stewart and the ubiquitous Alec Baldwin) and a solid schedule of exciting dramas, documentaries and “conversations.”
The Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne flowed at the hot ticket events like the Chairman’s Reception honoring Richard Gere, Ann Roth (costume designer, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Hours) and James Schamus (screenwriter of The Ice Storm, producer of Brokeback Mountain and CEO of Focus Features). Other liquid offerings were a rum cocktail bar with Diplomatico Rum, one of the most awarded premium rums from Venezula, and a Wolffer wine bar.
Photo by JohnMazlishPhoto.com
The Friday night gala, a reception sponsored by Baume Mercier, was held at Wolffer Estate winery, where the featured glass, obviously, was Wolffer Merlot and the marvelous crisp unoaked Chardonnay. Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne was offered at another bar on the lovely terrace overlooking the vineyard. People circulated madly exchanging the hot movie tips as they would Kentucky Derby horse bets. The buzz was on Sparrows Dance, Rust and Bone and Any Day Now.
Conversation exchanges were heavy with one line plot draws: Lumpy (the best man unexpectedly dies at a destination wedding); Gayby (comic complications when a woman has the baby of her gay best friend); and The Standbys (three talented actors standby each night for their chance on the Broadway stage). The world cinema documentaries were the other festival musts especially, Beyond Right and Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness, a film of conflict and resolution with interviews from victims and aggressors from Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine.
My big discovery of the festival was Drift, an Australian world premier movie about the genesis of the modern Aussie surfing industry in the 70s. Based on a composite true story of the origins of the great surfer companies, Billabong, Rip Curl, and Quiksilver, the film unfolds with an irresistible plot of surfer brothers overcoming opposition to their custom surf board and wetsuit business. The film is intercut throughout with awe-inspiring scenes of surfers tackling the enormous waves. Mesmerizing footage—shot with state-of-the-art camera equipment attached to surf boards—takes the viewer inside of the curl of these monster waves. The audience roared with cheers at the finish.
Another highlight of HIFF is a series called “Conversations.” In one of these featured sessions Richard Gere conversed with Alec Baldwin, the perennial Hamptons Festival fixture. At the start a long montage of Richard Gere’s roles through his four career decades was screened—handsomeness over the decades from the super young Gere in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Days of Heaven, and American Gigilo, progressing through the years to Pretty Woman, The Jackal, Chicago, and Arbitrage.
Gere appeared on stage casually dressed in jeans, boots and a sweater and began to relate stories on his relationships with scores of directors. Baldwin, as always, was his seductive take-control self, expertly navigating the conversation with his comedic skills.
Some points of interest: American Gigolo forever changed Gere’s image and actually limited his roles. He so embodied the character of the male escort, Julian Kaye, that he was now pigeonholed into the sexy man role. His agent piped in from the audience and confirmed it was a turning point. And Gere bantered back that he’d rather not remember that turning point period.
In An Officer and a Gentleman, he argued with the director, Taylor Hackford, about the scene where he was to lift up the Debra Winger character and carrying her out in his arms. He felt that this romantic act was not masculine enough for his character, Zack Mayo. Hackford persuaded him into doing it, saying he just wanted to shoot it and they could cut it later.
Gere remarked how he’s still stunned that he was cast and actually competent in his role in Rob Marshall’s Chicago, which required dancing and singing. He told a funny story on how an agent brokering the role told him that Rob Marshall really wanted him for this role as the lawyer, Billy Flynn. The agent then told Marshall that Richard Gere really wanted that role. Neither was true but it all worked out. Gere admitted that he enjoyed acting in this film particularly.
During the Q&A, an audience member praised Gere for his excellent acting in his most recent lead man role in Arbitrage, where he plays a billionaire hedge-fund manager, Bernie Madoff-type duplicitous character. The hour and a half “conversation” was good theatre and whether or not Gere liked his metamorphosis into the sexual man created by American Gigolo, I must say that at 63 years old Gere still possesses the ultimate sex appeal.
I closed out my movie going at HIFF on a high note by scoring the hottest ticket of the festival, Argo, directed and produced by Ben Affleck and produced by Affleck, Grant Heslov and George Clooney. Over a riveting two hours I watched a CIA agent (Ben Affleck playing Tony Mendez) attempting to rescue six Americans hiding in the Canadian embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. This was based on the true account of Mendez. It was a nail-biter!
GERE: photograph courtesy of Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com
