Entertaining

Cinema Paradiso

The sun sets and the stars are emerging. The big screen lights up and Paul Newman's "Fast Eddie" struts into the pool hall-young, cocky, gorgeous-and about to get a beat-down from a plump and sweaty Jackie Gleason.

It's Sunday night in Sagaponack. It's Movie Night at Edward's.

By now a summer staple, Sunday Movie Night occurs with irregular frequency at the home of Edward Nahem, a New Yorkbased modern-art dealer. An email goes out on Thursday, and word trickles down Gibson Beach on Saturday afternoon, blanket to blanket. "What's playing?" someone asks. "Either The Hustler or Blade Runner. I don't think they've decided yet," comes the inevitable response.

A scene from the lawn at a Movie Night last August.

By Sunday dusk, the unofficial movie time, the big screen has been erected in front of the porch. Chairs, sofas, and picnic-table benches have been scattered across the endless front lawn, and the guests are trickling in, many with their own beach chairs and blankets. Pizza boxes are being cleared from the pre-movie dinner, and new friends are being introduced at the concession stand under the tree, stocked with wine, soda, popcorn, and Milk Duds.

Movie Night is where people meet their neighbors, talk to the cutie they've been eyeing on the beach, and recruit a new fielder for the softball team. And this being Sagaponack, that is Kim Raver with her husband Manu Boyer and Brooke Shields in the second row.

The under-the-stars screenings started five years ago with borrowed equipment and a piece of artist's canvas hung off the roof. It's now a much more sophisticated and well-equipped production, the brainchild of Nahem, his next-door neighbor Ted Sann, an advertising executive, and David Cox, a production director for TV commercials. They call themselves The Sagaponack Bathing Society, and are a self-professed "society devoted to nothing," which pretty accurately describes this impish and witty band and the wide circle they attract.

"Meetings take place on the beach, where we talk about movies," says Nahem. "But since it's my house, I generally get my way." Cox is more diplomatic: "The lengthy debates over titles sometimes start in January. But it's a democracy, and everyone wins from time to time."

The season kicks off the last weekend of June, to coincide with Cox's birthday. Last June the first film was Caddyshack. Other titles they have shown include Boogie Nights, Fargo, The Big Lebowski (twice), Team America, Blood Simple, Raging Bull (Nahem's all-time favorite), Midnight Cowboy, Charade, North by Northwest, and Saturday Night Fever (a record night for attendance). There's always one kid-appropriate movie shown when Nahem hosts two Fresh Air Fund kids for the weekend. This year it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and plans are afoot to do a Fresh Air Fund benefit screening next year.

Honorary members of the Sagaponack Bathing Society, from left: Ted Sann, Mark Melrose, David Cox, Oliver Sarkozy, and Edward Nahem. Photographs by Manu Boyer, Pavia Rosati, and David Cox.

As for who turns up, the free-for-all is part of the charm. "The email goes out to about 150 people," says Nahem. "It's getting to the point where people introduce themselves to me as the friend of a friend of a friend. There's plenty of lawn, so I don't care who shows up. I just never know how much popcorn to make."

Already on the schedule for next summer: The Graduate, the director's cut of Blade Runner, and Silence of the Lambs. "The list is endless," says Cox. "But that's the best thing about movie night. There will always be movies to show."

"There's something so relaxing about sitting under the stars, listening to the ocean in the background, and watching a movie," Nahem adds. "And not having to worry about lines at the popcorn stand."