Saturday, September 02, 2017

David Bowie and David Hemmings on the set of Just a Gigolo

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Released in 1978, Just a Gigolo is remembered as something of a disaster. That despite a cast that included Marlene Dietrich, David Bowie and David Hemmings, who also directed the film.

Hemmings wrote in his memoirs Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations:
Before Bowie confirmed that he would play the part, I had to go to Montreux, where he then lived, and convince him that he should. He was, as I had expected, hugely stimulating to deal with - clever, funny, original and with a very special natural elegance. He had a face that always looked beautiful on camera; he didn't have any bad angles, which, as it happened, posed a problem on the film. We went to a lot of trouble to make him look filthy and down-and-out, buying the scruffiest clothes we could find, but as soon as he put them on, they became an elegant new look.
The photograph above shows Hemmings and Bowie with Kim Novak and Maria Schell on the set of the film.

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