Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.5

Fading Gigolo Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 8, 2015

John Turturro's "Fading Gigolo" (2013) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Curzon Film World/Artificial Eye. The only bonus feature on this release is an original theatrical trailer for the film. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

"Maybe I should try your guy first... alone."

Fading Gigolo sees New York City as a magical place where beautiful but lonely rich women can’t stop dreaming of having spicy affairs and friendly losers are always around to help them make their wish come true. It is essentially a fairytale for adults and it works as intended only if one approaches it as such. Any other interpretations of its story are guaranteed to disappoint.

Woody Allen is the aging bookstore owner Murray who has been asked by his friendly dermatologist, Dr. Parker (Sharon Stone, Lovelace), if he knows anyone that can help her and best friend Selima (Sofia Vergara, Chef) with a small project: the two women want to have a ménage a trois but are unsure where to look for the missing piece. Murray does not know any possible candidates, but asks his pal, Fioravante (John Turturro, Barton Fink), a plumber turned florist who desperately needs cash, if he might be interested in having a little bit of fun and getting paid for it. Initially, Fioravante finds the offer ridiculous, but later on changes his mind and agrees to see Dr. Parker and her friend.

To be absolutely certain that Fioravante is up to the task, Dr. Parker invites the gigolo to her place for a trial session. And he delivers – multiple times. Then word gets out that Fioravante really is as good as advertised and Murray is bombarded with inquires from other potential clients.

Encouraged by Fioravante’s success, Murray approaches a lonely Jewish widow (Vanessa Paradise, The Girl On The Bridge) who has forgotten how to love. He describes Fioravante to her as a skillful masseuse who can help her relax and make her temporarily forget about her daily chores. When the widow agrees to see him, a jealous community patrol officer (Liev Schreiber, The Last Days on Mars) begins following Murray and eventually convinces the local leaders of the Jewish community to investigate his business.

Turturro wrote and directed Fading Gigolo, but the film actually has the wit, energy, and wild sense of humor of Allen’s classic films. It works great as it hits all of its targets with an authority that is simply missing from other contemporary films that attempt to show how our obsessions with sex, money, and religion have profoundly changed the way we interact with each other.

The entire story is utterly unbelievable, but it needs to be so that the odd can stick out and make us think about it. Turturro simply exaggerates the main characters’ conflicts and dilemmas and then adds a large dose of humor to cover what otherwise might be perceived as insulting. The end result is a series of supposedly ridiculous developments, but anyone not realizing that these developments are actually inspired by the realities of everyday life is simply not paying enough attention.

Turturro and Allen are absolutely hilarious as the business partners who don’t know much about the business they want to be in. Stone and Vergara look appropriately elegant and aggressive as the wealthy women looking to spice up their lives. Schreiber is also likeable as the jealous patrol officer who can’t stand seeing the woman he loves with another man. Only Paradis fails to impress as her widow’s character transformation is indeed very ineffective.

Fading Gigolo was lensed by Italian cinematographer Marco Pontecorvo, who also collaborated with Turturro on his previous film, Passione. The lush jazzy soundtrack was created by Abraham Laboriel and Bill Maxwell.

Fading Gigolo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, John Turturro's Fading Gigolo arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon Film World/Artificial Eye.

Shot with an Arricam Lite camera, the film looks wonderful on Blu-ray. Detail and clarity are fantastic and a number of the outdoor close-ups actually look like digital photographs. Fluidity and especially image depth are even more impressive -- when viewed on a projector, the film boasts a type of dimensionality which one can easily describe as reference quality. Color reproduction is excellent. Rich dark yellows and browns are the prominent colors, but there is a good range of equally lush reds, blues, and blacks. Overall image stability is outstanding. Finally, there are no encoding anomalies to report in this review. All in all, this is a fantastic presentation of Fading Gigolo, and as far as I am concerned it ranks amongst teh very best in Curzon Film World/Artificial Eye's Blu-ray catalog. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Fading Gigolo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0. For the record, Curzon Film World have not provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

Fading Gigolo is not a film with an exceptionally active sound design, but the gap in quality between the two loseless tracks is substantial. For example, there are numerous sequences where the 5.1 track opens up the film far better and random sounds and noises are easier to identity because the separation is superior. It is the lovely jazzy score, however, that benefits the most as the music's presence is simply felt better on the 5.1 track. The dialog is very crisp, stable, clean, and easy to follow.

Fading Gigolo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original theatrical trailer for Fading Gigolo. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Fading Gigolo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I liked John Turturro's Fading Gigolo a lot. It is witty, bold, and funny in a way that very few films nowadays can be. Curzon Film World/Artificial Eye's technical presentation of Fading Gigolo is outstanding. In fact, this may very well be one of the best looking releases from the British distributors' Blu-ray catalog. Do not miss this film, folks. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.