Sag Harbor Cinema: ‘Bruce Weber’s Film Journals’ Exhibit Opens 11.7th /w Book Signing, Screening & Q&A

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BRUCE WEBER’S FILM JOURNALS

AT SAG HARBOR CINEMA’S

FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION

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A new gallery exhibit from acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber opens November 7th on the Cinema’s third floor featuring icons Robert Mitchum and Chet Baker. Plus a book signing and a screening of Weber’s Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast followed by a Q&A with Bruce Weber and Carrie Mitchum

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Sag Harbor, NY – In just four short years since Sag Harbor Cinema reopened to the public, its third floor space has been transformed in a rousing film-themed art gallery, complementing the Cinema’s on screen programs with exhibits dedicated to Pennebaker/Hegedus, Julie Andrews, Julian Schnabel, James Hamilton, Alan Berliner, Susan Wood, Joe Lauro, and, most recently, the sprawling work of production designer Mark Friedberg.

This fall, in conjunction with the annual Festival of Preservation, Sag Harbor Cinema is proud to present Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Bruce Weber films Chet Baker and Robert Mitchum, featuring the works of photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber.

Spanning a career over 50 years, mainly known for his ubiquitous work in the fashion world, Weber has directed 15 short and feature-length films, published more than 54 books, and has held more than 90 exhibitions worldwide – extending his lifelong exploration of the nature of human relationships.

In his feature documentaries — the 1988 Academy Award-nominated Let’s Get Lost and the 2018 documentary Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast — Weber illuminates the colorful lives, masterful artistry and masculine mystique of two iconic 20th century bad boys: jazz musician Chet Baker and film star Robert Mitchum.

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“I am always fascinated by how artists perceive and portray their peers. Bruce Weber’s intuitive, free associative approach to film — a dance of bodies, fragmented emotions, and light — magically captures the souls of these two very elusive giants. I am thrilled that he accepted our invitation to host an exhibit and a screening. Such a fitting program for our Festival of Preservation,” says SHC’s Founding Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan.

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For this site-specific installation at Sag Harbor Cinema, Weber has chosen to show two main collaged film journals, reflecting his process — weaving images from each film together with archival stills and artifacts, visual references, and impressionistic interpretations of Baker’s and Mitchum’s mythological performances and notorious public personas. These journals were originally prepared for showcases of the films in Germany and France, respectively, and have never been presented before in the United States.

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On November 8th, a multi-faceted Weber program tied to his exhibition will include: the Festival of Preservation screening of Nice Girls Don’t Stay For Breakfast, a brand new music video for the Chet Baker song “Make Me Rainbows,” the presentation of his newly-produced Chet Baker album “Swimming by Moonlight,” and a book signing for his latest monograph with Taschen My Education. Granddaughter of Robert Mitchum, Carrie Mitchum, will join Weber for a Q&A following the screening of Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast.

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Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered: Bruce Weber films Chet Baker and Robert Mitchum opens in conjunction with Sag Harbor Cinema’s Festival of Preservation, the East End’s annual festival dedicated to preserving film and its culture which runs November 7-11th, 2025.

The exhibit will open on November 7th and will remain open to the public on the Cinema’s third floor through January 2025.

For more information and tickets to the screening, please visit sagharborcinema.org.

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BRUCE WEBER

Photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber first rose to international prominence in the early eighties on the success of images that combined classical styling with more visceral underpinnings of desire, mood, and sexuality. His ability to construct a seamless sense of romance and drama created the central public images for fashion houses like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Versace, as well as earning him an enduring presence as a contributor to magazines at the very highest levels in the industry. Throughout his career, Weber continues to work in various forms – he has directed 15 short and feature-length films, published more than 54 books, and has held more than 90 exhibitions worldwide – extending his lifelong exploration of the nature of human relationships.

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ABOUT THE FILM:

NICE GIRLS DON’T STAY FOR BREAKFAST

Directed by Bruce Weber

USA | 2018 | 90 mins | English

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In the mid 1990s, iconic photographer Bruce Weber managed to convince Robert Mitchum, Hollywood’s original “bad boy”, to appear before his camera for a filmed portrait. Weber shot Mitchum in 35mm and 16mm black and white, hanging with friends and cronies in restaurants and hotel rooms and singing before a microphone at Capitol Records, recording standards for a projected album. When Mitchum passed away in 1997, Weber parked his beloved project and it was some time before he went back into his footage, picked up the camera again and completed, his tribute to Mitchum, which includes interviews with family members as well as with actors that knew him and/or love his work, such as Clint Eastwood, Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp.

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Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast is a textured portrait of a man who came from—and for many was the very embodiment of—a bygone era, speaking and enacting its prejudices, its longings, and its charms. In Bruce Weber’s words:

“In making a portrait of Bob, I tried to show the man who made over 130 movies and still wanted us to believe that he just didn’t care. Bob was very well-read and wrote poetry, which comes as a surprise to most people, who can only see him as the original tough guy who made war movies, noir films and Westerns. Our film was initially inspired by a book Bob wrote with his brother John called Them Ornery Mitchum Boys but I realized that my film was really about an aging sex symbol, who happened to be a man – instead of the usual Marilyn Monroe story that we’re so used to reading about”.

Courtesy of Little Bear Inc.

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Photo Credits: Chet Baker & Robert Mitchum by Bruce Weber.

Bruce Weber portrait by Zac Rupprecht

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As a not-for-profit 501(c)3, community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present and future of the Movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image – from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.

www.sagharborcinema.org

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