Thursday, May 20, 2010

The King Of Comedy - 1982 - 4 Stars

Actors: Robert Deniro, Jerry Lewis
Director: Martin Scorsese

Having everyone know your name - blessing or curse? It's not hard to figure out where Martin Scorsese falls in The King of Comedy. Deniro stars as Rupert Pupkin, the up-and-coming comic whose name people always forget, Lewis as the established late-night talk show host who is harassed by fanatics. Deniro is unbelievably creepy - his permanent cheeriness and amusement, aping those of a talk show guest, are even creepier than his general demeanor in Scorsese films. His character is obsessed with being a stand-up comic on Lewis's show, even though it appears that he's never actually performed his act to a live audience.

Scorsese and writer Paul Zimmerman play around with delusional behavior and the power of fantasy - the notion that fame compensates for the slings and arrows we might suffer in our youth. We're not treated to actual scenes from Pupkin's youth, but to build up into such a steeled lack of self-awareness, it must have been awful indeed. We're often told about famous people who have terrible childhoods - what if you have a terrible childhood and you dream of being famous.. but you're totally untalented?

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