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American Gigolo (DVD) A slick Los Angeles callboy finds love and redemption in Paul Schrader's ultra-stylish drama. High-living prostitute Julian Kay (Richard Gere, s tepping in for John Travolta) has it all: the Mercedes, the clothes, acc ess to Beverly Hills' swankiest establishments, and a stable of rich, ol der female clients. But it all falls apart after he does a favor for his former pimp (Bill Duke) and the trick turns up dead a short while later ; Julian's actual client won't give him an alibi, and detective S unday (Hector Elizondo) doesn't believe the gigolo's denials. The one pe rson who can help him is frustrated politician's wife (and sole non-payi ng bedmate) Michelle (Lauren Hutton), if only Julian could let down his defenses and accept her gesture of love. Mixing his admiration for Europ ean art cinema with a voyeuristic view of the seamier side of sex and af fluence, Schrader renders Julian an inscrutable, emotionally disengaged purveyor of pleasure, decked out in Giorgio Armani clothes coordinated w ith Ferdinando fiotti's meticulous production design. Amid critical doubts about its artiness and distanced eroticism, American Gigolo surpr ised everyone by not dying on the box office vine. With some audiences r eportedly showing up for repeat viewings of Gere's seductive charms, it became a moderate hit, turning Gere into a star and Armani into the new fashion sensation. Whatever reservations one may have about the movie, i t provided two indelible images of 1980s decadence to come: Gere's perus ing his "artist's palette" of shirts, ties, and jackets, and Gere's crui sing down the Pacific Coast Highway in his convertible to the New Wave s trains of Blondie's "Call Me". ]]>