The 1980’s film, American Gigolo, written and directed by Paul Schrader, was inspired by the 1959 movie Pickpocket. Elena Nazic states, “American Gigolo is a pleasurably complex, double-sided film. The genre development is only a false-bottom, concealing an entirely different film. Within the cold LA crime thriller template echoed by both by the events in Julian’s life and by the film’s style (all cool neons, synthy score by Giorgio Moroder, and stylised action), one element stands out which contains the secret to the entire movie”. Since the movie was such a big inspiration for Schrader, the two films share a lot of commonalities. The two films share a very unique style of film. It is the transcendental style, where the movie features relatively no action for almost the entirety of the film, and all of the action is shown within the last few moments of the movie. This is very different than typical movies, as there is no clear climax, while instead, the movie showcases their daily lives with a big action at the end that changes their everyday lives. In Pickpocket, stealing is the everyday norm for Michel, as that is shown throughout a majority of the movie. The action begins when he realizes he loves Jeanne, while he is sitting in jail. He then changes, for her. As for American Gigolo, Julian is shown as a smooth-talking, attractive, relaxed, male prostitute. The action happens in the movie when he realizes that he loves Michelle, and his entire personality changes for her. According to Sachin Sarijith, “it was she who initially fell for him because she has that same problem that all other clients of his have: a loveless marriage. This turns into a serious relationship and it’s the sort of relationship that Julian never thought he’ll have and something that he has been avoiding for a long time. Julian doesn’t want his problems to affect her life and tries to keep her out of them. But what he doesn’t yet is that she may be his only and most unlikely ticket to redemption”. This is a commonality throughout the movie not only with the style of film, but the fact that the two men change when they realize that they love a woman. Michel and Julian are two similar characters although their professions are quite different. Although Michel claims that he is nervous about what he is doing, he follows through with his crimes in a very calm manner. The two men are very relaxed, calm, and confident about their jobs. They both believe that they are above the law, and that the law is wrong. The two men do their best to avoid the women, as they fear that they will mess with their everyday routine. Roger Ebert states, ““Pickpocket” is about a man who deliberately and self-consciously tries to operate outside morality. Like many criminals, he does it for two conflicting reasons: because he thinks he is better than others, and because--fearing he is worse--he seeks punishment. He avoids Jeanne because she is wholly good, and therefore a threat to him”. The two men both have large changes in their character towards the end of the movie as they realize they love the women. The two women of these men, Jeanne and Michelle, are both confident women as well, who are smart and well aware of what their men are doing. In both movies, there is also a cop, or a detective following the men around, who is aware of their behavior but it not directly busting them. By the end of the two movies, the men have both confessed their love for their women. This is the scenes that are being showcased in the two video clips. The endings of these movies are very similar, as they both show the men being incarcerated, with the women visiting them. This showcases societies values, reinforcing that pickpocketing and prostitution is illegal and is a criminal offense, therefore incarceration is bound to happen. The men maintain fairly emotionless faces while they confess their love, avoiding any sign of weakness and adding to their character dynamic. Although this is not particularly significant, I thought it was interesting that Michel and Jeanne start with a M and a J while Julian and Michelle start with the same two letters. This is another similarity between the two films. Elena N: http://lwlies.com/articles/american-gigolo-paul-schrader-objectification/ Sachin S: https://projectedperspectives.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/american-gigolo-paul-schraders-stylish-tale-of-love-loneliness-and-redemption/ Roger E: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pickpocket-1959
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