LAST LOOK.(The Talk of the Town)(Things That Hang from Trees)

The other day, several men--a director, a screenwriter, a cinematographer, an editor, a type of technician called a color timer, and two producers--gathered in a screening room on an upper floor of a building in the West Fifties. The room had black walls, a reddish-brown carpet, and a movie screen the size of a very large bedsheet. Ido Mizrahy, the director of the film "Things That Hang from Trees," which was about to be shown at both Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, in the New Directors/New Films series, had reserved the room in order to see his film one last time before delivering it to moma. Mizrahy, who is twenty-four, is tall and slim, with black hair, olive skin, and clear, dark eyes. He was a child actor in Israel, and, along with stage and television work, he dubbed Hebrew for Disney movies such as "Peter Pan." He came to New York six years ago.

The movie portrays the life of an eight-year-old boy in Florida, in 1969. He lives with his mother, who owns a lingerie store; she models in the store's front window. He is harassed by a bully and also by his father, a drifter. He is nearly mute in the face of his suffering, and only after a tragedy finds shelter. All the men in the room had ideas about other actors who might have been cast, about shots that might have been handled differently, about scenes that might be shed, but it was too late to change anything about them. The purpose of the screening was to verify that all the scenes were in focus and that there were no flaws or scratches in the print.

After the lights came up, the men gathered in groups, some of which dissolved and formed again. Their conversations overlapped, and they decided that one more print should be made, to correct a handful of flaws, before it went to MoMA.

"Every single time, it's different," Mizrahy said.

"The top of the frame . . ." one of the producers said.