BBD Comments:
It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of when…and which.
Scorsese had to take the stage at Movienight, and I had looked long and hard at ‘Taxi Driver,’ ‘Raging Bull,’ and to maintain film theory street cred, ‘Mean Streets.’ But I never pulled the trigger. All great films, all De Niro films, but none of them seemed to scream slam dunk. I thought each of them at odd times as either too long or too often viewed to stand behind and bring to the Crew.
Leave it to Zack, the biggest Scorsese fan I know, to know just what to do. ‘King of Comedy’ is not just an overlooked masterpiece, when it came out it was down right hated. Too soft to please the earliest of Scorsese’s fans, and far too hard to please the many more Jerry Lewis fans still in circulation ‘King of Comedy’ was misunderstood, and quickly forgotten. But as Movienight always does, it was reborn on the Stucco freed from its moment in time and now embedded in our own.
‘The King of Comedy’ is like the anti-‘Taxi Driver.’ The characters in this film are of the same bottom feeding variety as the cabbies, pimps and whores in the earlier work, only they feed on the bottom of the entertainment industry. Collecting autographs and waiting at stage doors, De Niro and Bernhard seem like the tip of a very large iceberg. Scorsese suggests true menace within the American fixation on fame and creates such tension within this world that it seems it all must end badly.
This film saw the future, and in doing so it alienated the present. Its story was thought as improbable as ‘Network’s’ though time has proven both to be spot on. But like ‘Network,’ ‘The King of Comedy’ looks into the future and realizes that fame itself is all America cares for, and Rupert Pupkin, once a household name, is a guaranteed success. It may be the happiest ending of all of Scorsese’s pictures.
Jerry Lewis is magnificent in the film, but it is almost hard to give him credit. It seems as though his best scenes are when he is playing himself, or covered in white tape. But Lewis does more than that, he loans his old school timing and gravitas to the new school of Scorsese and without him the film could not succeed. His final punch to Sandra Bernhard is so powerful, that the film doesn’t need to spend another frame on his fate. We know he’s gonna be just fine.
Sandra Bernhard, no matter how off putting elsewhere, is just perfect in this film. She reeks with need and desperation, and makes pathetic as sexy as it has ever been. The character remains somewhat redundant to the overall thrust of the story, but her date with Jerry makes up for any short comings.
De Niro’s meticulously drawn portrayal of Rupert Pupkin is every bit as indelible as his Jake LaMotta and his Travis Bickle. He is a lost and painful soul whose singular fixation on fame is the very beat of his heart. Misunderstood by everyone around him, he dreams of a world where his mother has been dead for nine years and he is the apple of television’s eye. To play Ruperrt, De Niro strips away every ounce of machismo and power that he had become famous for, and it may stand as the best and most unexpected work of his illustrious career.
This may be my favorite pick since ‘Yojimbo,’ and I’ll admit that Zack has become a reliable Selector, but before I join Coolbaugh in his fan boy shrieks of “Best Selector” I’ll remind him that among Nubby’s eight picks are ‘Raiders,’ and ‘The Meaning of Life.’ The former pick is as pedestrian as ‘Die Hard,’ and the latter is questionable at best. But all that is just sour grapes.
In the end I think I never picked a Scorsese because I knew that it was Zack’s right to be the one. Zack loves Martin’s films, and he knew just the one to show. Those who know Nubs know he’s been a schmuck his whole life, but last night he was the King.
Coolbaugh Comments:
‘The King of Comedy’ was a nice way for Robert De Niro to enter the Movienight. In the spirit of Movienight, I would have thought we’d bring him in with something more heavy handed. But I applaud Zack for taking it on…I don’t believe I would have dared pop De Niro’s Movienight cherry with this group at all…not to mention with a relatively risky selection like ‘King.’ This was yet another metaphor for “go for it and live your dreams.” That’s two in a row for Nubs. In this crowd, this can’t help but be associated with actors working to bring their dreams to reality, just like ‘Big Night.’ If he comes with something like-minded next week, we may have to slap a moratorium on the “dream on” fable films, placing them along side Prison movies. Until that happens, however, we’ll appreciate and enjoy Nub’s wonderful selection.
‘King’ wasn’t perfect, but it was very solid. Once I got past the “damn, this is tough to get into” shit I deal with every week, I enjoyed it. King reeked of ‘The In-Laws’ in terms of sense of humor, cadence/timing, and ‘Network’ in the way it portrays how the delusional mind of one person can, ironically, impact so many. America is ready to gobble it all up. For some reason, American’s place controversy and kick-ass cooler talk ahead of quality programming or art. You needn’t look any further than ‘American Idol’…where you can see tomorrow’s laughable fad, today.
So De Niro’s no longer on everybody’s wish list. He was fantastic. As freakazoid Rupert Pupkin, De Niro had amazing grasp and control of his character’s widely polarizing scenarios. Snap-shot editing accentuated his brilliance as a single monologue rapidly oscillated between Pupkin’s painful reality and his in-mind perfection. I felt he knew this character so well that wherever he was, he was ready to go. He must have been. Sandra Bernhard showed what makes people love to hate her. Talk about doing a lot with a little. Eat your heart out, Minnie Driver. One can’t but help a sexual attraction to her, despite your knowing she’s the single greatest psycho-stalker bitch ever. Yeah, she’s totally whack, but I’ll still hit it. I’m not very familiar with her career beyond some awful sit-com appearances, which did more to turn me off to her than want to see more. Now I feel differently.
All in all, I feel like our picks have bogged down in this “only sleek and unexpected” mire. I feel we need to start going in a slightly different direction, mindset-wise…at least some of us do. We’re all so terribly concerned about making a pic that’s not easy or obvious that we forget that some of the greatest films may in fact be just that. In fact, Movienight’s genesis was nowhere near the B-Side set list we’ve all managed to compile. All that being said, JaJa and I both concurred last night that Nubs has still been our most solid selector in the group. That’s hard for some (including me) to accept, and it’s no slight against anyone else – it’s simply the cold-hard facts…Nubs is better than the rest of us at this. Disagree Tooda? Then come with it. Actually, Davis’ picks have been very solid (some of my faves, in fact); but if you factor in the near-miss of ‘Tootsie,’ and his ‘Network’-induced personal meltdown, you have perhaps, a situation where an unfair halo affect is tainting the perception of all your selections. Maybe one more home run will eliminate that forever – after all, we all have our demons. But no matter what, I’m looking very forward to next week. Stop.
SELECTOR Comments:
In my SELECTOR preamble I stated that we needed to welcome arguably the best actor and director of all time to our club. I said I chose ‘The King of Comedy’ cause it was the only choice that fit into our time limit. Well, as another great director, Steven Spielberg, once stated, which I will now paraphrase and misquote, having to compromise can lead you to the best choice, or something like that. Anyway, I think that ‘The King of Comedy’ actually is a much better choice for Movienight than many of the other brilliant epics that this duo has graced us with. Not only because it is shorter and lighter, but also because it shows how versatile De Niro and Scorsese are and true brilliance tackles any genre.
Let’s begin with the acting. Growing up and through adolescence, I always considered Robert De Niro as the greatest actor of all time. Though I’m over my childish rating of movie stars and now onto much cooler Fantasy Football, this movie surely makes a strong argument for him owning that title. To sum up a celebrated career in a gigantic understatement, De Niro can be anything you want him to be, believably. Whether a psychopath or a criminal, a monster, a criminal psychopath, a retard, a mentally challenged psychopath or a schmuck, De Niro will sell you the story. All right I’m being a little tongue and cheek, but seriously, if you put this role up to ‘Taxi Driver,’ which is a similar story and character, it’s hard to picture them as the same actor. This is one of his first few comedic attempts and he is still utterly convincing because he plays the man and not the situation. From his ridiculous sunglasses he wears unnecessarily or yelling at his “Ma” he leaps over them as actor conflicts, not as jokes.
This is where the great director comes in and frames the moment. One would think De Niro is a serious intimidating bad-ass how could one picture him differently? Coolbaugh was the first to point out how small Scorsese makes him seem. It’s true. With that suit, the mustache, those shoes, and how he is framed within the shot we have no doubt this is not Robert De Niro, but Rupert Pupkin. My favorite moment is on his first date in the Chinese restaurant. As we try to listen to Rupert sell himself to his would-be queen among these gigantic plates of food, there is a man in the background completely stealing focus. He crosses back and forth past them, sits behind Rupert and even mimics him at one point. Scorsese always makes his point by letting his camera give our point of view an opinion.
Scorsese is also the master of the one shot. He can tell his whole story in one shot. In ‘Goodfellas’ it’s the famous follow shot through the restaurant. In ‘Taxi Driver’ the overhead view of the carnage and blood trail leading to Travis. In ‘Raging Bull’ we have to turn away from Jake La Motta in the ring and focus on the ropes dripping with blood. In ‘The King of Comedy’ we see Rupert gaining experience, as he was instructed, by performing in front of a life-size fake audience. It is a shot that takes us into the head of our hero experiencing the highs of being the man of the hour. Until we begin to pull away. We then start to isolate this man and see him for what he really is, a dreamer talking to a wall. It is chilling.
It’s been many years since seeing this movie and this viewing showed how ahead of it’s time this film is. Many shows like ‘Six Feet Under’ and others use dream sequences woven into a real story line blurring the narrative reality. Back in the wonderful 1980s this movie was much more disturbing to the average viewer. Now that we are used to seeing this device, it’s fairly easy to follow. With the formula it sets up, we have to assume the ending is true. Rupert fulfills his dream. Along with all the tragic realities this movie shows about fame and fanatics, there is still the one happy and disturbing truth that anyone can achieve their dreams if they are willing to do whatever it takes, by any strange means necessary. Is it dark or hopeful? This seems to be one of the few collaborations of Scorsese and De Niro that would suggest a happy lead in to “Headsets.”
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