Fading Gigolo

Director: John Turturro John Turturro

Overview

Writer/director John Turturro's Fading Gigolo centers on an elderly New York bookstore owner (Woody Allen) who becomes a pimp when he turns his middle-aged friend (Turturro) into a gigolo hoping to raise enough money when it looks like their store is going to close. Eventually, they begin to make more money than they ever expected.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/19/2014
UPC:	0687797154996
Original Release:	2013
Rating:	R
Source:	Alchemy / Millennium
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:30:00
Sales rank:	8,595

Special Features

Deleted scenes; Audio commentary with John Turturro

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Woody Allen	Murray
John Turturro	Fioravante,Shimshon,Driver's Wife
Sofía Vergara	Selima,Actor
Sharon Stone	Dr. Parker
Liev Schreiber	Dovi
Vanessa Paradis	Avigal
Bob Balaban	Sol
Eugenia Kuzmina	Lady on Street
Delphina Belle	Rhuki
Loan Chabanol	Loan
Tonya Pinkins	Othella
Teddy Bergman	Yossi
Ted Sutherland	Shmuel
Dante Hoagland	Coco
Max Casella	Guy at Counter
Aubrey Joseph	Cefus
Isaiah Clifton	Cyrus
Michael Badalucco	Burly Driver
Allen Lewis Rickman	Hasidic Driver
Ness Krell	Little Devorah
Russell Posner	Malky
Hilma Falkowski	Lunching Lady
Jade Dixon	Cee Cee
M'Barka Ben Taleb	Mimou
Salimatou Sillah	Waitress
David Margulies	Chief Rebbe
Abe Altman	First Rabbi
Sol Frieder	Ancient Rabbi
Jade Nixon	Cee Cee
Bill Maxwell	Composer

Technical Credits

John Turturro

John Turturro	Director,Screenwriter
Paul Hanson	Producer
Jeffrey Kusama-Hinte	Producer
Eric Moynier	Camera Operator
Victor Paguia	Stunts
Heather Gross	Sound Effects
Anton Lessine	Executive Producer,Producer
Sasha Shapiro	Executive Producer,Producer
Bart Walker	Executive Producer,Producer
Bill Block	Producer
Glenn Allen	Special Effects
John D'Aquino	Sound Effects
Dann Fink	Sound Effects
Jay Fisher	Sound Effects
Jeffrey Levy-Hinte	Producer
Scott Ferguson	Producer,Executive Producer
Todd Thaler	Casting

Editorial Reviews

In Fading Gigolo, his fifth directorial effort, respected actor John Turturro fashions a gentle mix of comedy and drama that is in large part a Woody Allen tribute. As a bonus, he had the luck and smarts to actually get Woody to co-star with him in it. Turturro plays Fioravante, a middle-aged guy who works part-time for Murray (Allen), the owner of a rare-books store. When the business goes belly up, both men start looking for a new source of income. Murray soon tells Fioravante that, during a recent visit to his dermatologist (Sharon Stone), he learned that she and her girlfriend (Sofía Vergara) wanted to have a threesome with a man. Sensing an economic opportunity, and thinking Fioravante might be up to the task, he said that he did in fact know an in-demand gigolo. After some cajoling (and faced with some grim financial realities), Fioravante agrees to let his old boss act as his pimp. Word of mouth spreads, and the pair realize they have a new business on their hands. However, things get complicated when Murray convinces sheltered Hasidic widow Avigal (Vanessa Paradis) to try their services. She and Fioravante don't have sex, but develop a deep love for one another. If nothing else, Turturro deserves credit as a writer and director for creating a sex comedy that also happens to be a poignant romantic drama. The first half-hour is a funnier Woody Allen film than anything Allen has made in the last two decades. Just watching the quintessential New Yorker stroll through Brooklyn with his character's racially mixed family gives the movie a sense of authenticity -- it forces Allen to appear more modern than he has allowed himself in recent years. Turturro has also written Allen a number of funny scenes -- highlighted by the conversation in which they each decide upon the pseudonyms they are going to use while conducting business with clients -- and one-liners that play to his co-star's strengths. The middle third of the movie is a sensitive, delicately observed romantic drama as Fioravante and Avigal get to know each other. This section of the picture is lovely; Turturro, a superb actor in his own right, obviously likes other performers, and allows Paradis and himself a number of lengthy shots that show how their attraction is growing stronger in subtle increments. Just as you begin to fear that the film has abandoned the laughs altogether, Murray returns with a vengeance in the final third, which also involves Liev Schreiber as a Hasidic community-watch leader named Dovi who has been in love with Avigal his whole life. In a desperate bid to figure out what's going on, Dovi orchestrates Murray's kidnapping, which begins with one of the funniest abductions you're likely to see anytime soon. Turturro deftly weaves the comedy and drama together in a climax that is as humorous as it is touching, and then gives us a final scene that accentuates the best of everything from the previous 90 minutes. Fading Gigolo fits perfectly into Turturro's filmography as a director, and it's also the most accessible movie he's ever made. In many ways, it's the yin to the yang of his underappreciated 2005 blue-collar musical Romance & Cigarettes. And longtime Woody fans will leave wondering why, since Allen doesn't give himself material this good anymore, he doesn't act in other people's movies more often.