THE KING OF COMEDY - MIFF 2011

Ah, the dreaded projection problems plagued this screening too.  Again the film had to be stopped and there was another delay of around five minutes.  When the film did start up again, the quality of the sound was quite poor, making it hard to make out some of the dialogue.  Luckily the film is worth going through all that trouble.  “The King Of Comedy” is probably a lesser known Scorsese film which he made back in 1982, which is a shame because it is truly fantastic.  The story is so disturbing and yet so utterly hilarious and it also shares a striking resemblance to Scorsese’s classic film “Taxi Driver”, as both films look at a man pushed to doing terrible things.  Obviously, the tone is quite different as “The King Of Comedy” is played for laughs, but the comedy is of the blackest kind.

Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro) is an aspiring comic and his dream is to one day perform on talk-show host, Jerry Langford’s (Jerry Lewis) late-night show.  After ending up in a car with Jerry, Rupert proposes to him to be a guest on his show.  In an attempt to get rid of Pupkin, Jerry tells him to call his office the next day and they will try to work something out.  Being as obsessive as he is, Rupert of course does this, but he is basically ignored.  After numerous attempts to get Jerry to listen to his tape without success, Pupkin snaps and along with one of Jerry’s stalker’s that he knows, ends up kidnapping the late-show host.  His demands are simple, he wants to go on the show and perform his act and once the show has aired, he will let Jerry go.

This is such a great film and as I mentioned above it is as disturbing as it is hilarious.  The film is an attack on tabloid culture (which is explored at the end of the film), and as such makes it extremely relevant today, perhaps more so than when it was made, as we are now living in a time when people will do just about anything to anyone in the name of becoming famous.

Martin Scorsese has pared back his visual style with “The King Of Comedy”, letting the story be the star of the show.  Speaking of stars, De Niro as usual is outstanding as Pupkin, a very deranged man who you can feel getting more and more frustrated until he explodes.  Even during the early scenes when Rupert is quite pleasant, there is something strange underneath and you feel that he could snap at any second.  The first time I saw this film, I felt that Jerry Lewis played Langford as an unlikable prick making it hard to empathize with him, but this time I saw his performance in a completely different light, full of all the complexities and pressures of a celebrity trying to deal with the public and their demands on a daily level.  I now think his performance is outstanding and steals the show, although Sandra Bernhard comes close as Masha, Langford’s creepy stalker and co-kidnapper, she is hilariously demented. 

As I mentioned, the film deals with serious issues but in a comedic way.  The scenes of Pupkin playing out imagined conversations in his room (another allusion to “Taxi Driver”) with his mother outside interrupting him to find out who he is talking to, are just hilarious.  The kidnapping itself is also so funny in its patheticness as is the ridiculous ransom phone call complete with cue-cards.  The ending of the film is flat-out brilliant and thirty years ahead of its time.

Overall, this is another gem from Scorsese that really needs to be more well known, and even with all of the projection problems and sound issues my screening had, I still loved finally seeing this classic on the big screen.

4 Stars.