The King of Comedy
1) Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the
screening
As mentioned in the text, “The King of Comedy” is one of Martin
Scorsese’s most underrated films. “The King of Comedy” came out in 1982 following
two of Scorsese’s biggest films of all time, “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”. In “The King of Comedy” Robert De Niro plays a
very different role than he has in some of Scorsese’s previous films but he
still plays it just as he does in any of his previous films. Rupert Pupkin, the
main character in “King of Comedy” is a calmer but still slightly psychotic character
so he is not too different than some of the other roles De Niro has played
under Scorsese.
2) Find a related article (on the film, director, studio,
actor/actress, artistic content, etc.) and summarize the content. You may use
the library or the internet.
The article, “'The King Of Comedy' At Tribeca: Robert De
Niro, Jerry Lewis & Martin Scorsese Celebrate 30 Years Of Cult Classic”
takes a look back at “King of Comedy with interviews and comments from director
Martin Scorsese and some of the main actors from the film. The film was
screened in New York in 2013 at the Tribeca Film Festival and had Martin
Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis in attendance to watch the thirty year
old film. Scorsese, De Niro and Lewis each had interesting facts to mention
about the shooting in the movie. For example Scorsese never intended for the
movie to be a comedy despite the fact that Lewis mentioned he was constantly
laughing hysterically behind the camera during scenes. Also Lewis brought up
the fact that there were certain scenes where the characters were able to adlib
their own scenes and make up dialogue on the spot. The best example of this is
a nine minute scene where De Niro’s character is in Lewis’s characters house.
3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. How did
the article support or change the way you thought about the film, director,
content, etc.?
The article from the Huffinton Post about “King of Comedy” is a great behind the scenes looks to how some of the movie was made. Overall the article made me respect the acting performances a little bit more after finding out that there were portions of the movie that were adlibbed. Being able to shoot an entire nine minute scene without a script is an extremely hard task for an actor to do and it only makes sense that De Niro and Lewis were able to pull it off. Also one of Scorsese’s comments made me think about the movie slightly differently. Scorsese is mentioned early on in the article that the film was not meant to be a comedy, and that quote made me look at the film in a slightly different way. When you look at “King of Comedy” in comparison to another Scorsese/De Niro movie such as “Taxi Driver” or “Goodfellas”, there is a similar level of comedy in all three films but like Scorsese said it was not meant to be a comedy.
4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your
personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text
material and the article.
“The King of Comedy” is another great Scorsese film that was
able to nicely follow up “Raging Bull”. The film follows Rupert Pupkin, another
obscure character played by De Niro, who definitely has some psychopathic
tendencies. The story is easy to follow and at the end the audience is left with
a very satisfying ending depending on each person’s perception. I see the
ending as very straight forward but there is potentially another school of
thought for the ending that it was all in Rupert’s head and that he never
really made it as a comedian. To me the ending comes off pretty straight
forward because of how the ending was shot and editing. In the previous parts
of the movie when Rupert is talking to himself, the audience is clear on the
fact that he is talking to himself even though the film cuts to and from shots
of Rupert talking to Jerry Langford. When it comes down, the acting of the
three main characters is what sells the movie. Each actor plays their own
character perfectly and helps sell the movie as dark and twisted as Scorsese
intended it to be.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM 1) ( ) I have not handed in this assignment for any
other class. 2) ( ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other
classes, I clearly explain that in the paper. 3) ( ) If I used any passages word for word, I
put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text. 4) (
) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in
the text of the paper. 5) ( ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally
read. 6) ( ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in
another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography. 7) ( ) I did not
so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality. 8) ( ) I
checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and
ideas used in my paper.
Name: ____Joe Katulak_____________________ Date: _2/11/15_________________
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