JUST A GIGOLO
(Schöner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo [Pretty Gigolo, Poor Gigolo]
1979/1981; d. David Hemmings, w. Ennio de Concini + Joshua Sinclair)

Lt Paul Pryzgodski skirts WWI trenches (artery running thru German character) to meet Captain Kraft (his destiny) while charges blow all around (untouchable, à la same-yr Apocalypse Now Colonel Kilgore; also ghost, he vestige of way of life not to outlive next War) + troops cheer end of conflict (leaping out of hole as out of rut Cpn + his ilk dug for them: German people vs nobles stirring up trouble), finally convinced to jump in (casting his lot w/ pseudo-Hitler) ahead of mortar (or not; trench also grave, as he must comically insist on living status soon after); post-war (as -archaic turmoil, action to follow extenuation/examination of archetypal event), Paul hitches train (snakelike ditch extruded into consciousness) to hometown (w/ pig picked up on livestock car: embodiment, beginning also sperm cell entering vagina where formed zygotic association w/ Kraft; or, journey bkwd from world into vagina + finally train/phallus; seriocomic tone indebted to Günter Grass, whose Tin Drum adaptation released same yr also), where he passes street performer Cilly Taboo (um, double entendre, she uninhibited altruistic heart of People) – his childhood love (…repressed; own feminine soul, as well, lost to maturity of war or birth-separation from mother) – on way home (Berlin now à la similarly negotiated trenches, as-unreal) where Prussian hero-father (end of retrogressive journey) strokestricken on news of war-loss (he similarly immobile dreamer of film, son's bkwd voyage own w/drawal into self).

Finds mother working in Turkish baths (family’s collective degradation from noble past World souring on war/nobility itself) + admired neighbor turning tricks on street (seen from same balcony as good-morning Socialist Cilly: Paul’s aristocratic distaste at mingling w/ The People dying man’s alienation from own body [pig taken by Aunt Hilda + sold] + Boy Who Fell to Earth [played by Man’s David Bowie]’s apprehension of developing sexuality), soon taking job representing liquor (inside huge bottle: inhabiting exaggerated/unreal phallus coming to terms w/ own; walking streets à la Cilly/neighbor paradoxical identification also w/t feminine for androgynous star); meets Kraft again (1st encountered inside kiosk à la Paul’s outsized bottle: similarly intoxicating agent) on abandoned train (stalled destiny, he pig substitute now taking Paul under wing: country’s demoralized psyche prey to darker subterranean – as in trench – instincts) + joins his Underground movement (presently passed by functioning trains, "mvmt" in fact archaic-old impulses + dead body pretending to continued life) to dismay of K’s jealous lover Otto (homosexuality insularity o/t unconscious; fascism product of similarly exclusive aristocracy), inviting Kraft home (into personality; latter’s twisting neck of dinner goose [subsequently "cooked"] as of aspiring soul to cf earlier pig [role Bowie’s atonement for own Fascist posturing of recent yrs]).

Seduced by older war-widow Helga (husband not-Paul's-father: dream-projection of similarly incapacitated real) on falling-out w/ Kraft (transcending youthful homophilia) + screwing in her husband’s tomb (coupling/pact w/ death: Father’s letting go of Life + embrace of Fate, as nation’s own perilous choice), her tango lessons (dance imported from Brazil – sexy "mvmt" from Lower Hemisphere [+ ironical future refuge of some Nazis]) preparation for next career (cfg Cilly’s cabaret rehearsal: further feminization); next by Cilly (fulfilling boyhood crush following resolution of oedipal attraction), now living w/ Prince (selling out ideals mirroring mvmt w/i hero: conflict btwn altruism + self-interest) just before she seduced to America (resolution of conflict flight of former from makeup), he joining gigolo on double date (seduced becoming seducer formerly passive decedent actively courting death) to Hotel Eden (self reborn in downgraded ideal), where he auditions for madam Baroness von Samering (female God replacing one Kraft reminds "died in Berlin"; recruited à la Kraft + earlier army, scene cfg Cilly’s cabaret "discovery" by American producer [she pseudo-Marlene, herself playing Baroness (from Paris apartment, amplifying ghostly detachment o/t obsolete upper class)]), who provides romance for wmn "trying to forget till they find something worth remembering" (seducing selves out of existence in preparation for Eden-rebirth of better self/ves; wmn doing redemptive emotional work for men while Kraft/men doing destructive physical).

Hired by Helga (two steps forward/one step back after abandonment by Future) to sire heir for new husband (impotent old man à la similarly mute father: latter’s last-ditch attempt to regenerate self [parallel Cilly’s own marriage to older man]) but can’t fulfill job (soul admitting predicament + letting go of flesh), afterwards hitting bar (insular, intoxicated backroom/unconscious) where Baroness performs title song (self recognizing Self/mortality: "and life goes on w/o me") before heading out to street (artery of city à la opening trenches) where Kraft’s boys shooting out w/ Commies (dying Self’s war w/ community-world from which it in process of separating), he taking stray bullet at top of stairs (to heaven, à la Cilly’s movie-production number + as on leaving war-ditch/grave, movie/life come full circle); Kraft claims body (he the unregenerate Death incarnate) + arranges hero’s funeral (Nazism preying on nation’s fallen aristocratic notion of self; founding self on moribund ideal fating self to failure) attended by father (recognizing own death), who turns to observe son on slab (his 1st mvmt in picture: mute body politic acknowledging dead future) as he’s carted out door (risen soul regarding body on way out of tomb).

Fascinating film (shorn of 40-50m after disastrous debut: oh, to see those again) for 60s golden boy + future house director of "The A-Team".