alr

The King of Comedy

Screening on Film
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
With Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard.
US, 1983, 35mm, color, 109 min.

This significant departure for celebrated collaborators Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro is a mordant black comedy about Rupert Pupkin, a fanatic autograph seeker and wannabe comedian who concocts a bizarre plan to achieve instant show-business fame. Fueled by unrealistic aspirations, Rupert resorts to increasingly drastic measures in order to appear on his favorite television program. De Niro gives a riveting and unsettling performance as the unhinged loser whose obsessive personality seems well-suited to the inhuman demands of the entertainment industry.

Part of film series

Read more

Serge Daney:
L’Homme cinéma

Other film series with this film

Read more

Treasures from the Harvard Film Archive: Actors A–D

Read more

Alex de la Iglesia: Films and Inspirations

Read more

Make My Day.
The Cinematic Imagination of the Reagan Era

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy