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Posted: |
Feb 9, 2016 - 1:21 PM
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By: |
Octoberman
(Member)
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(Since his passing I've been revisiting a lot of his screen work.)
I find this particular film to be very undeserving of the drubbing it's gotten over the years. In fact, maybe it's with the hindsight of 30-whatever years that it can be objectively appreciated, divorced from the circumstances during which it was made.
Despite its flaws, I have no trouble understanding exactly what Hemmings was going for--which to me is a sort of wry, black comedy slice-of-life story in which the character Paul finds himself back home in a Germany drifting into that which became so loved by Christopher Isherwood, finding not one hint of the place he used to know.
I find Bowie's work in it to be really good watching. To his credit, he plays it completely straight with no hammy winks to the audience, even in the most stereotypically slapstick scenes. Some parts are absurdly funny.
Dietrich, Sydne Rome & Kim Novak may have been somewhat wasted in their roles (though all are greatly watchable, too) but if the results were what those roles required, then that's what it was supposed to be.
(I must say, though, when Novak is trying to dress Bowie up in her late husband's clothes, her dress is enough to make a man's heart stop.
Not to mention Rome's singing outfit.  )
I'd really like to have seen the original longer version, but I've read it no longer exists. If true, then it's a real pity. I wish Hemmings had stuck to his guns and not been bullied into cutting it by what the critics said--they are, after all, a dime a dozen.
If any of you Bowie fans have not seen it, I urge you to seek it out.
You might find it a real cock-up, you might not.
If you have seen it, your comments are invited.
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Posted: |
Feb 9, 2016 - 3:08 PM
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By: |
Octoberman
(Member)
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Not a Bowie fan, TBH, musically or otherwise. Not a good actor either - even David Lynch had to cut radically around his "performance" in the Twin Peaks movie (I noticed that if no one else did  ). I like Hemmings as an actor, but as a director he always lacked a guiding philosophy (like most journeyman directors really) and it's no wonder he ended up directing the A-Team. Hey, it's a living!
In total, I can see myself not enjoying Just A Gigolo. Obscure films are, more often than not, obscure for a good reason.
Maybe it would have benefited more in the hands of Ken Russell and an actor like Klaus Maria Brandauer in the lead or something.
Fair enough, but you should see it first.
And if you do, remember to watch it in the same spirit with which it was made--sort of a German version of an early-era MASH episode (without the laughtrack).
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