American Gigolo

Here's another film from my adolescence I'd avoided for years. 1980's AMERICAN GIGOLO played endlessly on cable in the years following its release.  Aside from its theme song, Blondie's "Call Me," I had little interest.  It seemed like a mishmash of character study and police procedural, all framed in the excess of life in Beverly Hills.  I was probably just too young to appreciate it.  I certainly wouldn't have cared back then that it was written and directed by Paul Schrader, who by this time was establishing himself formidably on both fronts with lacerating dramas.

In Schrader's book, Transcendental Style in Film, he admits that it was a mistake to end AMERICAN GIGOLO and 1992's LIGHT SLEEPER much the same way Robert Bresson did his 1959 classic PICKPOCKET.  I have to agree.  Here, it feels like a cop out, even maddeningly inconclusive.  But the entire movie has such an air.  As if something really insightful will break out of the Armani at any moment.   But Schrader tries.  Maybe we can blame Paramount, as AMERICAN GIGOLO feels like a studio compromise, yet with many elements of Schrader's cinematic influences.

Richard Gere, in his first leading role, plays Julian Kaye, a man of the evening whose preferred clientele seems to be older women.  His pimp, er, procurer is in fact a sexy older woman named Anne (Nina Van Pallandt).  She keeps after him about his Swedish lessons, necessary for an upcoming client.  Julian fancies himself as high class, and doesn't favor anything deviant, especially after he takes a gig where a husband encourages him to slap his wife around while he watches.  A few days later, the woman ends up dead.  A detective (Hector Elizondo) begins to hound Julian.  Has he been framed?

Meanwhile, Julian is also pursued by Michelle (Lauren Hutton), the wife of a Senator.  She's fairly bold in her approach, and Julian, perhaps sensing she is seeking more than just a one nighter, rebuffs her more than once.  But soon he realizes he is in love.  Will deep, meaningful connection ultimately save him?

I've probably made AMERICAN GIGOLO sound as shallow as its protagonist, a somewhat dim young man whose chief concerns are his clothes, his bitchin' apartment, and that convertible Mercedes.  He does take pride in his talents, bragging that he braved three long hours to get one of his sexually repressed clients to finally reach orgasm.   The film maintains an awkward balance between psychological study and thriller, usually coming up short either way.  But it's clear that Schrader had more on his mind than luxurating on beautiful people and locations.  Admirably, the tone is low key and contemplative, mostly interesting, if only in its ideas. The late '70s/early '80s mileau also kept me fascinated.

The film is somewhat defeated by Gere's and Hutton's wooden acting.  Their relationship never had the plausibility or gravitas this story needs.  Even worse, for me, was Giorgio Moroder's score, which reinterprets Blondie's song several different, tiresome ways.