American Gigolo · reception & legacy

How American Gigolo has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Critics in 1980 were lukewarm — too cold, too glossy — but it was a hit, and it's since been reappraised as a key text of 80s style and the start of Schrader's 'man in his room' cycle it shares with Taxi Driver and Light Sleeper.

What's debated

The perennial fight: is it a hollow surface with nothing underneath, or is the surface the whole point — a film *about* a man who is all packaging?

Its footprint

It gave the world Blondie's 'Call Me' (a #1 hit written for the film), put Giorgio Armani on the American map, and the shot of Richard Gere laying out shirts and ties on his bed is one of cinema's most referenced fashion moments.

Where it stands

A canon-climber beloved by Schrader completists and fashion-minded cinephiles — the 'style bible' entry point to his loner cycle.

Named by the director

Influences Paul Schrader has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Pickpocket (1959) — Schrader has openly said he lifted the ending from Bresson's Pickpocket — a theft he's cheerfully admitted to repeating across his career.
• The Conformist (1970) — Schrader wanted Bertolucci's look so badly he hired The Conformist's production designer, Ferdinando Scarfiotti, as visual consultant.
• Robert Bresson — Schrader, who wrote a book on Bresson's transcendental style, cites him as the film's spiritual model for the redeemed-loner ending.