About 33 antique automobiles are to participate Saturday in the Bridge Hampton Historical Society's road rallye, whose loop this year will include roads in Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, Wainscott, East Hampton, Amagansett, Springs, Northwest, and Sag Harbor.

"The route's somewhat longer this year, about 100 miles, I think, and the competition promises to be much better," said Jim Shelly, owner of the Georgica Getty station in East Hampton. Mr. Shelly and his navigator, Steve Cohen, "won two years ago, dropped to third last year, and are looking to get back on top again this year."

The rallye, said Mr. Shelly, "is a time and distance event. It's not a race, but it is a stiff test of how closely your actual times, for the various segments and for the course, match up with the theoretical times you're given at the start. The object is to get as close to the theoretical, or target, times as possible."

Timing Zones

Mr. Shelly presumed that the event's chairman, Jeffrey Vogel, had driven the course numerous times in various traffic conditions to determine the target times, none of which exceed speed limits, but which "will push us," said Mr. Shelly.

The driver-navigator teams must be precise as they drive through the 125-foot-long zones that lead to a rubber timing hose that registers checkpoint times to within one-10th of a second. "You can wait outside the zone, but once you enter it you can't stop," said Mr. Shelly.

How long it takes to cover those final feet at each checkpoint varies with the type of car. Mr. Shelly, who drives a 1953 MG TD, said he uses a 20-second count. Alan Patricof, also of East Hampton, and his navigator, John Horvitz, of Bridgehampton, who practiced Saturday in Mr. Patricof's 1927 air-cooled, wooden frame Franklin 11-B at the Historical Society, were using a 15-second count.

"Talk to me, talk to me," Mr. Patricof said to Mr. Horvitz, who stood nearby counting down the seconds as the former guided the sporty Franklin, with this writer in the passenger seat, toward the timing hose adjacent to a tent where rallye volunteers were being briefed by the rallye's technical chairman, Michael Moody.

Other Local Entries

When, during one turn, Mr. Horvitz hit both buttons at the same time, clearing the watch, Mr. Patricof, who's making his debut in the rallye this year, joked, "I've got to get another navigator."

Besides Mr. Shelly's and Mr. Patricof's entries, there will be, among others, a 1953 Jaguar XK 120 owned by Andrew Benenson of New York City and East Hampton; a 1935 Ford convertible owned by Serge Bellanger of Wainscott; a 1953 MG owned by Leonard Ackerman of East Hampton; a SIATA 208S owned by Daniel Rowen of New York and East Hampton, and a 1934 Ford Deluxe Roadster owned by John Ferrell of Bridgehampton.

The rallye is divided into two classes - Firemen's Carnival Race Vintage, harking back to 1915-21, a period in which East Enders raced annually on Bridgehampton streets at speeds up to 50 miles per hour, and Lions Club Race Vintage, for sportscars, most of whose models would have raced Bridgehampton's streets in the wildly popular, though ultimately dangerous, races that were held there annually between 1949 and 1953.

Only Three Left

According to the rallye program, the oldest entrant this year is Julian MacKay's 1908 Isotta-Fraxhini FE. Mr. MacKay's is "a special grand prix model of which only six were made and only three remain. It first saw competition in the Grand Prix at Dieppe, France, and went on to compete in the U.S. in the 1910s."

The rallye is to begin, with staggered starts, at the Historical Society at 10 a.m. Registration, check-in, and a technical inspection is to take place tomorrow, from 5 to 8 p.m. On Saturday, lunch will be provided to drivers and navigators between laps. The last car is expected to arrive in the Historical Society's paddock at 3. A tire changing competition will be held there at 4:30, to be followed, at 7, with a cocktail hour, dinner, and awards ceremony.

The summer is really, truly over. We know it not because of the pumpkins in every shop window or the screens piled by cellar doors awaiting cold-weather storage, but because The Star's house plant collection has tripled in the past week.

City friends leave African violets and geraniums on our doorstep every October the way babies used to be abandoned in the snow at churches, with pleading notes.

This is a much-loved plant, the notes say, carefully nurtured, fed, and watered, and free of infectious diseases. Now that the nights have turned cold, however, it can no longer remain outside.

Nor, apparently, can it go back to an overheated, under-humidified apartment house in which the temperature is centrally controlled, though never by anyone who cares a whit for geraniums.

No. What it needs is a Good Home for the winter, preferably one that has east and south-facing windows with broad, roomy ledges and a surfeit of surrogate plant-minders.

What was it the song said about the big city? It's a jungle out there, baby? It's a jungle here, too, baby, or will be until April anyway.

Tomorrow's the big day at East Hampton Town Hall: The Town Board is expected to take a first step toward controlling the steady spread of strip commercial development by adopting what is being called the "superstore" law. The law would limit supermarkets to 25,000 square feet, allow them only in central business districts, and set a limit of 15,000 square feet on other retail shops.

Listening to the politically divided members of the Town Board debate the proposed law - and the future of all retail zoning in town - has been gratifying. This is an issue that has aroused bipartisan concern, and that so far promises to find bipartisan solutions.

Although one or two Republican board members are poised to vote against the superstore law, we don't expect them to fight it too hard. They have not disputed the points made by persons as diverse as Russell Stein, who wrote much of our zoning as Democratic town attorney, or Republican Councilman Len Bernard. These include concern about the impact of a larger A&P, with a lot more than food for sale, on smaller local businesses and the flaw in the zoning code that allows supermarkets of any size in neighborhood business districts, which are prevalent.

Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey has suggested that instead of allowing the existing moratorium on superstores to expire, the board extend it for another six months. We think that's a good idea - but only if, at the same time, the board establishes the bipartisan commission we've been talking about to come up with alternate sites for retail development, with innovative methods for phasing such development only as needed, and for controlling land speculation.

The East Hampton Housing Authority alternately limped, panted, and stumbled through too many years of planning its Accabonac Highway affordable apartment complex. Finally, though, just as its board, which had been appointed in times of Democratic control, pulled together the construction approvals and financing for the $5.6 million project, the new Republican Town Board majority got to appoint two members of its own.

The new members said they would rein in costs and keep a close eye on construction. These are laudable and necessary efforts, but their attempts, which appeared driven at first by a desire to prove the Democrats incompetent or worse, have gotten nowhere.

The Authority has been in a state of crisis management all year. Although Robert Brach is the Authority's chairman, he does not seem able to take the lead. Furthermore, the Authority has been less than accessible to the public. When it recently decided to fire the Accabonac project's architect, Bill Clemency of the Garden City firm of Tast and Clemency, it did so at a Sunday meeting that was called with just one day's notice and on the weekend of Rosh Hashanah.

The Authority has been in the habit, in fact, of holding "special" meetings on just a few hours' notice, or with no notice at all, which is legal only in cases of true emergency. Last week, it switched the location of a meeting to one member's office a half-hour before the session was to start, leaving a resident with something to tell the board waiting at Town Hall.

The Authority gave several reasons for its decision to fire Mr. Clemency. He was accused of profiting from the removal of topsoil from the Accabonac site, of trying to cover up engineering problems, of allowing the project to go to bid illegally several years ago, and of failing to indicate town requirements for a scenic easement in final plans, which resulted in overclearing. Mr. Clemency's departure raised old doubts about whether his firm should have been chosen to begin with.

In the past, East Hampton Republicans were quick to criticize the former chairwoman, Margaret deRouleaux, the architectural firm, and the Authority's efforts, while the Democrats were quick to leap to their defense. However, no one on either side has been able to promise taxpayers' that their multimillion-dollar investment in affordable housing is safe.

Although the Authority is largely independent, the Town Board had to co-sign for the $3 million it has borrowed for its projects so far, and has pledged the town's credit worthiness for up to $6 million. With these loans due to be rolled over in two months and construction on Accabonac Highway at a standstill, the Town Board must act immediately to commission an independent investigation, unhampered by political bias, into what has been going wrong.

Alan Pakula's living room feels very, very far away from Los Angeles. Of course, it is: Mr. Pakula lives at Georgica in East Hampton, which is just about as far away from L.A. as one can get. The distance is more than geographic; it is intellectual.

Mr. Pakula, who will receive the Distinguished Achievement Award here Saturday at the Hamptons International Film Festival, is one of Hollywood's most successful and revered directors. His success, though, has been won without the sacrifice of integrity, intellect, or taste that so often attends a director's ascent to eminence in the American film industry.

Mr. Pakula speaks eloquently about a career that has spanned roughly 40 years and included producing and/or directing some of the most compelling films to come out of Hollywood in the second half of this century.

His Films Ask Questions

"Klute," "The Parallax View," "All the President's Men," and "Sophie's Choice" are a very small number of the films he has directed. And, while all his films have been born out of mainstream Hollywood financing and production, none has failed to pose serious questions about our culture.

"I've hardly had an avant-garde career," he said without apology. A self-described "populist," Mr. Pakula works in an idiom that is both challenging and widely accessible. He is able to share his intelligence at a very broad level and to avoid being entirely controlled by mainstream interests.

A persistent probing of the surface of things wedded to a sensitivity to narrative, both realized in striking manipulation of cinematic form, characterize Mr. Pakula's filmmaking.

Discussing his personal methods, Mr. Pakula is at turns precise and poetic.

Desire For Change

"If you're going to make a film, you have to try to make sure it comes out of a childlike passion, as if you're doing it for the first time," he said during a recent morning interview at his East Hampton house.

"There is something infantile about doing anything creative. . .you have to need the work to complete yourself. . . . You're constantly remaking your life."

The fullness of Mr. Pakula's approach to film and his ability to articulate his approach sound very different from the commercial claims of Hollywood.

He is possessed of his own brand of restlessness, which he describes as the avoidance of "Lot's Wife's Syndrome": He refuses to be trapped by the conventions of his past successes. While in retrospect he sees structural consistency among many of his films, he is resolute in his desire to tell new stories with new methods.

Newest Film

His newest film, "The Devil's Own," is a thriller that doubles as "the final loss-of-innocence film," he said. It stars Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt as "two men essentially doomed to conflict." Mr. Pakula said the film is "as character-driven a piece as any I've ever done."

Mr. Pakula has just finished editing the film, one of the processes of filmmaking he most enjoys.

"Editing is God's gift to the filmmaker. It's like suddenly entering the monastery with your film," he said.

Sitting alone with only the equipment and his editor, Mr. Pakula said he is able to extend his creative powers in a demesne of almost primary satsifaction. While deciding which footage to keep and which to scrap, Mr. Pakula said, the child he once was takes over. "Am I bored, or not?" he thinks, as if he were at the movies in Long Beach, where he grew up.

The conversations conducted in the privacy of the editing room between this filmmaker and his unfinished work must be very productive, for the quality of Mr. Pakula's art is of the highest order.

Screenplay On F.D.R.

Few other directors with the respect Mr. Pakula commands would be currently working on a script about Franklin D. Roosevelt's Presidency and the "Byzantine" nature of its power structure.

This screenplay, to be produced some time hence, appeals to Mr. Pakula in its contrast to the poverty of the contemporary political scene, he explained.

"There has been so little successful leadership since that time," he said.

Mr. Pakula calls the last few decades some of the "most conservative" in recent memory, speaking with political conviction that is scarce in most of Hollywood.

Mr. Pakula is unsure, however, about the ultimate success of producing "a film about a man who could hardly stand up, at a time when people are obsessed by action. . . . We live in a time when every technique is used to keep an audience from being bored."

The Local Landscape

Mr. Pakula relishes being able to live on the eastern tip of Long Island, and has been a resident of East Hampton since 1979. He said he had been fascinated by the physical landscape here since he was taken by his parents to see the Montauk Lighthouse when he was 8 years old.

"Living near the ocean is sustenance to me. . . . We have the most beautiful graveyard in America. Driving past it in winter when the kids are skating on the pond makes all the chaos of summer worth it."

The chaos alludes to the crowds of summer in general, of course, but also to the recent migration to East Hampton in the warmer months of so many entertainment-industry movers and shakers, avatars of a Hollywood that is far from the thoughtful, warm, and intellectually generous milieu in which Mr. Pakula and his wife, the author Hannah Pakula, live.

"The day after Labor Day to the day before Memorial Day is my favorite time of the year," he said.

Two exhibits at the Arlene Bujese Gallery recall simpler, less self-conscious, and maybe ultimately happier times in the art world.

Josh Dayton, whose family roots on the East End go back to the 17th century, shows that he's absorbed the world-class talents of Pollock and de Kooning and is slowly but inexorably moving beyond them. In the rear gallery, Norman Mercer's cast-acrylic sculptures bring to mind the harder-edged, more optically inclined art of a later generation, one that turned its back on the perceived excesses of both Abstract Expressionism and Pop.

The two artists demonstrate that there's still rich terrain to be mined in the past, but there are pitfalls as well.

Buoyant Approach

Mr. Dayton's incredibly fluid watercolors seem to spring, like his predecessors' experiments, directly from the unconscious, where all manner of pent-up demons and obsessions provided artists with some of their most vigorous subjects.

But if one compares Mr. Dayton's lyrical compositions with similar works from the 1940s, there's an earnestness - and often an awkwardness - that's missing here. The younger artist seems to be saying, "Hey, let's lighten up with this existential stuff and have a little fun."

Which is not to call his approach Expressionism Lite, but it is agreeably buoyant and ingratiating, especially in the subtle, earthy tones he deploys in works like "Friends of the Italians" and "Let's Burn."

The figurative associations in these paintings can also lend a comic touch. I couldn't help seeing "Black Figure, Red Fields" as a pair of happy creatures absorbed in a mad tango.

Ambitious Mixed Media

When Mr. Dayton turns to ambitious mixed media - ceramics against a backdrop of collaged scraps of acrylic painting - he's on dicier but more original turf.

The vaguely biomorphic clay fragments erupt from the picture plane, sometimes overwhelming the high-keyed, equally fragmented ground. It's a difficult balancing act that doesn't always succeed, in part because the viewer sometimes gets the impression the artist is recycling everything in his studio.

"Bracket and Web" feels unresolved, as though the right half were tugging away to be in a different place, but "Mr. Umbrella," with its squiggles of terracotta across the top, manages to keep the eye happily roving across its busy surface.

Mr. Dayton is at his best when he's showing more restraint. In "Half Eyelash," a sinuous, ceramic ara- bes que grows from a crumpled masklike shape and is balanced and echoed by two calligraphic fragments in the upper left and right corners. It's a work that calls to mind the best of synthetic Cubism, and it shows tremendous promise.

Sculpture By Mercer

Norman Mercer's clear acrylic sculptures come in odd geometric shapes and depend on a kind of ocular trickery for their impact.

As one moves around, the bright cellophane hues embedded in the works refract and recombine, somewhat like the innards of a kaleidoscope. It's work that recalls the optical experiments of artists like Bridget Riley and Larry Bell, who have never been high on this viewer's list.

Still, one has to admire Mr. Mercer's skill and chutzpah. "Tetrahedron" shows a surprisingly delicate mingling of circles and triangles within; in "Platonic Series VIII: Embrace," two "rhomboid" forms are joined by a clear circular ring.

Restraint Is Affecting

Mr. Mercer, too, is most affecting when he's at his most restrained.

"Dodecagonal Helicoid" is a simple twisting shape with an elegance the others lack, and "Wall Piece" is a half-ring of violet and gold, reflected in the mirror behind it, so that the ring becomes a whole, and the complementary colors set up subtle vibrations.

It would be interesting to see Mr. Mercer abandon the full-color spectrum to concentrate more on shape, luminosity, and the other possibilities of this difficult medium.

What better way to enjoy seafood than at a place where you can gaze out into the waters that provided the heart of the meal and our area's fishing traditions.

If that's what you have in mind, Bostwick's Seafood Grill and Oyster Bar on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, fits the bill. Owned by the team of Chris Eggert and Kevin Boles, who draw crowds at Sante Fe Junction in East Hampton, Bostwick's is new this year, sort of.

At the end of Gann Road in East Hampton, the restaurant is a combination of the best elements of two run by the team last season: Bostwick's Seafood Grill and the East Coast Oyster Bar: It has first-rate seafood and a casual but attentive staff. The Bostwick's bar, which often has standing room only, has become a favorite watering hole for after-work gatherers.

Watching The Boats

An open but covered deck and an adjoining but equally airy indoor dining room afford a chance to take a peek at the town's dock, where such fishing vessels as Stuart Vorpahl's Polly-Ruth are docked, and the Harbor Marina, which is full of recreational boats.

Three of us have enjoyed lunch and dinner at Bostwick's this summer on several occasions, and agree the food is consistently good, fresh, and affordable, without any pretensions or attitude.

At a recent lunch, one of our party enjoyed a grilled tuna sandwich on a soft kaiser bun. It was ample, fresh, nicely spiced, and cooked rare as ordered, with crisp red-leaf lettuce and ripe tomato. Another choice was a fried flounder sandwich, a staple that should please kids and adults alike. It was served with the same accompaniments as the tuna, with tartar sauce on the side. Its consumer didn't take the waitress up on having it supplemented with cheese.

Refreshing Add-Ons

For any true landlubbers in your midst, and we had one, Bostwick's offers a good old cheeseburger. It was juicy and came with plenty of lettuce and tomato.

As side dishes, the french fries were perfect examples of the curly, skin-still-on variety, and the potato salad was called "just like homemade." Coleslaw was of the crunchy, peppery, and refreshing sort.

Other lunch choices are popular choices - shrimp or lobster salad and grilled chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, two kinds of clam chowder and an oyster stew, a raw bar, and salads, like the mixed greens we sampled with lunch. The cucumber-dill dressing we sampled was grainy, as if whole cucumbers had been put through a blender and it needed some additional bite.

Dinner Choices

Dinner at Bostwick's has proven satisfying on more than one occasion. Dinner for two who were reservation-less on a busy Sunday night required a mere 20-minute wait. The raw bar sampler - two oysters, two clams, and five peel-and-eat shrimp - were as refreshing as could be wished for after a hot summer day. A warm, round loaf of bread was enjoyed at the table as well.

The crab cake entree, two large and plump cakes, might have had a bit more crab to them, but they were tasty, sauteed brown on the outside and paired with a tangy whole- grain mustard sauce. At their side, colorful julienned summer vegetables sh zucchini, squash, and carrots - needed no embellishment..

The Bostwick clambake was nicely presented on a large platter, with a big steamed lobster in the middle and clams and mussels, red- skinned potatoes, and corn on the cob rounding it out. The potatoes, though, seemed boiled and entirely plain, a far cry from potatoes done over a traditional clambake fire.

And, For Dessert. . .

There were many other entrees on the menu, including swordfish charred with capers, lemon, roasted shallots, and herbs and soft shell crabs sauteed with garlic, shallots, lemon, and white wine. In addition to the clambake, large platters feature an assortment of fried fish and shellfish, a surf-and-turf, broiled seafood with half a lobster, and "shore dinners" that feature New York strip steak, grilled free-range chicken, roasted Long Island duck, and pasta primavera. We expect they will live up to what we have already enjoyed at Bostwick's.

The most noteworthy dessert we tried was the Bostwick Brownie, a big one served with three syrups, ice cream, and some fresh fruit. Not for the dieters, but otherwise not to be missed. Also, the wine list offers a number of unusually affordable picks, including one of this reviewer's favorite local whites, SagPond's La Ferme Martin Chardonnay, a Gristina Merlot, and Pindar's Mythology Meritage red. Bostwick's serves dinner seven nights a week and reservations are advisable. Lunch is served Friday through Sunday.

Ireland.

Shown Wednesday night

The importance of the festival's opening night film was brilliantly served by "Some Mother's Son," the devastating depiction of two mothers' involvement in the violent strife in Ireland in 1979 that led to their sons' imprisonment and the prisoners' hunger strike, led by Bobby Sands, to gain prisoner of war status.

The film is constructed in a deceptively simple, straightforward, but wrenching manner that is emotionally grueling until finally the effort and pain create the great strength and heights attained by those works that are built, block by heavy block, steadily and evenly until there is a structure that floors you! But as you lie there you look about and realize that you have been elevated to the top floor of the edifice and from this vantage point you can see much farther than you have before.

This grand job was done by Terry George. It is his first time directing and he wrote the script with Jim Sheridan, one of the producers.

Helen Mirren, the incredibly fine performer, also functioned as associate producer and her presence in this film does ever so much to lift it up on high. As the mother who is opposed to violence she works perfectly in concert with Fionnula Flanagan, the earthy, militant mother, and a cast that sets standards for acting.

U.S.A.

Friday, 11:30 a.m., Saturday, 1:30 p.m.

From all appearances, Eliza and her husband, Louis, seem to have a solid marriage: open communication, hot sex, he gets along with her parents. Yet one morning after Louis has gone to work, Eliza finds what looks suspiciously like a love letter written to him by one "Sandy."

The next thing you know, Eliza and her entire family, including her working-class parents (Pat McNamara, Ann Meara), her artsy sister, Jo (Parker Posey), and Jo's overeducated boyfriend, Carl (Liev Schreiber), pile into the family woody and head eastbound on the L.I.E. Part detectives, part support group, their mission improbable is to get to the bottom of this sudden domestic intrigue.

As the unlikely gaggle (otherwise known as a typical suburban family) hunts an elusive Louis down Manhattan canyons, they suffer through such indignities as a broken car heater, generic familial bickering, and the literary pretensions of novelist-construction worker Carl. All the while their lives smash into those of other squabblers and strivers . . . until they finally confront Louis, who by this time they've caught in a web of lies.

A kind of "After Hours" meets "All in the Family," this zany misadventure builds into a powerful and probing drama and ultimate testament to the thickness of blood versus water. While lampooning the publishing world and downtown scene (a venue Parker Posey, star of "Party Girl," inhabits so cozily on celluloid), this directorial debut also manages an uncomfortably familiar emotional intensity.

By casting the spouse in the role of possibly untrustworthy foreigner temporarily given refuge within the folds of the primary family, it also affirms family values in a way never intended by Newt Gingrich. Like most families, this one unravels in order to be stitched again.

U.S.A.

Friday, 6:30 p.m.

Viewers be warned: In order to appreciate this low-key but visually exciting documentary, you need to have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the film's subject. In other words, "Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect" is not, heaven forbid, a run-of-the-mill educational documentary.

Significantly, what you need to know beforehand about the 90-year-old American architect is pretty much what Barbara Wolf has elected to omit from her film. Thus, for example, there is next to nothing about the skyscrapers that made him famous, and there is no hint of the various controversies surrounding the man - in regard, first of all, to his notorious flirtation with fascism.

Nor does the film grapple with such pertinent issues as the growing consensus among his peers that his work went into decline once he had abandoned the International Style of his mentor, Mies van der Rohe.

Not that I'm complaining about these omissions - far from it; what Ms. Wolf has given us is a deceptively simple film that takes us on a fascinating tour of Mr. Johnson's New Canaan, Conn., estate. Here, for the past 45 years, beginning with the widely publicized Glass House of 1949, he has been engaged in designing and building what might prove to be his most lasting works.

On the other hand, do these playful, idiosyncratic structures merely offer further evidence that Philip Johnson is, as has been charged, a decadent dilettante with no architectural style of his own? Even here, away from the concerns of a high-powered career, he is controversial.

What grounds this unpretentious, casually structured film is the footage showing us how the architect's final building was conceived and constructed. This is the structure that will serve as the Visitors Center when, after the architect's death, the estate is turned over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Based on an abstract sculpture by Frank Stella, who appears briefly, it is the most extreme and daring building in the New Canaan complex. In vivid detail, Ms. Wolf's camera captures the excitement of creativity, providing the viewer with a rare glimpse of a work in progress, step by step.

As for Mr. Johnson, he emerges in this hour-long documentary as a man of awesome self-confidence. But above all, we sense his extraordinary energy, still at full throttle. Whatever his place in the history of contemporary architecture, he remains a force to be reckoned with.