Gigolo

Above, a previous post makes the claim, "Believe it or not, this was David Bowie's first acting role in a motion picture, despite the fact that this film was released a year after THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. A large portion of this film was destroyed in a fire, so it took director Hemmings nearly three years to piece together a motion picture out of what remained." Don't believe it. This story is a total fabrication.

All available contemporary sources reveal that "The Man Who Fell To Earth" was shot in 1975, and a simple viewing will attest to the fact that Bowie's physical appearance is of the 1975/1976 era of his career. Contemporary sources also show that "Just a Gigolo" was shot Berlin in 1978, and its initial running time was 147 min. upon its November, 1978 release in German cinemas. It was soon pulled from release because of poor reviews, and it was *intentionally* cut down to shorter lengths for its various international releases, not because of accident by fire.

I saw this movie when I was 19 at a theater in Seattle. I actually stole the movie poster out of the wall display as they did not have it locked down and it was too good of an opportunity for the more adventurous girl I was back then. I no longer have the poster( I tossed it after a while as it was damaged from too many moves). I still have 2 soundtracks from it that I bought at the time(thank God). One I've left sealed because, yeah I'm one of those types. Anyways, I loved the movie. It had a great cast(I was a HUGE Bowie fan, still am). I've always liked the director David Hemmings. Such a hottie when he was a young actor. Charming soundtrack by the way. It's definitely worth seeing. Storyline roughly is down on his luck soldier who becomes a gigolo but is a little too sensitive for his new career and the politics of the time. Wish I had a copy of the movie....

It is March 2005 and this extraordinary German production has just been released on DVD in Australia. The transfer is pretty good considering the problems with the original materials. In its first release it was quite successful here and is considered a Cabaret /Salon Kitty derivative. Lushly produced and with an astonishing cast fortunately for us allowing some genuine movie greats to perform and sing, JUST A GIGOLO is almost a parallel universe to the lives of Sally Bowles and Michael from Cabaret with an equally convincing and sleazy world. Bowie at times even looks like Michael York. Viewers need to be patient and let the story unfold in its awkwardly edited way. Often it seems dubbed and post produced with echoing sound effects. The musical numbers alone are worth the rental on this Gigolo. I hope it is released in your country soon. Otherwise Umbrella Entertainment from Melbourne Australia might help you. They got it from somewhere. There is a KINOWELT logo on the box too. Regarding the soundtrack, it was produced at the time and I have it on vinyl, so a vintage (!) LP store will help you. The soundtrack record is excellent as well.

This is one of the most unusual films I have ever seen. It's an offbeat, sensitively filmed look at Weimar Germany in a sort of parallel-universe version. "Cabaret" it is not! If you ever get a chance to see it, I don't want to spoil the ending for you . . . but when you see it, you'll say to yourself, "Of course! Why didn't I foresee that coming?!?" David Bowie plays a sort of innocent ne'er-do-well discharged from the German army after World War I and drifting through existence; he can't find anything to do with himself except hire himself out as a "gigolo" for rich, proto-Eurotrash war widows in ballrooms where they "dance to forget". Bowie's father is a once-domineering tyrant who has been silenced by a stroke. Bowie tries to break the news to him that he has descended so far as to play the gigolo, a betrayal of his father's macho ideals, but Dad only sits in stony silence -- a disturbing scene. Bowie plays a poor lost soul. As Western civilization decays all around him, a sinister character stalks him and tries to gain control over him; this bloke is vaguely homosexual (only suggested), and one of his lines is a real groaner of a double-entendre: "We will have you in the end!" Marlene Dietrich is the center of romantic gravity in this story; she sadly, sweetly tells Bowie the raison d'etre of forlorn women dancing with gigolos in the ballrooms -- the only way to assuage loss and stave off despair. Then she performs the song "Just a Gigolo", bringing out all the heartbreak from its depths. The end of the film is dark and truly chilling. Go see it if you can!

When the fastidious "Lt. Paul Przygodski" (David Bowie) returns to Berlin society after the end of the Great War, he finds that things have profoundly changed and that his skills - such as they are - are not going to help him make much of a living. What he does have, though, is looks. He can easily turn an head or two when he walks into a room and so quickly realises that he can make some money "entertaining" the wealthier class of lady - already married or not, or even the occasion gentleman. As the Weimar Republic starts to give way to embryonic Naziism, the story also attempts to take a more serious track attempting to illustrate the profound societal changes in the city and the country whilst he and his clientele attempt to stay aloof and immune from the increasing anger and intolerance on the streets. It's really that attempt at the political that spoils this. Had it been left as a seedy story of a man using his beauty and, to an extent, his brains to get on in life then it have made for a decent watch. It doesn't though, it meanders all over the place mixing it's themes and delivering something that doesn't quite seem to know where it wants to go or who it's for. There's a decent enough effort from Sydne Rome as maybe the only honest woman in his life "Cilly" and there's a charming cameo from Marlene Dietrich who just about manages to, almost breathlessly, sing the title song but the rest of the cast seem underused and their characterisations undercooked to the point where I began to wonder if the likes of Kim Novak and Curd Jürgens just owed director David Hemmings a favour. It has it's moments, but just not quite enough of them and it does show up Bowie as rather wooden.