A French Gigolo (2008) Cliente (original title) French icon Nathalie Baye (Tell No One, Catch Me If You Can) stars as Judith, the host and owner of a home shopping TV program. Divorced, successful but wary of love, she selects younger male lovers from a host of escorts on the Internet. It's wonderfully impersonal - and satisfying - until the day she chooses Marco (Eric Caravaca), a charmingly sheepish man who is clearly not a pro. He's just desperate for money to keep his wife's new business afloat. Marco doesn't want his wife to find out. His wife doesn't want the money to stop flowing. And Nathalie doesn't want to fall in love. None of them get what they want. Or do they?
B**M
Thanks
Personal collection
P**J
One Star
Liked the movie, Nathalie Baye was great. Dvd had problems midway & the ending, which I couldn't watch.
E**G
Good movie.
Not a typical romantic-comedy... maybe more of a typical French movie where everything feels a bit less perfect... not one of the movies that you watch when you want to just cozy up and watch a feel-good movie... it pretty much shows you what life can be life behind the scenes. Good acting... good flow...
E**E
A fan of Nathalie Baye
I saw this movie on Netflix; I enjoyed it so much I bought it. Wish I could get the soundtrack; I liked the rap 'Gigolo'. A good film; recommend it.
D**Y
Confused screenplay
The film starts out as a "saucy French comedy" about a sophisticated businesswoman, played by the excellent Nathalie Baye, who hires younger men for sexual interludes while her middle aged sister hooks up with an American Indian. So far, a comedy. However, the director Balasko (who plays in the movie as the sister, with her real life husband as the Arizona Indian and her own daughter as the teenager) seems not to have been able to decide what kind of movie she was making. A third of the way through, she abandons comedy and the story morphs into a more serious drama about a French middle class family under severe financial stress, the heartrending breakdown of the gigolo's marriage when his secret is revealed, a disfunctional teenage girl, and the beginnings of a desperate love between escort and client as it all disintegrates. The viewer struggles to adjust to these changes in tone.Baye is the strongest character as a selfish, independent older woman who knows what she wants. Eric Caravaca as the gigolo does not seem to fit the part at all, more wimpy than sexy; I would find him more believable as a middle school math teacher than a bad boy. Their physical relationship seems devoid of passion, nor do they spark an emotional relationship. Film has good moments but overall suffers from poor architecture.Also Ms. Balasko centered this too much on her real life family; it's a vanity piece or even home movie. She seems a better actress than director.
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