Last night at the Tribeca Grand, The Accompanied Literary Society hosted a screening of The Reader, the much-talked-about Stephen Daldry film based on the best-selling book by Bernhard Schlink.

“I just finished it on Saturday,” said Daldry, who admitted to the smokers hovering outside of the hotel that executive producer Harvey Weinstein (who himself dropped by the champagne-soaked, late-night dinner after the movie) would have him running all over town showing the film over the coming days.

ALS grand poobah Brooke Geahan had the honor of screening it first, however. She said she loved the film in no small part because of its literary message. “It’s incredible to see a film with such a focus on reading,” she said, gushing about the importance of literacy. (An often-naked Kate Winslet is read to throughout the film.) The seemingly steely blonde wasn’t all business, though. She was also won over by the odd love story, admitting, “It’s a crier.”

One thing the glitzy crowd—including Daldry himself, Lewis Lapham and author Francine Prose—couldn’t stop chatting about was actor David Kross, who played a younger version of Ralph Fiennes’ character. It was said that Daldry was so intent on casting Kross, who learned English expressly for the film, that he waited for the actor to turn 18 before filming so there wouldn’t be any unpleasantness in filming his steamy sex scenes and full-frontal nudity.

And while it remains to be seen whether the book-themed, Nazi-tinged film will be, as the buzz is going, the ticket back to the Oscars for Weinstein, for one night being a reader seemed much more glamorous than it ever had before.