24 Hours Of Hamptons Films For Memorial Day Weekend

Dramas, comedies, documentaries, chick flicks and thrillers—the South Fork has seen it all. But have you?

When the sun, or the in-laws, get to be too much this Memorial Day weekend, grab a bag of popcorn and saddle up for 24 hours of movies shot in the Hamptons during this do-it-yourself film festival.

Location: Quogue

Starring: Cate Blanchett 
and Alec Baldwin

Runtime: 98 minutes

Synopsis: A Manhattan socialite, portrayed by Cate Blanchett—a role that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in March—arrives in San Francisco to impose upon her sister after splitting up with her husband (Alec Baldwin). During flashbacks of happier days, the couple vacations at their Hamptons manse: crews were on location in Quogue with director Woody Allen for two days in September 2012.

It’s only natural to watch Mr. Baldwin prowl around the East End, even though the shoot was 30 miles west of his East Hampton pad. Perhaps production costs were less expensive in Quogue? Or, perhaps, the actor was simply trying to hold onto the last shred of privacy he has left.

Stream “Blue Jasmine” on Netflix and Amazon, or rent it on DVD.

Location: Hampton Bays, East Quogue and Shelter Island

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jack Black and Jennifer Jason Leigh

Runtime: 91 minutes

Synopsis: When director Noah Baumbach was writing the script, he had his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, in mind, but not the Hamptons. Turns out, this corner of the world ended up suiting all his needs.

Shot from April through June 2006—with a few scenes lensed in the Bronx—the film follows Margot, portrayed by Nicole Kidman, and her son, Claude (Jack Black), on a trip to visit her sister Pauline (Ms. Leigh) after she announces her engagement to a less-than-impressive fiancé. A dramatic storm ensues—a page cut straight from the juicy East End.

Stream “Margot at the Wedding” on Amazon, or rent it on DVD through Netflix,

Title: “Something Borrowed”

Location: Southampton, East Hampton and Amagansett
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Kate Hudson and Colin Egglesfield

Runtime: 112 minutes

Synopsis: Friendships are tested and secrets surface when terminally single Rachel, acted by Ginnifer Goodwin, falls for Colin Egglesfield’s character, Dex, who is the fiancé of her best gal pal, Darcy, portrayed by Kate Hudson.

The love triangle filmed on the East End during the summer of 2010, provided the ideal setting for the movie’s “Hamptons montage”—chock full of beaches, estates, windmills and familiar storefronts, including Citarella and the former Tommy Hilfiger in East Hampton.

Beachgoers may have caught Ms. Hudson and Mr. Egglesfield goofing around together in the sand, stopping to kiss and throw around a football. On her day off, Ms. Goodwin also hit the beach with costar John Krasinski, who brought his dog to splash around in the water.

Catch “Something Borrowed” on DVD through Netflix, or stream on Amazon.

Title: “Interiors”

Location: Southampton

Starring: Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page and Kristin Griffith

Runtime: 93 minutes

Synopsis: Before “Blue Jasmine,” there was Woody Allen’s first stab at a drama in 1978, a dark film about three sisters who find their lives spinning out of control in the wake of their parents’ sudden, unexpected divorce. But this film, too, brought the director to the East End—this time to a lonely oceanfront mansion in Southampton, a beautiful setting for a relentless tragedy.

Step into the past and watch “Interiors” on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “Sweet Liberty”

Location: Sag Harbor

Starring: Alan Alda, Michael Caine and Michelle Pfeiffer

Runtime: 106 minutes

Synopsis: In the summer of 1985, the film company behind “Sweet Liberty” owned Main Street in Sag Harbor for one night. The street needed to be deserted in order to create the right effect: the quiet after a night of revelry in this film within a film.

Writer/director/star Alan Alda shot this comedy about the making of a movie from a scholarly book about the American Revolution almost entirely in and around Sag Harbor, including Revolutionary War battle scenes in Noyac.

Not everyone was thrilled. A few business owners were annoyed that portions of the village were closed to consumers during a crucial time of year. As a result, the Merchants Association of Sag Harbor—or its acronym, “MASH,” in Mr. Alda’s honor—was formed.

Rent “Sweet Liberty” on Netflix.

Title: “Shelter Island”

Location: Shelter Island, Sag Harbor and Southampton

Starring: Ally Sheedy, Patsy Kensit and Stephen Baldwin

Runtime: 82 minutes

Synopsis: The East End may not seem like the ideal location to shoot a thriller. Think again. It’s dark. It’s remote. And it’s deserted, especially during the off-season or a natural disaster.

It’s an audience’s worst nightmare. And every horror filmmaker’s wildest dream.

Shot primarily on Shelter Island, this film follows Lou Delemere—portrayed by Ally Sheedy—who seems to have it all: fame, money and a beautiful lover named Alex. When the couple retreats to her estate on Shelter Island, looking to relax, they find themselves trapped by a severe storm, cut off from all communication with the outside world. Soon, a stranger knocks, and a dangerous game begins.

Rent “Shelter Island” on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “The Door in the Floor”

Location: East Hampton and Bridgehampton

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger and Jon Foster

Runtime: 111 minutes

Synopsis: Adapted from John Irving’s best-selling novel “A Widow for One Year,” the film is set in the privileged, sun-kissed beach community of East Hampton and chronicles one pivotal summer in the lives of children’s book author Ted Cole, portrayed by Jeff Bridges, and his wife, Marion (Ms. Basinger).

Their once-great marriage is strained by tragedy, and the writer’s young assistant becomes both the pawn and catalyst in his boss’s disintegrating household—set against the backdrop of a waterfront mansion here.

Watch the drama unfold in “The Door in the Floor” on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “Last Summer in the Hamptons”

Location: East Hampton

Starring: Victoria Foyt, Viveca Lindfors and Jon Robin Baitz

Runtime: 108 minutes

Synopsis: Shot almost entirely on location in East Hampton, this film by auteur Henry Jaglom follows a large theatrical family spending the last weekend of their summer together at the decades-old family retreat, which economic circumstances forced them to put on the market. The website IMDB notes that Mr. Jaglom dedicated it to his father, Simon, who regularly brought his family to the Hamptons and died in East Hampton after the summer of 1992.

Catch Viveca Lindfors’s final film, “Last Summer in the Hamptons” on Hulu or rent on DVD through Amazon.

Title: “Something’s Gotta Give”

Location: Southampton and East Hampton

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves

Runtime: 128 minutes

Synopsis: House tours on the East End are famous for incredible architecture, spectacular ocean views and ... movie sets?

Two years ago, the circa-1910 Southampton manse featured in “Something’s Gotta Give” appeared on the annual “Insider’s View of Southampton Homes” tour, sponsored by the Southampton Historical Museums and Research Center, where visitors relived the charming chemistry between Jack Nicholson’s character—an aging swinger with a taste for much younger women—and the mother of his latest conquest, portrayed by Diane Keaton.

The interior scenes at the beach house were filmed on a stage in Culver City, California, through writer/director Nancy Meyers and production designer Jon Hutman scouted many houses on the East Coast and gathered inspiration before shooting.

Stream “Something’s Gotta Give” on Netflix and Amazon.

Title: “Grey Gardens”

Location: East Hampton

Starring: Edith Bouvier Beale and Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale

Runtime: 100 minutes

Synopsis: This is the unbelievable yet true story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. They lived alongside an army of cats and raccoons in a world of their own, behind towering privets that hid their decaying, filthy, 28-room East Hampton mansion—known as “Grey Gardens”—from the world. Until the Maysles brothers arrived with their camera and tape recorder.

Peek into their strange life of dependence and eccentricity in “Grey Gardens,” streaming on Amazon and Hulu, or available on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “Pollock”

Location: Springs

Starring: Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden and Tom Bower

Runtime: 122 minutes

Synopsis: In 1945, abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock married artist Lee Krasner and moved to a modest cottage in Springs overlooking Accabonac Creek. There, he got away from booze, his insecurities and the stress of city life. Until his old demons returned.

Visiting the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, it’s easy to imagine the raging artist pacing his studio in paint-stained jeans and a T-shirt. Or, one could watch lead actor Ed Harris doing it in “Pollock,” filmed almost entirely in Springs, with scenes at the Southampton railroad station and Springs-Fireplace Road.

Stream “Pollock” on Amazon or watch on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “The Sheik”

Location: Napeague

Starring: Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres and Ruth Miller

Runtime: 80 minutes

Synopsis: There was once a charming Arabian sheik who abducted an adventurous Englishwoman to his home in Napeague’s Walking Dunes—ahem, the Sahara Desert.

It was the 1920s and, without a budget to travel to the Middle East, the team behind silent film “The Sheik” came to the East End instead.

Or did they? Some experts argue that the Walking Dunes shooting location is an urban myth, and that the desert scenes actually were filmed in California. Either way, it’s still fun to think of Rudolph Valentino stomping through the sands in Napeague in one of the greatest silent films of all time.

Stream “The Sheik” on Amazon.

Title: “Annie Hall”

Location: Napeague

Starring: Woody Allen and Diane Keaton

Runtime: 93 minutes

Synopsis: The lobster scene in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning “Annie Hall” has gone down in history on the East End—not due to its sheer hilarity, but because it was shot in the kitchen of East Hampton Star Publisher Helen Rattray.

The romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer, acted by Mr. Allen, and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall, portrayed by Diane Keaton, ensue in the Hamptons and, primarily, in Manhattan—painting a historical picture of love in the 1970s.

Stream “Annie Hall” on Amazon or rent it on DVD through Netflix.

Title: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”

Location: Wainscott and Montauk

Starring: Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet

Runtime: 108 minutes

Synopsis: Ever wonder if the spectacular house in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is really in the Hamptons?

Ding, ding, ding—it absolutely is. Now owned by Michael and Eleanora Kennedy, the home was set to actors Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, who portrayed a couple that undergoes a procedure to erase each other from their memories when their relationship crumbles. The scene where they are in a bed on the beach together was shot in Montauk, though the scenes on the Long Island Rail Road were actually filmed on Metro-North’s New Haven line.

Grab some popcorn, a box of tissues and watch “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” on DVD through Netflix, or stream on Amazon.