Cannes Daily: Gere, Schrader Get Serious About Death
'American Gigolo' team reunites for 'Oh, Canada'; plus: deals, reviews, Screen International Jury Grid
Moviegoers of a certain age who were seduced by Richard Gere’s magnetic presence as the sleek, Armani-clad smooth operator of writer-director Paul Schrader’s 1980 American Gigolo were in for something of a shock as the first images from Schrader and Gere’s latest collaboration Oh, Canada appeared on screen at the film’s world premiere Friday night at the Cannes Film Festival. Gere appeared as a desiccated old man, hunched in a wheelchair, his voice reduced to a low rasp. Fortunately, once the lights came up at the film’s conclusion, there was Gere, still looking hale and hearty at 74, alongside the sometimes irascible Schrader, 77, whose voice seemed to crack with emotion as he told the applauding audience, “It’s very nice to be back on the Croisette.”
Indeed, this is the fifth time Schrader has accompanied one of his films to Cannes, going back almost 50 years. The festival showcased 1976’s Taxi Driver, which he wrote for Martin Scorsese, as well as his own directorial efforts 1985’s Mishima, 1988’s Patty Hearst and 1990’s The Comfort of Strangers. Schrader has been just as busy during the past decade, turning out such films as 2017’s First Reformed, 2021’s The Card Counter and 2022’s Master Gardener.
Looking back at his own long association with Schrader at the following morning’s press conference, Gere observed with a smile, “We made a movie 40-something years ago. Of course, I haven’t changed at all in 45 years. Forty-five years later, [Paul] has gotten a little crustier, but he’s earned that.”
Oh, Canada, based on the 2021 novel Foregone by the late novelist Russell Banks, is a sort of lion-in-winter movie, starring Gere as a celebrated documentary filmmaker named Leonard Fife, who fled to Canada during the height of the Vietnam War to avoid the draft. With the support of his wife, played by Uma Thurman, he invites a film crew into his home to record what becomes his dying testimony, and as he does so, the movie flashes back to memories of his youth, with Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi playing Fife as a young man.
The film’s first reviews have been mixed. IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio called it “a meandering ode to death, dying, aging and regret,” although The Daily Beast’s Esther Zuckerman noted, “It’s also an often fascinating match of director and actor, in which both seem to be trying to exorcize the demons of aging through art.” The latest Screen International Jury Grid shows Oh, Canada with a relatively wan average of 1.8 stars.
Undaunted — if nothing else, he’s an unstoppable survivor — Schrader explained that after learning that Banks, a longtime close friend, was dying of cancer, he picked up his novel Foregone, which itself was about “the degradations of death,” and decided to film it and dedicate the movie to his old friend.
Before shooting began, Schrader offered Gere photos and videos of Banks getting sick and dying, but Gere also drew on his own experience watching as his own father passed away at the age of nearly 101 in 2023. “He was clearly in his last days, but the way his mind was coming in and out of many different realities and many levels of consciousness, I think that’s what I related to very much in this script,” Gere said. “I wanted to embrace as much as I could of my father — and I do look like my father, too — and it was kind of freaky when we were going through the process of aging in the film how much I saw myself, some years from now, what I am going to look like, assuming that I live to be as old as my father. It’s a very odd thing.”
Although Oh, Canada plays as a potential valedictory, Schrader isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. In fact, as the press conference was wrapping up he announced that he’s already planning a new film, currently titled Non Compos Mentis — about, he said, “the stupid things men do for love.”
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News
Bomb Scare Temporarily Shuts Down Palais
The entrance to the festival’s main facility was closed Saturday afternoon while police inspected an abandoned rucksack in the middle of the street before reopening the Palais. Continue reading
Veteran Producer Cassian Elwes Launches $100 Million Fund
Elwes (The Butler, Mudbound) has joined forces with Chinese tech entrepreneur Edward Zeng to create Next Generation Media Fund to invest in five to eight features. Continue reading
Deal News
Focus Features Grabs Worldwide Rights to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Next Movie
Lanthimos will reteam with his Kinds of Kindness stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons on the sci-fi comedy Bugonia. Continue reading
The Entertainment System Is Down cast grows
Samantha Morton is the latest star to sign on for Ruben Ostlund’s upcoming film. Continue reading
Mamma Mia! Director Phyllida Lloyd Takes on True-Life Story
Bankside Films is developing Everything I Ever Knew, about a woman who discovers the father of her eldest son was an undercover police officer. Continue reading
Reviews
Oh, Canada Takes a Bow
Writer-director Paul Schrader’s latest film “displays a consistency of thought and seriousness, plus imposing formal ambition.” Continue reading
Spanish-Language Musical Emilia Perez Charms Festgoers
Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez star in Jacques Audiard’s movie about a Mexican drug lord. Continue reading
Caught by the Tides Enters the Competition
China’s relentless march for progress inspires Jia Zhang-ke’s contemplative film. Continue reading
Features
Inside Neon’s Run of Palme d’Or Winners
Neon’s president of acquisitions and production, Jeff Deutchman, says recent Cannes juries “have been choosing films that have that ability to connect with not just American audiences but with international cinephiles all over the world.” Continue reading
How #MeToo Inspired a Horror Film
Actress-turned-director Noémie Merlant tells the story behind her female-led Midnight Movies entry The Balconettes. Continue reading
Today’s Screen Jury at Cannes
The long-running Screen International Jury Grid is a critical ranking of competition films in Cannes, according to an assembled jury of 12 international film critics, including Screen's reviewers. Click here for the full grid, but as you can see, Schrader’s Oh, Canada has ticked up slightly from yesterday and Caught By The Tides and Emilia Perez both debut with solid critical response.
