Ah, welcome to the land of Law and Order — and the Tribeca Film Festival —as Richard Belzer introduced the event's opening night movie, Mistaken For Strangers, on April 17.
"As if Bob doesn't have enough money with his American Express commercials ...," he drawled of festival founder Robert De Niro and its splashy sponsor. He went on to say that De Niro started Tribeca to bring people back to the neighborhood after 9/11, so it follows that this year's fest is dedicated to those suffering the after-effects of the Boston Marathon bombings.
After a brief monosyllabic appearance by the Bob himself — it's really not about him despite his presence on key red carpets; he quickly passed the spotlight to cofounder Jane Rosenthal — out came the grateful, guileless-looking Mistaken For Strangers director Tom Berninger, brother to the National vocalist Matt Berninger and the maker of the doc ostensibly about the band but a really about brotherly love, competition, and creation. Looking like a viking Zach Galifianakis and playing like a bumbling, hard-partying, apolitical Michael Moore in the film, Tom Berninger looked like he could not quite believe his incredible luck as he was joined on stage by the suited-up National, as well as his small crew, the latter thanked for editing down and "cleaning up this mess."
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