ITALY: VENICE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES OF RICHARD GERE, HARRIS0N FORD AND MICHELLE PFEIFFER MOVIES

Record ID: 546543

  • Title: ITALY: VENICE FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES OF RICHARD GERE, HARRIS0N FORD AND MICHELLE PFEIFFER MOVIES
  • Date: 1st September 2000
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 1, 2000) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** TV OF PRESS CONFERENCE SMV (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT ALTMAN SAYING "It's an essay film I think it's really played inside outside the inside of Dr. T Mr. Gere's head. Here's a man who loves women too much I don't think he understands women as people as much as he should the short cut way of sayi
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2000 13:00
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  • Location: VENICE, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA9K5TQ83PBL5F0D863YD4B8O6L
  • Story Text: American star power flooded Venice during the first weekend of its annual film festival as Richard Gere and director Robert Altman vied with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer for the attention of the fans and photographers.
    While Gere and Altman had arrived earlier in the week to attend Sharon Stone's benefit for the amfAR charity, they were also on a mission to launch their latest film, "Dr. T and the Women," which is in competition at the festival. Ford and Pfeiffer were there to further the box-office of their supernatural thriller "What Lies Beneath," which has already opened big in North America.
    With his his latest film portrayal, in "Dr. T and the Women," Gere is far from his classic "American Gigolo"
    lady-killer role, if only because he's playing a doctor as he spends his time with the opposite sex.
    In the film, which made its world premiere at the festival on Friday (September 1), Gere plays a Dallas gynecologist at the centre of a cast of eccentric and entertaining patients and family members.
    The picture, an independent movie directed by four-time Oscar nominee Altman ("MASH," "Short Cuts"), is a far cry from last year's Gere-Julia Roberts blockbuster "Runaway Bride."
    In a press conference held during the afternoon prior to the premiere, Altman said the film was essentially "an essay about a man who loves women too much."
    "But he doesn't understand women as much as he should," he told the packed auditorium of international journalists.
    "Maybe it's because for most of his life he's been looking at women from the wrong end."
    Gere, who celebrated his 51st birthday Thursday (August 31), provides a haven of sanity for his caseload of female problems, making his character "interesting for me because he's so normal.I joked to my mother that he's the son she always wanted -- a doctor who plays golf," Gere told the news conference.
    The film's female cast includes Farrah Fawcett as Gere's wife, who regresses into a childlike state as she is faced with planning a big society wedding for their daughter, played by Kate Hudson.
    Helen Hunt, Laura Dern, Tara Reid and Liv Tyler are the strong, smart and sometimes crazy women who surround Gere in a story that leads to a surprise ending that Altman asked the media not to reveal.
    Gere's arrival in Venice prompted women of all ages to wait outside his hotel for a glimpse of the white-haired, dark-eyed sex symbol who attended the film's premiere was there with his 39-year-old girlfriend, Carey Lowell.
    More heavy Hollywood artillery was fielded at the festival on Saturday (September 2) when Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer appeared for the European premiere of the thriller "What Lies Beneath." During their walk up the catwalk to the theatre, the two stars were met with a rousing reception by the large crowd. Pfeiffer appeared overjoyed when accepting a bouquet of flowers from a fan.
    The film, which is not in competition, is using the festival as a European launching pad. The summer blockuster, which has already rung up ticket sales of more than $125 million (usd) in the United States, is a psychological thriller in which Pfeiffer plays a wife haunted by the ghost of her husband's lover.
    Neither Ford nor Pfeiffer could talk much about their roles without giving away the tricky plot, which director Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump") admitted owes a debt to master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock.
    Thus, their attendance at a press conference and round of interviews with television outlets gave them a chance to discuss what went into making the film.
    Ford delivers a performance as the perfect husband who turns out to be the perfect nightmare. After building a multimillion dollar-career playing heroes and dependable family men, why did he want to play a bad guy? " I have not just played unalloyed heroes or good guys,"
    Ford told Reuters. "I've had the opportunity to play characters like Ally Fox in "Mosquito Coast," Rusty Sabich in "Presumed Innocent," and I've taken advantage of the commercial success of some of my films to make other more complicated and personal films," he continued.
    Each successive plot twist drags Ford's character to greater depths of cruel cunning as his betrayal of his wife becomes more complete.
    Pfeiffer admitted to working hard to prepare for the role, consulting psychiatrists about the mental consequences of the trauma her character suffers.
    "I can't imagine anyone my age who hasn't experienced betrayal," she said.
    Pfeiffer plays a wealthy suburban wife who begins to hear whispering voices and see mysterious appearances of a wraith-like young woman in her home. As she tries to unlock the mystery, what she learns about her husband almost kills her. "It does what we set out to do it's scary and I think what surprises me though is that not only is it scary but people laugh at it and they talk to the screen and it almost becomes like an event," she told Reuters.
    At the press conference, the two stars genially fielded the usual questions about plot summary and character motivation. However, Ford appeared perturbed when asked by a US newspaper journalist about the specifics behind his recent helicopter rescue of two young women in distress and his possible sale of the movie rights. "It was a very undramatic event, it was something I was pleased to do but it was not heroic in any sense and it was only one woman," said Ford, downplaying the event and correcting the journalist in the process. "And yes I have sold the rights to that story and someone much younger and better looking will be playing the part," Ford told the amused audience.
    ---ENDS---
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