The King of Comedy

The King of Comedy (1982) failed commercially on release and nobody understood what it was doing. It is now considered Scorsese's most prescient film. Rupert Pupkin wants to be a stand up comedian. He has never performed. He lives with his mother and has built a mock talk show set in the basement, where he interviews cardboard guests. His only goal is to appear on the famous host Jerry Langford's programme. It begins like a comedy and gradually becomes something else. Rupert simply will not accept rejection; he goes to the host's house, harasses his assistant, and eventually kidnaps him. The foresight is here: in 1982 nobody thought of fame as an entitlement. Rupert is now everywhere. Someone who sees himself as a star, has done nothing yet, and treats rejection as an injustice. Jerry Langford is played by Jerry Lewis, so an actual legend is performing a version of his own position. The ending is deliberately ambiguous: whether what happens in the final section is real or Rupert's fantasy is left open. Joker rests directly on this film, and De Niro plays the opposite side of it there, the host. It runs 109 minutes. Good for: dark comedy, Scorsese, and films about celebrity. Less good for: the discomfort is deliberate and laughing is difficult; there is no violence but there is a constant sense of embarrassment.