American Gigolo (film, 1980) starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton

The film made Richard Gere an international star and placed Giorgio Armani’s relaxed Italian tailoring at the center of American screen style. Its cool surfaces, white rooms, black Mercedes-Benz convertible, pools, mirrors, and nocturnal streets made Los Angeles appear both sumptuous and lonely.

Plot

Julian Kaye moves through Los Angeles as though it were a private showroom. He is charming, observant, and rigorously composed, serving wealthy women who pay for his discretion as much as his company.

His work is organized through Anne, an exacting intermediary who brings him to a circle of older and affluent clients. Julian’s independence, however, puts him at odds with Leon James, a tougher pimp who believes Julian has interfered with his business.

A wealthy client’s husband is murdered after Julian has been hired for an evening at their home. Lieutenant Sunday begins to investigate, and Julian discovers how quickly his carefully built world can become a trap.

Julian’s situation becomes more complicated when he meets Michelle Stratton, the elegant but emotionally isolated wife of a powerful politician. Their connection is not part of a transaction. It gives Julian the possibility of a different life, while leaving him more exposed than he has ever been.

Cast

• Richard Gere as Julian Kaye

  

• Lauren Hutton as Michelle Stratton



• Héctor Elizondo as Leon James
• Bill Duke as Leon’s associate
• Nina van Pallandt as Anne
• Brian Davies as Charles Stratton

Richard Gere plays Julian with a mixture of polish and fragility. He appears to have mastered every detail of his life, from the folded pocket square to the way he enters a room, yet the character’s confidence has an unmistakable loneliness beneath it.

Lauren Hutton gives Michelle Stratton a reserved glamour that suits the film’s emotional temperature. Michelle is surrounded by wealth and public respectability, but her marriage and social position offer none of the freedom that Julian appears to possess.

Production

Paul Schrader conceived American Gigolo as a portrait of a man who sells not simply sex, but reassurance, fantasy, and attention. The film pairs this intimate premise with an unusually stylized view of Los Angeles, one shaped by European art cinema, nocturnal neon, glassy interiors, and the uneasy glamour of great wealth.

The production design was created by Ferdinando Scarfiotti, whose exacting interiors give the film much of its distinctive atmosphere. Julian’s apartment, with its pale walls, polished surfaces, carefully arranged clothing, and near-ceremonial order, functions almost as an extension of its owner. Everything is immaculate, yet nothing feels settled.

Giorgio Armani’s costumes were central to the film from the beginning. John Travolta was initially expected to play Julian, and his manager encouraged the production to approach the Italian designer, who was then preparing to expand internationally beyond Italy. Paul Schrader and John Travolta traveled to Milan, and Armani agreed to provide the wardrobe.

When John Travolta left the project shortly before filming, Richard Gere took the role. The clothes could not simply be handed over: John Travolta was several inches taller than Richard Gere, so Armani’s team had to remake and tailor the wardrobe for Gere. The accident of casting became a defining collaboration.

Julian’s open-collared shirts, unstructured jackets, muted ties, fine knitwear, and softly tailored trousers created a new screen image of masculine luxury. Armani’s approach had none of the stiff, armored power dressing then associated with American success. The clothes made Julian look expensive, but also mobile, sensual, and slightly unreachable. The designer later said that the clothing had become “something of a co-star” opposite Richard Gere.

Giorgio Moroder’s electronic score helped seal the film in its moment, while Blondie’s “Call Me,” written by Giorgio Moroder and Deborah Harry, became one of 1980’s defining singles. The song’s fast, restless energy gives the opening and closing of Julian’s story a glamorous velocity that the character himself cannot sustain.

Release/reception

Paramount Pictures released American Gigolo in the United States on 1 February 1980. Made for approximately $5 million, it earned about $22.7 million domestically and roughly $52.7 million worldwide, a strong result and Paul Schrader’s most commercially successful film to that point.

Contemporary reviews were divided. Some critics found the film’s characters chilly or objected to its portrait of Los Angeles luxury and sexual commerce. Others responded to its visual confidence, the deliberate rhythm of Paul Schrader’s direction, and Richard Gere’s unusually exposed performance.

Its deeper cultural afterlife has been in fashion. American Gigolo is widely regarded as the film that established Giorgio Armani as a major force in Hollywood and helped introduce an international audience to his unpadded, fluid version of menswear. More than four decades later, Julian Kaye’s ritual of choosing a jacket, shirt, tie, and handkerchief remains one of cinema’s most influential dressing scenes.