Comments on: (Bad) Portrait of a Hustler: American Gigolo http://blog.spout.com/2008/08/25/bad-portrait-of-a-hustler-american-gigolo/ Daily coverage of what is truly interesting in the film world Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:47:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Lauren Wissot http://blog.spout.com/2008/08/25/bad-portrait-of-a-hustler-american-gigolo/#comment-114279 Lauren Wissot Thu, 18 Sep 2008 14:44:24 +0000 http://blog.spout.com/?p=4123#comment-114279 Mel, I absolutely agree with much of your very perceptive take – which is why the film doesn’t work for me. Julian is cut from the same loner cloth as Travis Bickle, but Travis Bickle would never in a million years get the girl – and Julian gets Lauren Hutton’s Michelle Stratton plus all those rich women! I just don’t buy the fact that bombshell Michelle and an array of millionaire wives would be obsessed with Gere’s cold fish Julian. For Gere to have played Julian as alienated and unfeeling AND warm and charming (a business requirement) would have been the more flesh-and-blood, complex choice. Mel, I absolutely agree with much of your very perceptive take – which is why the film doesn’t work for me. Julian is cut from the same loner cloth as Travis Bickle, but Travis Bickle would never in a million years get the girl – and Julian gets Lauren Hutton’s Michelle Stratton plus all those rich women! I just don’t buy the fact that bombshell Michelle and an array of millionaire wives would be obsessed with Gere’s cold fish Julian. For Gere to have played Julian as alienated and unfeeling AND warm and charming (a business requirement) would have been the more flesh-and-blood, complex choice.

]]> By: mel johal http://blog.spout.com/2008/08/25/bad-portrait-of-a-hustler-american-gigolo/#comment-114232 mel johal Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:19:15 +0000 http://blog.spout.com/?p=4123#comment-114232 If Gere comes across as being cold in AMG it is because the character is cold - unfeeling - sex as a means to an end. He has lost the ability to love another person, hence his fixation on the inanimate and the lone activity (his apartment, his exercises, his driving). We never see Julian with a non-work friend or relative. If this film were set in the future he would be a replicant like Harrison Ford in "Blade Runner". Schrader has produced a multi layered stylish entertaining film. I keep re-visiting it to spot all the deliberate design elements. The soundtrack is cool. It is everything that 80's cinema made so appealling. Film today with a major actor and budget would never be as daring or as intelligent as Schrader's masterpiece that American Gigolo is. If Gere comes across as being cold in AMG it is because the character is cold - unfeeling - sex as a means to an end. He has lost the ability to love another person, hence his fixation on the inanimate and the lone activity (his apartment, his exercises, his driving). We never see Julian with a non-work friend or relative. If this film were set in the future he would be a replicant like Harrison Ford in “Blade Runner”. Schrader has produced a multi layered stylish entertaining film. I keep re-visiting it to spot all the deliberate design elements. The soundtrack is cool. It is everything that 80’s cinema made so appealling. Film today with a major actor and budget would never be as daring or as intelligent as Schrader’s masterpiece that American Gigolo is.

]]> By: Glenn Kenny http://blog.spout.com/2008/08/25/bad-portrait-of-a-hustler-american-gigolo/#comment-111930 Glenn Kenny Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:03:42 +0000 http://blog.spout.com/?p=4123#comment-111930 "Humanistic"? As John McEnroe once said, "You CANNOT be serious." In any case, you certainly CANNOT have read much Manny Farber. “Humanistic”?

As John McEnroe once said, “You CANNOT be serious.”

In any case, you certainly CANNOT have read much Manny Farber.

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