An Ode to the Aesthetic of Cult Film American Gigolo

Crime drama American Gigolo was an immediate critical success when it first hit cinemas in 1980, but its ratings had as much to do with the highly sexed insouciance of the film’s protagonist, a high-end male escort named Julian Kaye, played by Richard Gere, as it did with its plotline. Set in Los Angeles, the story centres around the comings and goings of a “tour-guide, translator and chauffeur” who enters into an ill-advised romantic relationship with the wife of a…