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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.

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