American Gigolo

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Summary: Stylish, sexy, and vulnerable
Review: Gere is terrific in this somewhat unusual film. We love him as the ladies companion and as he pretends to be a flamboyantly gay decorator so as not to "out" his client AND as he works the room in search of new prey. His vulnerability to Lauren Hutton is obvious from their first meeting. Gere's character is interesting, intelligent, serious, and good at his job. He is also compassionate and polite. We leave the movie wanting to take him too! Great film!

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Summary: i have a question if anyone knows....
Review: Hi I was just wondering if anyone knows the song that is playing in the backround that he is singing when he's deciding which Armani suit to wear. It's not on the soundtrack so if anyone knows it I'd realllllyyy appreciate it if you e-mailed it to [e-mail] under the subject AMERICAN GIGOLO...thanks!

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Summary: A vibrating and sexy thriller!
Review: I simply cannot understand why Leonard Maltin does not consider this a cult movie. For me, as for many other viewers, this is a vibrating thriller, full of memorable scenes. The smart photography, Giorgio Moroder's soundtrack, the sleek ambience and Gere's cool performance combine to provide us with an insight into the underground world of an expensive and fascinating male prostitute. I definitely recommend it, and hope it won't take long for it to be available in the DVD format!

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Summary: Not the best Richard Gere movie to watch
Review: I watched this film with much anticipation but was left dissapointed at the end. The ending was predictable and the acting was subpar. I expected more from a Richard Gere movie. Not as good as An Officer And A Gentleman. Richard Gere's charactar Julian is very shallow and materialistic. Lauren Hutton gives a dry performance. She really isnt an actress. The film started off well but like I said earlier, the ending left something to be desired.

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Summary: "A thriller that pursuits purity"
Review: It has been sufficiently praised the whole crew's work in Schrader's interesting thriller, not to mention the filmmaker's ability to deal with an expensive production (headed by recent Armaggedon's self proclaimed pop corn movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer.) It was all in the screenplay. Even though Schrader had made his directorial debut a couple of years before "American Gigolo", with "Blue Collar", his career had been catapulted by the happy writting experiences with "The Yakuza" (directed by Sidney Pollack) and, above all, "Taxi Driver", movies that dealt with characters that seek some form of redemption, particularly thoughout violence. This seems interesting when Schrader's biggest influence has been (along with Martin Scorsese) outcast french filmmaker Robert Bresson. In the fifties, this auteur was forced to manage sounds and acting in a totally different way as it was never before done in world cinema, avoiding theatrical performances and camera movements that could distract the audience from the stillness and the subtle vitality of the actors. (In fact, Bresson denied the use of the word "actor", and prefered "models". He said that, as a director, he wasn't interested in what the model could show, but in what he could hide, pretty much as in real life: we are always careful not to show all aspects of our personalities). Therefore, his work, that portrays so vividly that "inaccesibility" have stood the test of time. When Paul Schrader was a film critic, he lounged for a new kind of cinema that would express feelings with concern, honesty and craftamship. It was when he saw Bresson's film "Pickpocket" that, he confessed, he could not write about any other film. Bresson's movie narrates the misadventures of a would be burglar who uses his time and his energy in robbing people's money, putting it into practice as an art. In the story, there are also a girl and a policeman, and in the end, the main character ends in jail only to realise, in an unforgettable finale, that he has fallen in love. When "American Gigolo" was released it was no secret that Schrader had planned some sort of homage for his movie hero. Concessions were made of course, and the stylish production of the misadventures of a male prostitute, in a story that includes a policeman and a girl, were met by favorable reviews that took "American Gigolo" as "the portrait of a 'call boy' as a bressonian victim" and negative points of view as well. One of these critical reviews considered, not without justification, that the ending of "American Gigolo", which practically is the same of "Pickpocket", was redundant and vulgar. Schrader had made a thriller about an existencialist crisis, about the urge for a spiritual exit (simbolized by the unconditional love of the senator's wife for Richard Gere's character, Julian, who, by the way, is very convincingly acted) and, therefore, about the pursuit for purity. Beauty and purity are what the main character of "Pickpocket" looks for (in the strangest way: through crime), and ultimately finds it with unconditional love. But the final sequence in Schrader's film doesn't quite fit with Bresson's theme in "Pickpocket", where, due to the repetitive images, subtle performances, and strategic extracts of music, the final redemption throughout pure love goes right to the point. "American Gigolo", with its comercial looks, its performances (which are far from the austerity of Bresson),and one or two images of sexual abandon (between Julian and the senator's wife) which I find of very poor taste, sums an interesting display of hollywood professionalism that could have turned into a cheesy movie, if it wasn't for Schrader's genuine affection and enthusiasm for cinema, and Robert Bresson. If any of you is a fan of Schrader's movie, and gets a chance to see "Pickpocket", don't miss it. It's interesting to establish a comparison between the two movies, even more when "American Gigolo" is a worthly effort to watch.

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Summary: The film - good & bad
Review: Let me begin by saying that I believe Paul Scrader is the greatest screen writer of all time. Why? Simply bacuase no other filmmaker has expressed the human truth of man's existence so well. No, he is no expert on women - but he does know men.

THE BAD - American Gigolo's plot nowadays plays like a porn plot unfortunately. So, it hasn't aged well. The character of Detective Sunday for instance, is distractingly artificial. I believe unintentionally so. The costume design is exquisite for Gere, but ridiculous for the detective. Additionally, the film has been somewhat unimaginatively directed by Schrader, considering it against some of his other masterful efforts. Take the ludicrous love scene with Gere/Hutton, clearly a failed homage piece.

THE GOOD - The film has an incredible sensibility about it. A very cool edge, in many respects. The performance of Gere is still today a landmark for him. Not as successful as its forebearers, but still a fascinating study of a man dealing with artificial relationships - he struggles with his homosexuality (Schrader delved into the gay underworld at this time, without actually being gay). Ultimately, it is the intimacy of love with Michelle, that allows Julian Kaye to find peace. To explore the gay subtext perhaps read Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls".

FINALLY - please consider this film alongside its Schrader counterparts. The Amazon review is INCORRECT in fact, this is not part of a trilogy, it is part of a tetralogy, as said by Schrader in a Film Comment interview.

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Summary: Richard is BETTER Prostitute than Julia!!!
Review: Richard Gere is remarkable as a Male Prostitute in this gritty, but glamorous protrayal of a fella that's lookin' for love in all the naughty places!

I like the crime story element much more than the love story between Mr. Gere and Ms. Hutton...But mostly I like that a typically female role (especially in main-stream cinema) was played by a great leading male.

Recommend this as a Double Feature with Pretty Woman (although I'm not a fan of Pretty Woman for film sake...it's good to see Richard turn the tables on his life...Imagine it as a Prequel to Pretty Woman. It'll give the storyline a whole new spin!!)

Rating:
Summary: American Gigolo
Review: Richard Gere is so SEXY in the movie. He plays a male prostitute that gets framed for a murder. The wife of the mayor is willing to say he was with her, to end the investigation.

Rating:
Summary: American Gigolo
Review: Stylish, beautifully designed movie. Unfortunately, the dvd has been color-corrected to remove the wonderful cool hues of the movie, which made it look as if had been shot through sunglasses. Scenes shot at dusk or night have been lightened to look like day. It's a shame this was done to such a styligh movie.

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Summary: Alternate Title
Review: The famous scene, and you know the one I'm talking about, prompted thoughts of a good alternative title for this film: American Jiggle.