American Gigolo

Okay-ish thriller-drama. Plot setup was good but it just seems to drift from a point. Ending is a bit trite and quite predictable. Surprising, as the movie is written-directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull for Martin Scorsese. Maybe he shouldn't direct... (though Affliction was great and Cat People was decent).

Performances are OK. This was Richard Gere's breakthrough role.

It's important that Paul Schrader put 'American' in his title. This isn't just something to make it a title that is easily recognizable or to know what country it's from. It's about an American state of being, what it is to be a gigolo who likes swanky suits and fast cars and, well, the women he gets what he has to work for. But what happens when this man's reputation is called into question, or what kind of reputation a gigolo has? Politics also comes into it, not too oddly enough, as Julian (Richard Gere) catches the eye of a woman who is married to a Senator. That the movie is technically a murder mystery, sort of, as Julian is accused of killing a woman who he had seen previously as a 'fetish' customer, is almost besides the point. It is good for the plot, but what Julian has to focus on, the big question for him, is what is he doing with himself? How do other people look at him?

He makes himself a sex symbol, of sorts, as he works out religiously and always gets the best clothes (like a peacock perhaps). Schrader puts a lot of focus on the relationship Julian has with Michelle, who genuinely cares about him and is probably the only person he knows who is straight with him (certainly not the pimp played by Bill Duke, or his mentor who has her own gaggle of men and women to 'send out'). Of course sexuality plays into it, but I liked the fact that Schrader didn't focus squarely on it. He's interested in some of the mechanics of it (there's a scene where Julian/Michele do it, but it's shot much in the way of Godard's A Married Woman, lots of single shots of body parts, some flesh, but selective eroticism), and then, mostly, the consequences.

But, again, the look of the film should be an indicator. This is Los Angeles of 1979/1980, but it portends the future decade not just in the city but in the kind of middle-upper (or just upper) class lifestyle of expensive restaurants, good drinks, good clothes, and sometimes good women (or just lonely older women). Schrader even has a way of looking ahead to the future with Giorgio Moroder's score, which takes Blondie's "Call Me" and turns it into a synth score full of dread and mystery and drama. On top of how the look, its stylish exteriors and careful lighting (the Bruckheimer look before Tony Scott took it over with smoke machines), and the depth of the script, Gere is also fantastic here. He was on a roll right after Days of Heaven, and here he lights up the screen with charisma, pathos, intensity, and a sense of where to take the scenes where they need to be.

He, much like the environment around him, makes up what is the backdrop for a tale of morality in high society, hypocrisy where it may lay in the highs and lows, and what it means to fall in love. The only part it doesn't fully work is as a full-fledged thriller (again, the murder-mystery element is the weakest link), but everything else sparks the screen with interest and excitement.

As a gigolo Julian Kaye is the most stylish you can imagine. He lives in a tasteful apartment, minimalistic before minimalism became fashionable. His lady friends lavish him with expensive gifts. He wears only the best clothes, assembling outfits with good taste and knowledge of colours. He's also, smart, witty, charming and polyglot.

The perfect man? If you are rich, lonely and middle-aged. Julian prides himself of being able to pleasure women neglected by their men.

However, behind this glamorous facade, Julian is lonely and despised by his peers for his arrogance. When a rich, kinky wife gets killed in a kinky way, Julian becomes quickly suspect number 1.

In the meantime, he managed to start a "real" relationship with Michelle, the trophy wife of a politician. Will their love survive the storm?

Gere - allegedly chosen to replace John Travolta - plays the role of his life with deceptive nonchalance. He made it so simple, the public believed he was Julian and the critics always underestimated him as another pretty face.

It's a shame, because Gere is a talented actor who never received the praise he deserved. This movie is a modern, unmissable classic, ushering the materialistic Eighties with style, sophistication and an unforgettable soundtrack inclusive of Blondie and Moroder smash hit "Call me".

It's hard to precisely depict the impact of the smoky undertow of 1980s LA mores on the emotional and cultural landscape of the city, but Richard Gere's subversive topsy-turvy solo show comes close. Weird, well-shot and intriguing. The queasy feeling it leaves is hard to remove even days later. A/A-

Giorgio Moroder's signature synths followed by Deborah Harry's instantly recognisable new wave classic, Call Me, opens up American Gigolo as we see a pretty suave 80s Richard Gere in a black Cadilliac driving along the beachside. Gere has all the trappings of a wealthy 80s lifestyle so usually romanticised in a Bruckheimer production but the film establishes in its first few scenes that Gere is pretty much a buck for hire with little sway over his Aryan madam. This form of bait and switch appears throughout the movie, with Gere appearing in control and pretty cool at first and then as a total whore. The dichotomy between these two personas plays a big part of the film's plot as Julian K., Gere, becomes entangled in a murder investigation of a trick who is the wife to a wealthy S&M aficionado and learns that he should question the many friendships he's procured during his career as a loverboy. Lauren Hutton plays a random woman that Gere meets and develops into the film's love interest after one of the most minimalist sex scenes in an 80s film. The set production, music, acting and story is all very connotative of the eighties. Apartments are gray or salmon coloured with minimalist artwork and expensive vases and silver blocky stereo systems - it's clear with some scenes, including one where Gere hangs upside down to do some crunches, that the set design heavily influenced the mise-en-scene of Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho. Moroder's various compositions of Blondie's Call Me highlight the continuing descent of Julian k. as the chorus becomes more melancholic and ominous - it's all very suspenseful from an eighties perspective. Some may find the final scenes slightly ridiculous and most likely unrealistic, but one should remember that American Gigolo was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and even on the tail end of New Hollywood, the film does show caution in its dark themes as not to alienate mainstream audiences. I definitely felt the material was pretty subdued for a film written and directed by Taxi Driver's Paul Schrader. However, it doesn't matter as the film is effective as a time capsule of the seedier side of the eighties.