WASHINGTON — He’s one of the most recognizable moviestars on the planet.
But this time, Richard Gere is ready to explore the tragic truth of going unnoticed.
Doubling as producer and star, Gere goes undercover as a New York City homeless man in the new movie “Time Out of Mind,” a project he’s tried to bring to the screen for the past decade.
“I’ve had the script for a long time, 10-12 years,” Gere tells WTOP, saying he finally found his director in Oren Moverman, who not only co-wrote the Beach Boys biopic “Love & Mercy” (2015) but also Gere’s Bob Dylan flick “I’m Not There” (2007).
Also pulling its title from a Dylan song, “Time Out of Mind” intentionally keeps its cameras at a distance from its star, who wanders the streets trying to stay warm.
“They’re up on the roof somewhere, down the block — I had no idea where they were,” Gere says. “I chose not to even look at playbacks until we finished shooting and I said, ‘My God!'”
The gritty footage is beautifully composed, as Moverman shoots through reflective window panes and peers down from rooftops. Characters disappear behind walls as the camera holds on empty rooms. Barred doors create visual traps for the homeless. And storefronts carry symbolic logos, like a neon key on a locksmith window just after Gere is kicked out of his last apartment.
“We wanted the movie to be layered in a way where the point of view is the city,” Moverman says. “You as an audience member are making an effort to pay attention to this guy, who, sometimes you don’t even know where he is, or sometimes he gets lost in the crowd in these wide shots.”
During production, the crew jokingly called these moments “Where’s Waldo” shots, forcing viewers to scan the entire image to find Gere. The sound design creates a similar tapestry, as we hear broken conversations between strangers more often than we hear Gere’s dialogue.
Such experimentation is juicy for cinephiles, but the experience will absolutely prove challenging for casual moviegoers. This unconventional character study requires lots of patience, aiming to be more like “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) than “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006). Instead of inspirational plot points, we simply live alongside this homeless man for two hours.
“The way we were thinking about the film was not in terms of dramaturgy, it was in terms of being,” Gere says. “That demands a certain acting style, which was more like someone on the street.”
Along the way, we’re presented visual clues — a scar on a head suggests some sort of accident, while a No. 33 on a homeless-shelter bed is a cross between Christ’s age and the above-freezing temperature at which certain establishments will no longer provide sanctuary to the homeless. Still, it’s all so ambiguous that we’re never given specific answers. And that’s the point. This isn’t a film meant to be enjoyed; it’s a film meant to send you out of the theatre seeing the world around you in a different way. It trains your eyes to find the unnoticed, the shunned, the forgotten.
“What they take with them is hopefully the ability to see people they haven’t seen before,” Moverman says. “It was our dream to make a movie … that will give you a certain kind of small awakening. … This experience is immersive. Hopefully you walk out of the theatre and you carry George with you, and then you start seeing George in other people who are in distress.”
That was the takeaway for folks who came out to a Q&A with Gere and Moverman at the AMC Loews Georgetown 14 on Thursday night:
While the Georgetown audience asked insightful questions about “Time Out of Mind,” just as many were interested in seeing the star of so many classic films. After all, this was the Richard Gere of countless movie memories, starting with his debut in Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978).
“We were both trying to figure out who we were at that point,” Gere recalls. “He wasn’t Terrence Malick at that point and that was my first movie. There was no projection on me of what I was supposed to be, nor did I know myself enough to be inventing it in any particular way. His first film ‘Badlands’ was an incredible film, so I felt very fortunate to be making this movie with him.”
He also busts the apocryphal myth that the entire film was shot at magic hour — the short, beautifully lit period of time right after sunrise or before sunset.
“The magic hour thing is interesting,” Gere says. “We did our best not to shoot in midday light because it’s so ugly, so we shot early mornings and late afternoons — and sometimes magic hour. … We would rehearse three, four, five hours for that 20 minutes of magic hour we had, so there was a certain amount of hysteria to move quickly and to move well for that 20 minutes, but it wasn’t the whole movie. … Don’t let me bust that. If you wanna hold onto the legend, go right ahead.”
While “Days of Heaven” made haunting use of Ennio Morricone’s rendition of “Carnival of the Animals,” Gere’s next major hit gave us an Oscar-winning song in “Up Where We Belong” by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes in “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982). The film earned Gere his first of four Golden Globe nominations, while the romance between Gere and Debra Winger was recently voted No. 21 on the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Passions.
Also making the AFI’s 100 Passions at No. 21 was Garry Marshall’s romantic comedy classic “Pretty Woman” (1990). The film earned Gere his second Golden Globe nod and provided a breakthrough role for Julia Roberts. Gere says it’s the film most fans ask him about.
“I remember seeing that movie the first time with Julia,” Gere says. “We were sitting at a preview. We snuck in the back, we were sitting together, and we were laughing and being touched like everyone else was. It’s kind of a first-rate movie-movie experience for sure. … It’s just well done. Garry Marshall made the archetype of that type of movie with Julia and me.”
The chemistry between the two leads is on full display as Gere presents Roberts with a jewelry box, only to snap the box shut on her hand. Roberts’ laugh of surprise is eternally priceless.
“It was totally spontaneous,” Gere recalls. “Garry Marshall told me, ‘Richard, when she reaches in the box, close it on her finger, let’s see what happens.'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V10B7hlvHlk
Over the next 25 years, Gere proceeded to rattle off a string of gems, reuniting with Roberts in the fan favorite “Runaway Bride” (1999), winning a Golden Globe for the musical “Chicago” (2002), falling subject to Diane Lane’s cheating wife in “Unfaithful” (2002) and earning his fourth Golden Globe nomination as a hedge-fund magnate across from Susan Sarandon in “Arbitrage” (2012).
But after such a stellar career, Gere takes special pride in the maverick “Time Out of Mind.”
“I’ll be totally clear and honest with you,” Gere says. “Of all the things I’ve done, I can’t think of anything I’m more proud of than this.”
Then, without missing a beat, Moverman chimes in with a quip that leaves Gere in stitches.
“Are you still talking about ‘Pretty Woman?'”
