The Escort (1999)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I watched this film for the second time recently having seen it a couple of years ago. It is interesting if a bit dark and depressing at times. It is the story of Pierre (Daniel Autiel) a middle aged man who feels that after 20 years of marriage his life does not amount to much and he wants more excitement and a change. He decides to stay in London and start writing a book, one evening he is conned and assaulted and by chance meets Tom (Stuart Townsend) an Irish guy who works in a café by day and as a Male escort by night. He helps out Pierre and introduces him to his world which at first seems exciting, he gets a new apartment in the Docklands, a girlfriend who although she starts out in a similar line of work, wants to change for Pierre. At this point his life takes a downward spiral as he tries to get more and more work to pay for his more expensive life and gets into drugs to help him keep going for his clients and girlfriend. Pierre eventually becomes as his friend puts it "a real arsehole" and falls out with his friend Tom, he then resorts to promising a client that he loves her, but she should still pay as he is in need. In reality he has no feelings for her and just wants the money, which later leads to an encounter with her Husband. He is later informed that his Father is ill and has to rush back to France while there he discovers that estranged wife now knows of his new line of work. After some serious thought, He decides to write a book and many months later drops by his old friend Tom's café to show him the book.This is a very well made film and quite realistically done. Personally after seeing it twice I would not watch it again but this is just my taste in films. I feel that you should give this film a chance and watch it, as it is a worthy drama and has a message if you look closely.

Daniel Auteil plays a French man, Pierre, who absconds from his family in Paris to the bright lights of London in order to write a book. One day he is beaten up in the street by the bouncer of a strip joint and Tom ,a young male escort, comes to his aid. The two become mates and Tom encourages Pierre to enter the world of male escorting.Not a bad film but not incredibly good either. However an interesting peek into a fictional world of male escorting in London where good money is to be made by sleeping with mostly attractive women. Does not sound bad maybe I should give it a go, if it is as well payed and glamorous as this film makes it out to be!The two central characters are pretty good and the film develops into a fine conclusion. My favorite scene is near the end when a devastated husband (played excellently by Peter Mullan) confronts Pierre for sleeping with his wife and charging her for the pleasure.This is worth a watch just don't expect too much from it.

Mauvaise Passe (The Escort) is a very watchable French made movie that has the typical feel of a continental film but with a British setting and mainly British cast which for me makes an intriging movie that is unlike anything that i have seen in a long while. This is a film about a middle aged french man who after a family crisis travels on the spur of the moment to London only to get caught up in the male prostitution business and eventually drugs. The acting from Daniel Auteuil and Stuart Townsend is top draw and the story is strong enough to have you interested throughout the film. The only flaws in the film are that it is hard to believe that the man we see at the start of the film , who lacked confidance , could go on to become an escort and there is also a scene where we see him at a posh party and a drunk toff starts talking and the acting in that scene is appalling from the socialite. Dont let that put you what is a very good film. 8 out of 10.

A French academic, in a mid life crisis, comes to London to write a book but - through an accident of fate - starts earning money as a part-time male escort.A film that is well constructed (clear-cut beginning, middle and end) and gives a fair impression of London's famous Soho area. Daniel Auteuil (Pierre)also gives a sense of sexual innocence that his 40 years on earth would surely have wiped out if he was for real!Entertaining as it is, the whole thing comes across as being too easy and pat (even a far-too-young-for-him prostitute wants his sex). Indeed everyone seems eager to help our newly arrived hero, who tries to keep in touch with his former life in Paris by way of fractured phone conversation. Here we have pure broken marriage cliché and is the weakest part of the movie.The sex is tasteful and erotic, but a lot of his clients are too good looking to be true and you would have to be very good at this style of work to afford a docklands apartment. There is also a little bit of drug taking and drug dealing which is seen as background detail and not moralised over.Despite its London base (it is Brit/French production) this film is far more French than it is British. Whether you find this a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. I find it a good thing, although it could do with being a bit less poefaced and either cutting out his life-back-home or explaining what went wrong with it in detail.Worth your time if you want a pleasant character study of a man adjusting to a new life style rather than the sex romp the poster might be suggesting.