‘Alphonse’ ponders love as a profession

If the definition of “cliché” is that which is frequently used and repeated in certain circumstances, it is clear that the French series Alphonse embraces the one that defines Paris “as the city of love.” The peculiarity of the show created by Nicolas Bedos is that the love depicted in that city is offered by a gigolo, played by Jean Dujardin, who is forced into the profession: on the same day he is robbed, he is fired from his company. He visits his grieving father, played by Pierre Arditi, and discovers that he is a veteran gigolo, whom the younger man will have to replace for health reasons.

His marriage to Margot (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is not going very well, although the new job allows them to maintain their usual standard of living. Alphonse promises his clients that he will “satisfy all your desires, even the darkest ones. All of them. I will become whoever you want: your childhood sweetheart, your idol, your pet or your torturer. Regardless of your physique or your age, you will be the most beautiful woman in the world,” he tells them. And that’s how it goes.

He must satisfy the fantasies of a series of mature women, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. The person who pays the piper calls the tune. The city of love becomes the city of transactions: money in exchange for pleasure. Of course, in the entertaining Prime Video show’s six episodes, not everything is sex: there are also secondary characters, like the greedy grandson of Alphonse’s richest client, along with sperm-free situations.

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