THE ESCORT/ MAUVAIS PASSE
UK/France, 1999, 100 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Auteuil, Stuart Townsend, Liza Walker, Noah Taylor, Frances Barber, Claire Skinner, Keith Allen, Ben Whishaw, Barbara Flynn.
Directed by Michel Blanc.
A French production, directed by actor, Michel Blanc, but mainly made in England and in English.
Daniel Auteuil plays a teacher who has up and left family and career in France. He is beaten up in a Soho brothel and rescued by a genial cafe manager, Stuart Townsend. It emerges that he is a gigolo and invites Daniel along as an escort and before you can say this is unbelievable, the middle-aged crisis victim is on the job - and life gets more complicated when he falls in love with a young prostitute and drugs enter the screenplay.
While one knows that this story happens (maybe now and again), Auteuil, excellent actor that he is, does not convince that he would ever behave in this way at all. This is a journey in a murky moral world.
1. The title? Expectations? Male and female escorts?
2. A French/UK production, French writing and direction? Locations in Paris, in London, the detail? The musical score?
3. The plausibility of the plot, Pierre’s credibility, his life, the past, family, lecturing, change? Meeting with Tommy, the experience, his choices? The effect, consequences?
4. Pierre and his story, his age, over 40, his life and his marriage, the estrangement, his reaching out to his son? His teaching? The taxi, going to the airport, leaving on the first plane, the pretext of writing a novel, the hotel in London? Walking in the city, accosted by the girls, in the club, the drink, touching him, the bill for £150, his refusal to pay, the fight, his being bashed? Tom passing, help, Tom’s bar, the lift? Talking, friendship? Asking for the job at the bar, his work there? Going out with Tommy, sprucing up, in society, the girls, the cash, his surprise? The challenge, the personal reflection, the moral choices?
5. The company, gigolos, the contacts, his photo and advertisement? At the club, meeting the other men, the women? The proprietor? His first date, his clothes, Tommy and dying his hair? Her anxiety, impotence, the condoms? His being helped? The beginning of his career? The collage of women customers? Patricia, the more personalised relationship, sex, her talk, the husband? Pierre and his technique with the women, flattering them? The angry woman, setting up her husband and his mistress for jealousy? The big woman and the suggestion of sex? His advertisements, meeting the women with the newspaper, the prim woman and her talk, being insulted, throwing the drink at him?
6. Kim and Jay, their age, experience, double act, Kim the attraction, the relationship with Pierre, the background of lies, flight attendant, her mother, her daughter, going to visit? The on and off with Pierre? The job, Jay’s jealousy, her frustration, wanting out? Jay and the challenge, the clash with Pierre, Pierre and his apology, wanting the drugs?
7. Tommy, as a character, genial, amoral, moral within his limits? The work at the bar, rescuing Pierre, friendship? The outing with Pierre, the women, the cash? His friendship, sharing, the accommodation, warning Pierre against drugs? Pierre falling out with him? His being hurt?
8. Pierre, his decline, the phone calls to Paris, his wife, the visit to Paris, the issue of divorce? His son, the visit to London, the son standing him up, the suicide attempt? The decision of divorce?
9. Pierre, beginning to take the drugs, deceiving himself, the effect? The lavish apartment and the expense? The encounters with Patricia, his needing the cash? The visit of her husband, the fierce confrontation, the punch?
10. Pierre going to visit his father, the country estate, the writing of the novel, his return, friendship with the server at the bar, meeting Tommy again, giving him the manuscript? The visit to the publisher, his stories, the meal – the suggestion that he might continue his profession?
11. Social observation, morals and ethics in this murky world?
