If the definition of “theme” is “that is used and repeated very frequently in certain circumstances,” it is clear that the French series “Alphonse” fits this repeated usage, which usually defines Paris “as the city of love.” The peculiarity of the series created by Nicolas Bedos is that the love shown in the city is that of a gigolo, played by Jean Dujardin, who is forced into such a job because he is out on the same day that he suffers a robbery is fired from his company. Sadly, he visits his father, played by Pierre Arditi, and learns that he is an experienced gigolo who he has to replace for health reasons.
His marriage to Margot (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is not going through the best of times, although the new job allows them to maintain their usual standard of living. Alphonse is clear about this and promises his customers to “fulfill all your wishes, even the darkest ones.” All of them. I will become whoever you want: your childhood love, your idol, your pet or your tormentor. No matter your body type or your age, you will be the most beautiful woman in the world,” he tells them. And so it is.
You have to satisfy the fantasies of a range of mature women, from the simplest to the most demanding. Whoever pays rules. The city of love has become the city of transactions: money for pleasure. Of course, in the six episodes of the entertaining series that Prime Video shows, Núñez de Balboa, as Javier Krahe would say, minor characters such as the greedy grandson of the richest of the plaintiffs of Alphonse’s services and situations in which sperm count for nothing also crosses paths.
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