In “The King of Comedy” (1982) there’s a cardboard cutout of Liza Minelli in Rupert’s (Robert DeNiro’s) basement which appears to be a nod to “New York, New York” ( 1977) which starred Liza Minelli and DeNiro and was also directed by Martin Scorcese.
by EdSnapper
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They actually filmed a scene where she went on the Jerry Langford show and sang “New York, New York” but it didn’t make the final cut.
I just watched this movie. And it made me feel a lot of things. To see DeNiro as this desperate comedic character was a trip. And Jerry Lewis playing the straight character. Like zero Lewis troopes. It was a trip, but I’ll think about it for the rest of my life.
In a way Rupert in “King of Comedy” is somewhat similar to Travis Bickle In “Taxi Driver” in that both are delusional. The genius of both movies is the somewhat “happy” ending.
In “King of Comedy” Rupert’s comedy career takes off after he gets out of prison, and in “Taxi Driver” a now recovered Travis post shootout is respected by his peers and looked up to as a hero. But in actuality we don’t know whether this is true or just Rupert’s/Travis’s delusions though we suspect that it’s the latter.
In the case of “Taxi Driver” I believe that Travis died in the shootout but was so delusional that the ending that we see is actually the final fantasy running through his head as he lay dying.
“I think it’s that I look at my whole life… and I see the awful things in my life… and turn it into something funny.”
I saw this one last year and I loved it. It would be great in a double feature with Perfect Blue, I think. They both explore similar themes, but from different angles.
I really don’t like the movie, but DeNiro yelling at his mom while he’s recording his demo kills me