Some things about the psychology of women, even lesbian women, are beyond the understanding of men, even gay men. At least that's my excuse for not knowing what the hell's going on in the last third of Gigola, when the heroine's actions defy rational (male) explanation.
The opening scene, in 1960, looks like a role-playing fantasy of a student and her headmistress, but it's supposed to be real. Georges (Lou Doillon) expresses her love for the older woman (Ana Padrão) who introduced her to Sapphic sex, and makes her give her a butch haircut.
Three years later the headmistress has committed suicide and Georges, now calling herself Gigola, is a key figure in the lesbian sector of the Parisian demimonde. She pimps other women, including Dolly (Virginie Pradal), a chanteuse of questionable gender and sanity; and Dany (Marie Kremer), whom she makes over as Cora and steals from gangster Tony (Eduardo Noriega).
Gigola also rents herself out to wealthy older women, including very grateful Odette (Marisa Paredes) and Alice, a doctor who reminds her of her first love because she's played by the same actress.
A soft butch, Gigola dresses in a theatrical version of men's attire, which she doesn't remove during sex; however, it's not believable when anyone actually mistakes her for a man.
In her private life Gigola is closer to her mother (Marisa Berenson) than her father (Thierry Lhermitte), a compulsive gambler and opium addict who comes to her for money.
The movie starts going south when we realize there's sexual tension developing between Gigola and Tony, and really goes off the rails after that. By the end it's like you're watching an interactive drama where you get to choose which direction the story will take, but you're seeing all the choices played out.
Laure Charpentier makes her debut as a director and screenwriter with this adaptation of her own, nearly 40-year-old novel. While she's done a good job in some respectsshe's assembled a fine cast and the period re-creation strikes some of the same chords as Woody Allen's Midnight in Paristhe story just dissolves into incomprehensibility ... at least from a man's viewpoint.