Just a Gigolo (1978) from Shout Factory - Starring David Bowie

[hudson4k]

https://www.shoutfactory.com/product...roduct_id=7608

[Gacivory]

Excited for this! Curious about the included booklet!

[DR Herbert West]

Day one.

[miller_time22]

I must be a garbage David Bowie fan, because I've never seen or heard of this. I did immediately think of David Lee Roth though, haha.

[Beckford]

Saw this one in a movie theater during its brief release in 1978. Have been hoping for a Bluray for sometime. As a movie, it's kind of hit and miss. And I'm not a big Bowie fan. But the 20's/30's German atmosphere is lushly impressive. And of course it's got appearances by Kim Novak and Marlene Dietrich long after their career heydays. Both, as a matter of fact, look great. And Dietrich even gets to sing, quite effectively. Lesser known Sydne Rome, a talented starlet who was sort of happening in Europe in the 70's, also makes a great impression. This is one I'm definitely getting.

[Aclea]

Just a Gigolo exists in at least three different versions, so it'll be interesting to see which one they go with. As for the film itself...



"Try putting your hand on your stomach as if you had a gastric ulcer and smile."

Following David Bowie's none-too-bright young Prussian officer's progress through post-World War One Berlin, Just a Gigolo is one of those oddities that occasionally get thrown up by international co-production agreements. At times it's hard to know quite what to make of its blend of not quite comedy and not quite drama, the tone not helped by Bowie's stilted lead performance and atrocious delivery of his dialogue, the very evident post-production problems and some of the worst lip-synching and sound editing you're ever likely to see and hear. It may have had what seemed like impeccable credentials on paper, including a script credit for the co-writer of Il Grido, but Bowie was less than enamoured with the results: "Listen, you were disappointed, and you weren't even in it. Imagine how we felt. It was my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one."

The Thin White Duke is offered as a sort of symbol for Germany in the years between the wars: everyone wants to claim him for their own but no-one really cares about him. Pointlessly proud but aimlessly drifting without any particular talents or a sense of purpose to compensate while the Nazis gradually rise, he slowly drifts into becoming part of Marlene Dietrich's regiment of gigolos. Along the way he's teased by Sydne Rome, overdoing the Sally Bowles shtick as the revolutionary-cum-nightclub-singer-cum-movie-star upstairs, briefly kept by Kim Novak's rich widow and briefly flirts with ex-officer David Hemmings new political organisation. Hemmings certainly grabs the best role as the vegetarian atheist with a thing for young Aryan men who dreams of a new order from his underground train carriage headquarters but has difficulty rallying his idiotic supporters, who can't even get his rabble-rousing prompts quite right, but as a director he's less successful. He comes up with the odd good image or moment like the surreal shootout between communists and Nazis in a cemetery during a military funeral and one stylish old Hollywood musical number but can't really pull it all together into a coherent or satisfying whole, at least not in the 105-minute version released in English speaking territories (the German version also included on the German DVD runs six minutes shorter though there was also a 147-minute cut that was pulled after a disastrous German opening).

It's a fairly lavish production, with a distinctly 1950s supporting cast - as well as Novak there's Curd Jurgens as a prince, Maria Schell as Bowie's mother and, the film's big selling point, Dietrich in her first German film since the Thirties, though she refused to leave Paris to shoot her scenes - a bit of a problem since Bowie shot his half of their scene together in Berlin. She's hardly in the film, asking a few brief questions and briefly reappearing to sing the title song in an empty hotel ballroom, and though clearly intended to evoke memories of German cinema's pre-WW2 heyday she doesn't really bring much to the film beyond minor curiosity value - but then the film itself is not much more than a minor curiosity itself. Certainly less than divine decadence.

While the Dutch DVD offers only the English language version (with optional German track and removeable Dutch subtitles), the German DVD includes an anamorphic transfer of the English language version with removable German subtitles and the shorter German version in a non-anamorphic transfer with no subtitles. The differences between the two are mainly the top and tail of the film: the German version has the WW1 trench scene in colour (the English has it in sepia tones), omits the scene in the French hospital where the locals mistake Bowie for one of their own, drops the two old ladies who act as a kind of inaudible Greek chorus throughout the film, moves Dietrich's faltering rendition of the song to the last reel and has a much abbreviated ending that drops Sydne Rome's reappearance to end on the ranks of Nazis standing honour guard.

[dkelly26666]

I have always liked this one, but never had it in a decent version.

David Hemmings, of Argento's "Deep Red" and Antonioni's "Blow-Up" fame, was the director and co-star, and I may have given it extra points just for Bowie and Dietrich being in it.

But, I've always liked it, in the same way you'd like a 70s Euro B-movie.

[Albie989]

You mean the movie Bowie said was "my 32 Elvis Presley movies rolled into one"?

[UnionJackMix]

I only know of this movie because it's the last film appearance of Marlene Dietrich, but never watched it (taped off tv ages ago). And of course hopefully it does include the longer cut / or gets later released that way in Europe without region lock A.

[Alhlan Ain Ajeeba]

Im just a gigolo and everywhere I go,people know the part im playing. I pay for every dance selling each romance ohhhh what theyre saying. There will come a day when I will pass away,what will they say about me? When the end comes I know that Im just a gigolo,life go on without me. Cause IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII aint got noboooooooody,nobody cares for me,nobody. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M so sad and loooooonely. Oh sweet something mama come and take a chance with me cause im not so bad. Skiddly biddly bop city bop,IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'm so sad and lonely.: laugh:

[jkoffman]

Still no updates, but this has been on the Fabulous Films (UK) homepage since at least last fall.

Just A Gigolo

Coming to DVD and BluRay in 2021. Fully restored in High Definition. Starring David Bowie, Marlene Dietrich, Sydne Rome.

Directed by David Hemmings.

[ShellBeacher]

More obscure Bowie-films, please!!

[jkoffman]

Oof. The site review for the Shout Factory release is...not good.

Also coming out in the UK in a Media Book edition with the soundtrack CD. Formerly promoted as "Fully Restored In High Definition".
Fabulous Films
Amazon UK

[UnionJackMix]

Ok guys, interestingly three versions are being released around the same time, US, UK and Oz. I can't afford to double dip much these days. Can someone kindly shed some light here:

1) are the extras the same across all versions, or is there one that has them all?
2) are the movie versions the same across all versions?
3) is the transfer the same?

[CMNPlanet]

The Shout and the UK are likely the same disc as the Shout disc has Fabulous Films bumpers and menus with no Shout branding.

Can't speak to AUS edition.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by CMNPlanet

The Shout and the UK are likely the same disc as the Shout disc has Fabulous Films bumpers and menus with no Shout branding.

Can't speak to AUS edition.

I didn't think I'd be able to find the spec of the UK and Oz versions to be honest, not so quickly, but I did, and it looks like they have the same special features and both have the CD soundtrack. I'd prefer the Oz artwork, but the UK has the book so now I wonder if that book is worth having, are there any good pictures of Dietrich or Novak?

[NeoNical]

Is there any way to watch the longer cut of this film? Wondering if there is a copy floating around that I am unaware of.