Oh, Canada, a new film that pairs Richard Gere with his American Gigolo writer-director Paul Schrader 44 years after the iconic male escort drama, has released its first images.
Oh, Canada depicts famed documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife (Gere), an American leftist who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Battling cancer in Montreal, late in life, he agrees to a final interview in which he plans to reveal long-concealed secrets. He unburdens himself in the presence of his wife Emma (Uma Thurman), and former student Malcolm MacLeod (Michael Imperioli), as well as a team of filmmakers. Jacob Elordi plays the young Fife.
Arclight Films released first-look photos of the film to the public as it is introducing Oh, Canada to buyers at The European Film Market (EFM) at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
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The film is based on the 2021 novel Foregone, written by Russell Banks. It is lead produced by David Gonzales, who also produced Schrader’s previous film, Master Gardener, starring Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver. The other producers are Tiffany Boyle (Joyland), Luisa Law (The Accidental Getaway Driver), Scott LaStaiti (Kandahar starring Gerard Butler), and Meghan Hanlon.
Thanks to his lead turn in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, Elordi is currently enjoying the sex symbol status bestowed upon Gere for American Gigolo, a neo-noir drama with an intoxicating ’80s sheen, set against the backdrops of Westwood and Palm Springs, in which Gere played Julian, whose work as a well-compensated sex worker connects him with a complicated crime.
Richard Gere and Paul Schrader
The film made Gere one of the most in-demand leading men of his generation, culminating in the spectacular success of Pretty Woman, released a decade after American Gigolo, in which he turned the tables by playing a john to Julia Robert’s unflappable sex worker Vivian. (The film was recently made into a Showtime series with Jon Bernthal in the title role. It lasted a season.)
After establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters with his work on Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, Schrader embarked on a writing and directing career that has included Blue Collar, Hardcore, Cat People, Light of Day, Light Sleeper, Affliction, and more. He also wrote the scripts for Scorsese’s Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing Out the Dead.
He also earned major acclaim for his recent writing and directing efforts First Reformed in 2017 and The Card Counter in 2021.
Main image: Richard Gere and Uma Thurman in Oh, Candada by Paul Schrader. Photo by Jeong Park, courtesy of Arclight Films.
Editor’s Note: Corrects Elordi’s role.
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