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The King of Comedy (1982)
Those looking to pigeonhole the 50-year career of Martin Scorsese often invoke his penchant for gangsters, but it might be more accurate and encompassing to say Scorsese is drawn to strivers. From Henry Hill (Goodfellas) to Eddie Felson (The Color of Money) to Father Rodrigues (Silence), Scorsese protagonists routinely harbor dreams that dwarf their ability to attain (or maintain) the meaning they seek through ascension.
That’s never more true than in The King of Comedy. In a performance unlike any other in his scowling career, Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a glad-handing, aspiring standup comedian whose life’s mission is appearing on an ersatz Tonight Show. In Pupkin’s mind, he’ll conquer the airwaves not by working on his act, but by molding himself into a prepackaged talk show guest—and, to that end, he relentlessly stalks host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis).
Juxtaposing brilliant performances by De Niro, Lewis and Sandra Bernhard (as a Langford obsessive of a different stripe), Scorsese creates disturbing subjectivity around Pupkin’s delusions of grandeur. In witnessing how the comedian painfully rehearses his conversations, we partially understand the gulf between what Pupkin wants and his present reality, but other times, the bleed between fantasy and reality is a biting mystery.
Cinema 21 is screening Scorsese and De Niro classics all month to celebrate the arrival of their latest collaboration, Killers of the Flower Moon. Catch The King of Comedy there on Oct. 21.
ALSO PLAYING:
5th Avenue: The Descent (2005), Oct. 20-22. Academy: Mad Monster Party? (1967), Oct. 20-26. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Oct. 20-26. Cinemagic: Swastika (1973), Oct. 19. Clinton: Death Becomes Her (1992), Oct. 19. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920), Oct. 20. Society (1989), Oct. 23. Hollywood: X: The Man With the X-ray Eyes (1963), Oct. 20. Free Willy (1993), Oct. 22. Wayne’s World (1992), Oct. 23. Living Room: Psycho (1960), Oct. 22.