In 1980, when Bret Easton Ellis was 15, he saw Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo, a film about a high-end Los Angeles escort named Julian. “It changed how we look at and objectify men,” Ellis has written, “and altered how I thought about and experienced LA.” The film clearly influenced his first novel, Less Than Zero. Toward the end of that novel, the narrator’s best friend Julian, a high schooler, pimps himself out. Ellis’s new novel, The Shards, his first in 13 years, is set in the Los Angeles of American Gigolo. Like Julian, the protagonist, Bret Ellis, passes through luxury apartments in Westwood, eats at expensive restaurants in Beverly Hills, and wears designer clothes. Like Julian, Ellis notices depravity under the opulence. To celebrate his new novel, Ellis is hosting a screening of American Gigolo and a pre-film Q&A at the Metrograph. Richard Gere as Julian will play in 35 mm. —Jensen Davis