This film is unusually handsome. The opening credits, the clothes, the cars, the locations, the music and of course MR. GERE are all spot on. The story is steamy and edgy, and the acting is solid and believable. One reviewer was convinced this film hailed the start of the 80s, and with its cynical materialism and aethetic tastes I can't get that assessment out of mind.
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absolutely agreed a movie of its time it signposted the dawn of the most famous decade in history THE 1980S!!!!
"He's in town with a few days to kill"
I don't really know how much influence this film had over the style of the '80's; I'd suspect that shows like "Dallas" and "Dynasty" had at least as much, or more, to do with shaping both the look and the materialism of the decade, as well as reflecting them. But it always brings me up short a bit to see this film identified with that era, inasmuch as it was shot in '79, at the height of the "disco age" (itself on the verge of coming to a screeching halt).
Any film can be viewed as a product of its time, and even to presage a new one. Perhaps this one did. But it can also only be the sum of all that led up to it, possibly influential for - but not possibly influenced by - anything that came after. Having seen it at the very beginning of 1980, it has always seemed to me as a culmination of the '70's. It may have been a harbinger of the '80's, but it wasn't OF the '80's.
I certainly agree with your estimation of its stylishness, not only for the things you mention, but for the photography, editing, lighting and production design. I enjoy it very much for those elements, as well as for being an updated and gender-reversing twist on a theme that was a staple of the '30's and '40's, that of the "bad girl" whose wanton ways lead her to trouble, and then redemption.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Doghouse, I agree 100%. I think of AG as an amalgam of of both decades--but definitely much more a product of the 70s than 80s. People who weren't teens/young adults during the late 70s erroneously believe Saturday Night Fever represented some kind of quintessential zeitgiest film of the disco era. Hardly. The soundtrack, story, & fashions were square, hoaky, and outdated by the time it was released in 1977.
Travolta himself stated that when the director asked him to try on that infamous white polyester suit---he laughed out loud, as it was so corny.
On the other hand, the vibe & style of AG more closely mirrored what was actually going on in New York & Los Angeles during the late 1970s (like you, my own personal memories of that era are closely represented in AG).
I think both the story & sound of Giorgio Moroder's theme song "Call Me" sum up the whole cultural transitional period of the 70s to the 80s. Moroder had originally written the theme with disco icon Donna Summer in mind. He had essentially created her success & career during the 1970s. Approaching the end of the decade, she saw the inevitable limitations disco was headed for and felt it was mandatory to move on to a different producer, "sound", and image if she were to survive as a performer.
Debbie Harry & Blondie were the perfect late 1970s choice in that their origins had credibility in both 1970s disco (their music was part of the DJ rotation at Studio 54 from the get go--where Debbie herself was a regular) and the upcoming punk/new wave sound of the 80s. Like the film itself, the song has elements of both decades: the danceable beat of electronic Eurodisco coupled with an edgier rock vocal.
Thanks, glennh, and may I say - if I haven't before - how much I always enjoy your posts, whenever and wherever I encounter them.
These days, of course, AG is a wonderful time capsule, documenting so many areas of the westside, BH and Hollywood. Considering the thousands upon thousands of films shot in and around L.A., there are relatively few which really spotlight this most metamorphosic of cities (and its environs), capturing and preserving its look and feel in this era or that.
Now that I've relocated to the Pacific Northwest, films like this have an even more special resonance for me. As much as I enjoy my adopted "hometown," leaving SoCal felt something like how I imagine having a limb amputated must feel: I can still live an active, satisfying and complete life, but I've left behind a part of me I'll always miss.
What with locations such as the Village, the Sunset Plaza area and Probe, it's now very much a walk down memory lane. Quite perceptive of you to note, "like you, my own personal memories of that era are closely represented." Even the apartment building at Selma and Las Palmas that I was living in at the time appears for about ten seconds (when Julian stops to question the hustler in front of the First Baptist Church).
I hadn't known that about Donna Summer, but I guess it should come as no surprise. Looks like she was a smart enough cookie to see the handwriting on the wall. Comparing the respective (and subtly different) recordings of "Call Me" for the film and vinyl, it always seemed to me the latter was a bit more Blondie; the former a bit more Morodor.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Over the years, critics have written that late-1970s LA is as much the star of AG as Gere or Hutton. Schrader’s meticulous choices of location, set design, and camera work were undoubtedly executed with that in mind. Both of us obviously picked up what he was putting down . .
Your perceptive, nuanced view of LA (both past & present) is incredibly refreshing. The vast majority of natives, transients, and outsiders tend to trash it without much understanding or appreciation for its complex subtleties and hidden gems. I moved into my first solo (tiny) apt at the foot of Nichols Cyn just a short time after AG was released. Like you, just seeing LA captured in that particular moment unleashes a flood of fond nostalgia of youth & wonderment.
This is exacerbated by the fact that nearly every place either mentioned or shown in the film has since vanished: Perrino’s, Scandia, Probe, Le Dome, and so on. I understand that even the Westwood apt hotel “where Julian lived” has since been demolished.
I still live close enough to visit the old neighborhood a few times a year. It’s amazing how things change—but they don’t change, too. I like to walk the streets and hit some of the old, familiar surroundings: the vintage apt buildings where friends lived, the Roosevelt, Runyon Cyn Park, “Rockin’ Ralphs (Sunset & Fuller), etc. Young people of all stripes are still drawn to the area: it’s their launching point into the big city—just as it was for us decades ago. This evokes a reassuring, comforting feeling that there is some subtle element of continuity & tradition in such a dynamic, gritty, and sometimes unforgiving, megalopolis.
Yes, The Sunset Plaza Apartments went, if memory serves, sometime in the last 10-15 years. In the film, I think, they were supposed to be a short walk from the Village, but I remember thinking at the time, "I've never seen anything like that around the neighborhood." Didn't learn where they were - a good 4 miles or so to the northeast, just above the Strip - until Huell Howser did a segment on the place shortly before it was razed. Reminds me of the little games they played on "Adam-12," where they'd use actual street names, juxtaposed in impossible ways: "Suspect observed at the northwest corner of Van Nuys Blvd. and Fountain Ave."
And you're right; much remains (or did, when I was last there), even if it's sometimes harder to spot. "Le Dome" may be no more, but the edifice hasn't changed much, even from the 30's, when it was Billy Haines' design studio (or something similar)...or so it seems from photos (I'm not THAT old). And the "Probe" building still stands, although much altered.
I was heartbroken, but not surprised, when the Ambassador (where Julian invited Sunday to, "Sit down, take a shine...you need it," in the arcade barber shop not far from the Grove entrance) finally fell a year or two after I left. Glad I wasn't around to see that. One location that remains largely unchanged is the church, and the adjacent apartment building I mentioned (although now surrounded by an iron fence and somewhat dilapidated).
Ah, well, that's Hollywood. Thanks for the memories.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Doghouse-6 and glennh69: If you found the depiction of Los Angeles in American Gigolo to be notably evocative, I think you'd be even more impressed by the startlingly vivid portrayal of some of the less glamorous areas of the city captured by French director Jacques Demy in his touching, underappreciated English-language film Model Shop (1969). The film visits places that most directors would never have thought to put onscreen, let alone film with such care and evident affection. You can almost feel and smell the air as the main character George Matthews, played by Gary Lockwood, cruises around L.A. in his MG convertible and walks the city's lesser streets.
shareThanks for your comment. I just happened to have caught that film for the first time about a year or so ago, and I was fascinated. I'm afraid I may even have gotten so distracted concentrating on the scenery that I might have given the plot and characters less attention than deserved.
Just the same, I remember it as a very interesting and affectingly melancholy film, and recall noting how it anticipated the grittier photographic style that was to come into vogue in the years shortly after. In that sense, it was also a very adventurous project, and I believe I also remember reflecting on how these parts of the city were presented in a way that perhaps only a non-resident would have done, but how they nevertheless appeared so honest and familiar to a native.
Poe! You are...avenged!
wow you guys supply fascinating posts to a european who only ever saw New York (borrinngg) it is interesting that it was highlighted how this movie transcends two decades the 70s and 80s almost in a perfect alignment. Pretty woman also with the same movie star is a 90s film but was also shot at the end of the previous decade (july to october 1989) with a type of gordon gekko (an 80s movie character icon) who finds love kinda by accident. PW yes is a 90s movie but reeks of "eightiness". i am sure other posters could expand on that theory.
Thanks very much for those thoughts. It's a very interesting progression, isn't it, that Gere should find himself in two such films that bookend the '80s. In tone, they're polar opposites, yet have so much in common, both stylistically and thematically.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Just like the OP states, I found American Gigolo very stylish. For a film released in 1980 and probably shot in'79, it looks ahead of it's time. With the exception of the older folks (especially the detectives), gone were many fashions of the late '70's such as wide lapels, fat ties, and unkempt hair. I think movies like Risky Business and Manhunter borrowed some style points from this film.
shareManhunter was directed by Michael Mann, who most definitely was influenced by AG. Just a year later he directed Thief, and a few years after that, produced Miami Vice. They had the same 80s style, pulse and rhythm set into motion by AG. Look at the long panning shot over the hood of Julian's Mercedes and you can see where the famous "In the Air Tonight" scene from Miami Vice came from.
shareWatched AG last night for the first time, and knowing it came first I could spot all sorts of ways it could have influenced things like Thief and Manhunter, and countless others. A big hit movie like this, there's no doubt its influence trickled down. I just love this era, from 79-83, Schrader/Moroder or Mann/Tangerine Dream movies seem to perfectly encapsulate that period for me.
I'm very good at nookying and crannying.