I rented ‘American Gigolo’ on iTunes yesterday. I can tell you that Richard Gere had nailed his trademark “serious” look early in his career. He had it down way back in 1980. You know that look he does that says, “Hey I’m thinking of something really heavy here, man” even when you know that there is absolutely nothing going on up there. That’s the look and he pulls it a number of times in this movie.

American Gigolo is one of those movies at the video store that you’ve walked passed a thousand times but never actually rented. And if you had to think about why, at the top of the list is well, a male prostitute? Serving a high-end female clientele? Get real. The idea just sounds like some male writer’s pipe dream about combining two fantasies into the same story: sleeping around and making good money. And the photo on the cover with Gere looking like he’s taking himself seriously is completely incongruent with the credibility of the idea. Deuce Bigalow provides a mental image that is more in line with the seriousness with which you’d think the notion should be taken. Or am I completely out to lunch and aristocratic women are actually commonly paying top dollar for sex with strangers?

But enter iTunes, specifically the trailer. And this is what got me: the trailer actually presents a fairly stylish show: the car, the duds, the music, all time pieces. Not only that, but the trailer reveals that movie is actually very beautifully shot; if you watch the movie, take note of the how the director, Paul Schrader uses the compositions of objects and people, colours, lighting and shadows to frame shots. He also balances between symmetrical shots and non, but balance is always present. Check out the sample screenshots (click each for a higher resolution image). The first one below is the opening shot and the centre of the wheel is the centre of the frame.

The first credit that appears after the final shot (and the only one before the credits roll with the cast) is that for “Visual Consultant Ferdinando Scarfiotti.”

I think the point of the movie is redemption through love, which is nice. But I think the prostitute angle is just too silly. The same idea could have been realized with the portrayal of a soul-less playboy type guy with girls, money, style and the car who arrived to this position in any one of the million more plausible ways than through gigoloism; and besides who says that you have to explain how he got there. Just show him. He can still be the guy who screws around with senators’ wives and other wealthy women; he can still be the guy who’s got an ego and an attitude and the guy who’s dabbling in dangerous affairs. The story still would have worked. My guess is that the writers felt they needed to create a character who was clearly morally grey, i.e. one who breaks the law and feels he is above it. But for me anyhow, this could have been done without creating an unrealistic premise.

I did like the style and the imagery though quite a bit. And the music. I had the Best of Blondie as a kid and the listing for “Call Me” was followed by “(theme from American Gigolo)” and so 27 years later, I finally “see” the song for the first time in the opening scene with Gere’s glossy black Mercedes 450 SL, an uncredited star.

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