Richard Gere wows Scots fans at the Glasgow Film Festival

Holywood actor Richard Gere arrives at the GFT in Glasgow for the UK Premiere of Time Out of Mind. Picture: Hemedia

The actor, best known for his roles in films such as Pretty Woman and An Officer And A Gentleman, was attending the screening of Time Out Of Mind as part of the Glasgow Film Festival.

Crowds gathered outside the Glasgow Film Theatre in Rose Street, with Gere signing autographs and chatting with fans.

The film has enjoyed a positive reception from critics, with Rolling Stone magazine praising Gere’s “intuitive and indelible” performance. He plays a homeless man in New York who strikes up a friendship while in a hostel.

Richard Gere takes time out to greet his fans. Picture: Hemedia

In an interview with festival organisers, Gere said: “I didn’t want the movie to be about just a homeless guy in the normal sense of that, or make his backstory overly important – in fact, just the opposite. I wanted to make it not important at all.

“I wanted to see something deeper, I wanted to find a mystery of a human being and somehow film that, and I think it led us naturally into using these very long lenses, using sound in a different way. The film became much more immersive and less about a driving narrative.”

He added: “Our hope in doing it that way was that we would start to see again the vastness of the mystery of life inside a very specific human being, but at depth, a very universal quality, that we’re all yearning for home, however we define that – that we do have a very powerful and emotional yearning for our place in the universe.”

Speaking about Gere’s appearance, festival co-director Allison Gardner said: “Where else would he launch his film but Glasgow?

Richard Gere arrives at the GFT in Glasgow for the UK Premiere of Time Out of Mind. Picture: Hemedia

“He’s very passionate about the subject of homelessness. It’s a film about how people fall out of systems and how that can easily happen. It’s a great film, very poignant, I really enjoyed it.”

She added: “It makes it a little bit different from the regular London launch. The festival has a great reputation now for launching films so that’s why he’s coming.”

The festival, which has hosted more than 300 events and screenings, came to an end last night with the UK premiere and closing gala screening of Anomalisa, a romantic stop motion animation directed and produced by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson.