{"id":4299,"date":"2014-06-06T00:12:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T07:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=4299"},"modified":"2014-08-27T20:19:57","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T03:19:57","slug":"fading-gigolos-jewish-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/06\/06\/fading-gigolos-jewish-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Fading Gigolo\u2019s Jewish notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody Allen, left, and John Turturro in Fading Gigolo<\/em>. (photo from Millennium Entertainment)<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy big thing was to not have him wear khaki pants and an army coat,\u201d said John Turturro with a broad smile. \u201cAnd I got him out of that. I said, \u2018That\u2019s not in my color scheme. I\u2019m an Italian director.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This dash of bravado might sound pretentious, or even ludicrous, on paper. But when it comes from a tall, impeccably groomed man in an elegant blue velvet suit (double-breasted, blue shirt buttoned to the top, no tie), it seems perfectly reasonable.<\/p>\n

For his fifth feature behind the camera, Fading Gigolo<\/em>, the renowned actor and filmmaker solicited ongoing (and ruthless) feedback from another New York icon, Woody Allen, during the lengthy screenwriting process. Allen accepted a rare acting assignment in the film, hence the discussion of his costume.<\/p>\n

Allen plays a newly retired Manhattan bookstore owner who, in need of money, convinces his friend, floral arranger Fioravante (Turturro), to provide sexual services to affluent women. Murray claims a fee for arranging the liaisons, which take Fioravante in an unexpected and ultimately poignant direction.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
John Turturro in Fading Gigolo<\/em>. (photo from Millennium Entertainment)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fading Gigolo<\/em> starts out as a slightly absurd sex comedy and deepens into a mature, empathetic study of big-city loneliness against a backdrop of cross-cultural and ethnic identity. The crucial relationship in the film is between Fioravante and Avigal (French actress Vanessa Paradis), an astute mother of six and the widow of a Chassidic rabbi. Sex isn\u2019t part of the equation, but Dovi, a protective and covetous neighborhood Satmar watchman (a touching Liev Schreiber), can\u2019t know that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met all these people who\u2019ve left the [Satmar] community\u201d in the course of his research, Turturro said in a recent interview at a San Francisco hotel. \u201cThey\u2019re like the strays of the community. They gather in this place, people who left and people who hadn\u2019t left who just went there to see what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paradis got to know one woman in particular who had left the Satmar community and explained the various directives, such as keeping her hair concealed under a wig.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these things are made up by men,\u201d Turturro declared. \u201cWomen didn\u2019t make these rules. And, to me, that says it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fading Gigolo <\/em>is unambiguously respectful toward observant Jewish practice, while inviting us to empathize with a woman trying to reconcile autonomy and conformity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAvigal\u2019s not looking to escape,\u201d Turturro explained. \u201cShe\u2019s just looking to receive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fading Gigolo climaxes with a religious trial where Murray is confronted with the query, \u201cAre you proud to be a Jew?\u201d It\u2019s the question we\u2019ve long wanted Allen to answer onscreen and, at that moment, it\u2019s difficult not to conflate the character and the actor.<\/p>\n

Turturro\u2019s experience of Judaism goes well beyond growing up in New York and now living in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. His wife is Jewish and his son went to Hebrew school, and Turturro confides that he\u2019s spent a fair amount of time in Reform synagogues. He has played several Jewish characters onscreen, most famously in the Coen Brothers\u2019 Miller\u2019s Crossing<\/em> and Barton Fink,<\/em> and immersed himself in the life of Primo Levi to portray the Italian-Jewish Holocaust survivor in Francesco Rosi\u2019s The Truce<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re raised a Catholic, you realize there\u2019s not a debate that goes on,\u201d Turturro said. \u201cAnd, if you\u2019re raised a Jew, there\u2019s a debate that goes on. And I really like that. Therein lies one of the greatnesses of Judaism.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Allen\u2019s behest, Turturro brushed up on Isaac Bashevis Singer\u2019s short stories while he wrote the Fading Gigolo<\/em> screenplay. But, after all his various and diligent research, certain things came down to intuition \u2013 and style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only chose Satmar because I liked the hats the best,\u201d Turturro said. \u201cI don\u2019t want the Borsalino. I\u2019m Italian. It\u2019s an esthetic choice, understand. That\u2019s how it goes with me. The hat dictates. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fading Gigolo<\/em> is playing at Fifth Avenue Cinemas. It\u2019s rated R for some sexual content, language and brief nudity.<\/p>\n

Michael Fox <\/strong>is a writer and film critic living in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody Allen, left, and John Turturro in Fading Gigolo. (photo from Millennium Entertainment) \u201cMy big thing was to not have him wear khaki pants and an army coat,\u201d said John Turturro with a broad smile. \u201cAnd I got him out of that. I said, \u2018That\u2019s not in my color scheme. I\u2019m an Italian director.\u2019\u201d This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[1258,1256,1259,1257],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-fading-gigolo","tag-john-turturro","tag-satmar","tag-woody-allen"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}