American Gigolo

**American Gigolo** is an American neo-noir crime drama film directed & written by Paul Schrader.

The film was released by Paramount Pictures on February 1, 1980.

## Plot

The film follows Julian Kaye, a high-priced male escort in Los Angeles who becomes romantically involved with a prominent politician's wife and is considered the prime suspect in a murder case.

## Cast

* Richard Gere as Julian Kaye
* Lauren Hutton as Michelle Stratton
* Brian Davies as Senator Charles Stratton
* Frances Bergen as Mrs. Laudner
* Carol Bruce as Mrs. Sloan
* K Callan as Lisa Williams
* Patricia Carr as Judy Rheiman
* Carole Cook as Mrs. Dobrun
* David Cryer as Lieutenant Curtis
* Richard Derr as Mr. Williams
* Bill Duke as Leon James
* Hector Elizondo as Detective Joe Sunday

## Production

Writer\director Paul Schrader first conceptualized "American Gigolo" while teaching screenwriting at the Film & Television School of UCLA. During a class exercise, he came up with the idea of a male character working as a gigolo and that such a character could be called an "American gigolo." Moreover, he characterized his "American gigolo" character as an affection giver rather than one interested in just self-gratification. The title of the film ended up being "American Gigolo."

Before Richard Gere became attached to the role of Julian Kay, Christopher Reeve reportedly turned down the role despite being offered a fee of $1 million. Chevy Chase was also offered the role, but he turned it down. John Travolta became interested in the role and briefly starred in it before getting "cold feet" and was replaced by Richard Gere.

In 2012, Gere said that he was drawn to the role of Julian Kay because of its gay subtext. According to him: *"I read it and I thought, 'This is a character I don't know very well. I don't own a suit. He speaks languages; I don't speak any languages. There's kind of a gay thing that's flirting through it and I didn't know the gay community at all.' I wanted to immerse myself in all of that and I had literally two weeks. So I just dove in."*

Julie Christie was originally cast in the role of Michelle Stratton, but her departure was precipitated by Richard Gere's replacement of John Travolta. By the time Gere had returned to the project, Lauren Hutton had already been hired for the role.

Paul Schrader wanted Lauren Hutton to play the role of Michelle Stratton, but the studio wanted a bigger name and chose to go with Jessica Lange. Ultimately, Lange turned down the role because it was *"too dark"* and Hutton was cast in the role.

Meryl Streep was also offered the part of Michelle, but she declined because she did not like the tone of the film.

Filming for "American Gigolo" began on February 13, 1979 and ended in April of 1979.

The film is widely credited to have established fashion designer Giorgio Armani in Hollywood since his clothes are featured prominently in Julian Kaye's wardrobe.

According to Richard Gere, the nudity in the film was not in the original script. He said, *"It was just in the natural process of making the movie. I certainly felt vulnerable, but I think it's different for men than women."*

Ferdinando Scarfiotti designed the entire look of "American Gigolo"; however, due to art director guild rules at the time, he was ineligible for membership, so Paul Schrader credited him as a "visual consultant" instead.

## Box Office

"American Gigolo" grossed $3,599,930 during its opening weekend. Overall, it grossed $22,743,674 on an estimated budget of $4,800,000.

## Critical Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, "American Gigolo" has an approval rating of 68% based on 25 reviews with an average rating of 6.5\10.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said: *"The whole movie has a winning sadness about it; take away the story's sensational aspects and what you have is a study in loneliness."*

TV Guide magazine called it one of director Paul Schrader's *"most satisfying attempts to mesh a European sensibility and his own obsession with moral drift and emotional alienation."*

Variety magazine wrote: *"A hot subject, cool style and overly contrived plotting don’t all mesh in American Gigolo. Paul Schrader’s third outing as a director is betrayed by a curious, uncharacteristic evasiveness at its core."*

Writing from Time magazine, Richard Schickel criticized Richard Gere's performance, calling him *"a boring actor".* He added: *"[Paul] Schrader's development of the frame-up story is mechanically melodramatic, and Gere, essentially a boring actor, doesn't help much either."*

David Ansen from Newsweek said: *"Though it tells us that it's about a man who gives pleasure for a living but is incapable of accepting pleasure, it is in fact about the guilty obsessions of a filmmaker who seems incapable of giving pleasure to an audience."*