Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Film Quarterly
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
8 JOHN SAYLES
BILL NICHOLS
American Gigolo:
Transcendental Style and Narrative Form
All the films Paul Schrader has written, or directed, TheThe main
maincharacter
character of of
American
American Gigolo
Gigolo
(Julian
(Julian
or both, treat serious themes seriously. They oftenKay,
Kay, played
playedbyby
Richard
Richard Gere),
Gere),
setssets
out on
outwhat
on what
center on a quest, a goal pursued to the point of seems,
seems,by bycontrast,
contrast,a remarkably
a remarkably reasonable
reasonable
questquest
monomania. Schrader's central characters go too -to -to clear
clearhimself
himself
ofofsuspicion
suspicion
of murder-but
of murder-but this this
far; they exceed the limits of convention, normalcy,isis placed
placedwithin
withinthe
the context
contextof aoflife
a life
revolving
revolving
or law. Something drives them on. Whether in around
aroundanother
anothergoal
goal
apparently
apparentlyno less
no less
extreme
extreme
The Yakuza, Hard Core, Taxi Driver, Blue Collar, than that of these other heroes: the reduction of
Obsession, Rolling Thunder, American Gigolo orhuman intimacy to the level of a business transac-
Raging Bull the central character's idee fixe pushestion. The gigolo hero provides women with what
him toward a point perilously close to the bounds they need, taking his pleasure, as any decent mer-
of sanity, a point well beyond the limits within chant might, in knowing that the commodity he
which most of us choose to live. His films, in fact,sells (himself) is of superior quality, and claims
seem like a series of variations on John Ford's The his own emotional needs do not exceed this com-
Searchers, itself a film which clearly questions the mercial equation. American Gigolo, though, at-
tradition of the heroic odyssey. In American Gigolotempts to demonstrate that there are, indeed, other
more than any of Schrader's other work, that needs unmet, spiritual needs most of all, that the
odyssey is spiritual; but here as elsewhere, what hero himself must in the end come to acknowledge.
draws our interest is the sense of characters goingThis rupture of the limitations of a tightening coil
to extremes. They set up a palpable movement, a of false assumptions distinguishes Gigolo from
dizzying, tightening spiral of logic and self-justify- Schrader's other films where characters persist in
ing premises driving toward some obscure but the mono-planar pursuit of their obsessions to
dangerous destiny. The mad mixture of determina-inevitable, and destructive, conclusions. American
tion and jealousy embodied by Jake La Motta in Gigolo, by contrast, provides for a transcendental
Raging Bull exemplifies the emotional heat of thismoment of self-awareness, conversion, grace. The
movement most insistently, just as the solitary formal or stylistic terms within which this move-
preparations for combat of Travis Bickle in Taxi ment occurs, however, establish crucial con-
Driver best exemplify the increasingly nightmarish,straints on how we read the film thematically.
isolated world of the demented seeker.
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
AMERICAN GIGOLO
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
10 AMERICAN GIGOLO
Bresson, Dreyer (University of California Press, of screens is never total. A tension persists. He
1972), Paul Schrader develops a cross-cultural calls this a tension between "sparse" means-which
formula by means of which the transcendent may give the sense of disparity, refuse to provide satis-
be expressed in film. He describes three moments factory explanations, prompt us beyond the every-
of paramount importance: (1) Considerable atten- day- and "abundant" means-which give a
tion to simple details of everyday life, le quotidien. sense of empathy for characters, work to hold an
(2) A sense of disparity that gradually emerges. audience before the screen, fabricate a plausible
We experience a sense of mystery, of explanatory imaginary realm within which we expect to find
inadequacy, within the everyday: something more satisfying resolution at story's end. (If abundant
is demanded but relentlessly withheld. This emerg- means alone compel our leap, we have the "reli-
ing disparity culminates in a decisive action by the gious" film, The Ten Commandments, for exam-
hero that demands commitment from the viewer. ple, and its cinematic "miracles"; if sparse means
(Examples are the declaration of love by Julian atdominate from the outset, we have the structural
the end of American Gigolo; the same declaration film, Wavelength, for example, and its failure to
by Michel in Bresson's Pickpocket, "How long it involve us via the human vessel for what lies be-
has taken me to come to you"; the priest's death yond.) In Bresson and Ozu, Schrader's abundant
in Diary of a Country Priest; Hirayama's weeping means succumb to sparse ones, epitomized by the
at the end of Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon.) (3) moment of stasis. The hero's conduct, especially
Stasis, a literal freezing of the action after the his "decisive act," remains enigmatic and the
decisive moment, a formal strategy that resolves moment of stasis supersedes the richer, more
the experience of disparity by prompting us to go abundant elements that served to draw us into the
beyond the everyday. The viewer's only alternative film's narrative world. As a result, the story's
is to reject the action and its following stasis as grounding in the everyday fails to prove adequate.
outlandish, inexplicable, a violation of what every- It does not provide the satisfaction of a coherent,
day expectations would allow. Stasis calls for explainable narrative resolution. We must leap
faith. The static view of the everyday which to wehigher ground, as the moment of stasis invites,
are given cannot contain our emotion, it leadsorusreject the mechanism at work entirely. Schrader
to place it elsewhere. Something remains unseen. sees no middle ground between discovering grace
The images have not told all. Examples Schrader and spiritual transcendence and the lack of grace
cites are the final codas at the end of Ozu's films. that traps us within the material confines of the
In Bresson it is the closing shot, suggesting onenesseveryday. Whether American Gigolo also provides
to all things: the shadow of the cross in Diarynoofalternative reading is a question we must ex-
a Country Priest, Michel's imprisoned face inamine further.
Pickpocket (repeated in Gigolo), the dark streetAmerican Gigolo seems consciously patterned
down which the hero disappears in A Man Escaped.
after the three-moment formula for transcendental
To provide a sense of disparity transcendental style which Schrader outlines in his book, with
style must remove what Schrader calls "screens"- Bresson as the chief mentor even though the bal-
those means of involving the viewer emotionally ance between abundant and sparse means is clearly
and psychologically in specific situations and indi- different from Bresson's. (Three successive static
vidual characters which most films depend on. shots of Julian's apartment and of Westwood,
These are largely the tactics of psychological real- where he lives, clearly echo Ozu's codas but seem
ism and its expressive instruments of camera essentially gratuitous given the strongly expressive
movement, musical accompaniment, classical edit- camera style that dominates generally.) The film
ing, and so on. Bresson, for example, undermines searches for another balance in keeping with its
suspense, strips characters of psychological den- own time and place. The risk of over-sparseness
sity, demands automatic, non-expressive acting, (boredom) remains, but far less blatantly. Whether
relies on static, mainly frontal camera work, mini- the expression of the transcendent also survives is
mizes music, stresses everyday sounds, and en- another question.
forces a deadpan, non-dramatic editing rhythm. Unlike Pickpocket and other Bresson films,
Schrader goes on to argue that such removal American Gigolo does not deemphasize several of
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
AMERICAN GIGOLO
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
12 AMERICAN GIGOLO
perplexingly sudden. But what is particularly inter- pared-for quality should remind us of the reality
of the contradictions the film presents and the
esting here is that this lack of total resolution within
the terms of classical narrative is a criterion not impossibility of their resolution-without altering
only for transcendental style but for ideological everyday or material reality rather than transcend-
contestation as well. "Disparity," though truly ing it. The films of Douglas Sirk, for example,
present at the film's conclusion, offers more than explore this tactic where a patently contrived,
one possible meaning. deus ex machina ending ties things up so swiftly
For either a Marxist or a transcendentalist, a and neatly that resolution seems far more artificial
satisfying resolution in the face of irresolvable than the contradictions which preceded it.
contradiction is extremely problematic. Contradic- Ironically, a Sirkian reading of American Gigolo
tions, in fact, remain in the real, material world, seems reasonably well warranted; after all, its
or between this world and that transcendent realm decisive act and stasis are only another, perhaps
beyond. To allow tensions to be resolved is to more literal form of deus ex machina. But such a
provide false contentment, artificial satisfaction. reading runs counter to Schrader's transcendental
The narrative needs to point beyond-for a Marx- formula as he develops it in his book. Our experi-
ist, to those contradictions which, since they are ence of Julian as a man incapable of feeling, bent
real, remain, and require change in the real world; on self-denial and the pleasing ego games of willful
for a Christian, like Bresson, or perhaps Schrader, self-control, is not easily dispelled: an unprepared-
to those contradictions which, since they defy logic for ending reminds us that the real, material con-
and commonsense, we must embrace with faith. ditions prompting such contradictions also lack
An ending may be happy but, as with American genuine resolution. And Schrader's stress on
Gigolo, not on all levels. However much it resolves,abundant means gives added weight to this re-
something more, some excess, must remain un- minder in contrast to the films of Ozu and Bresson
resolved. where our interest in material conditions is con-
American Gigolo's ending, though ostensiblysiderably reduced by a very different balance
"happy," clearly leaves a sense of excess. In terms between abundant and sparse means throughout
of Schrader's analysis of transcendental style, the films. (Conversely, Schrader's failure to de-
Gigolo's ending contains both the decisive action velop a sparse style and a gradually emerging
and the stasis that should move us to an act of sense of disparity may be a strong indication that
faith, to a discovery of the excess beyond the such a style is indeed a vital part of any trans-
everyday: the transcendent. It is clearly at odds cendental formula.) With American Gigolo, we
with the previously established, abundant style. expect resolution to come within Julian's everyday
The question then becomes whether this form of realm, the one in which we have been immersed.
ending points to the transcendent for which a When it does not (due to the discrepant style of the
sparse style like Bresson's prepares us, or back ending), this points to the genuine impossibility of
toward those material conditions in which Schra- resolving the dilemma of Julian's self-contradictory
der's more abundant style has immersed us. nature within the context in which it arises because
Now, in traditional terms the unprepared-for of the self-contradictory nature of that real, mate-
stylistic change and seemingly gratuitous resolu- rial context.
tion to American Gigolo would be ascribed to sys- It is perhaps more than ironic that American
temic constraints ("Hollywood made me do it," Gigolo thus supports a reading strictly counter
as von Sternberg may have been wont to say of the to the one Schrader's formula proposes. Schrader's
family reunion grafted onto the end of Blonde recourse to abundant means, like Sirk's use of
Venus), or to a subversive style. With American melodrama, certainly encourages this inversion of
Gigolo we have no indication the ending was a transcendental ending, this return to material
imposed over the objections of the director. (As conditions. Ambivalence, or the tendencies of
we've seen, Julian's conversion actually fits neatly ideology to open cracks and fissures in a text, are
into Schrader's formulaic scheme.) Nor does sub- certainly harder to find in Bresson, and perhaps
version seem to be the point. If Gigolo's ending Ozu. Bresson's work seems, from premise to con-
were the product of a subversive style, its unpre- clusion, in style and content, to function in a spir-
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
AMERICAN GIGOLO 13
This content downloaded from 111.68.111.140 on Tue, 19 Mar 2019 06:19:46 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms