Filmmaker Joseph Cedar just could not get Norman Oppenheimer out of his mind. The New York-born writer-director who was raised in Israel created the character amid another screenplay he was writing, but quickly realized that the small-time New York political operative was more interesting than the other characters surrounding him.
So much so that his new film, “Norman,” was named for him.
“I found that every time he was in the story, I was attracted to him, and I saw myself being able to write him, so gradually he became the center or the story,” Mr. Cedar told The Washington Times.
“Norman,” opening Friday in the District, stars Richard Gere as the struggling — and aging — hustler who befriends a politician (the outstanding Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi) going through a particularly low patch in his life. Fast forward a few years, and the politician’s life trajectory is on an upswing. So too, it would seem, is Norman’s life. But beneath every upside lies a terrible darkness.
“It’s a portrayal of a character versus the world he lives in,” Mr. Cedar said. “My interest was in how he does what he does.”
At a time of division in American politics, Mr. Cedar said his film deals in the “gray” areas of not just political life, but in the human character.
“The whole story exists in this gray area between something that is officially corrupt and how the real world words,” he said. “I’m attracted to that.
“I think there’s a moral question that is raised by this relationship” between Norman and the politician, he said. “I don’t have an answer to, but I’m interested to try and dig in.”
The ever-reliable Mr. Gere shines as Norman, the beleaguered operative, and Mr. Ashkenazi as the politician Micha Eshel is positively a revelation as the self-hating civic leader who finds himself given a belated second chance.
“He’s the closest Israel has to a leading man,” Mr. Cedar said of his actor, “with a perfect irony and self-humor, and at the same time the ability to have pathos and real dramatic longing.”
Mr. Cedar filmed “Norman” in both Israel and New York. He was excited at the thought of making the great New York movie, but reality quickly crashed into his ambitions upon learning how much money — and how much logistical support — was required to film at some of Gotham’s more iconic spots.
“I think anyone shooting New York for the first time has this dream he hopes he can fulfill,” Mr. Cedar said of the city that has hypnotized no less than Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.
“Every location we shot in gave the film another flavor,” he said. “The city [is] what allows Norman to function. I like that gap between being a nobody and actually touching things that affect the whole world.”
Mr. Cedar, who counts Stanley Kubrick, Mike Leigh and Paul Thomas Anderson among his influences, said the Israeli film industry is undergoing a golden period, with more home-grown talent experimenting and getting their movies seen around the world.
“When I came in, there were good films being made, but they were having a hard time finding an audience,” he said. “I’m of a generation of Israeli filmmakers that know they can take huge risks and find an audience. Israeli films are enjoying this stamp of quality that is really I’m very proud of.”
While he birthed Norman Oppenheimer, Mr. Cedar is firm that the character who emerges in “Norman” is, ultimately, the collaboration of his own pen and Mr. Gere’s interpretation.
“What ends up on the screen is Richard Gere’s version of this character, which is his creation as much as it is mine,” Mr. Cedar said. “Needless to say, I’m extremely proud of it.”
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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