« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

In the DVD featurette about the making of The King of Comedy, director Martin Scorcese states that its protagonist, Rupert Pupkin (played by Robert DeNiro), is a scarier character than Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle, and Sandra Bernhard admits to being afraid of Jerry Lewis. In other words, as funny as it is, it's really a story of two frightening, disturbed guys.

Much of what makes them scary is the unexpected role-reversal the two actors engage in. Without ever slipping into caricature the way he does now (remember when seeing Bob's name in the credits was a good thing?), DeNiro portrays Rupert as a surreal character. Lewis, on the other hand, has never been so real, and his flat-affect approach has made viewers wonder for over 20 years if this is the "real" Jerry. The odd coupling worked-- in their scenes together, DeNiro is a likable stalker and Lewis comes across like a barely-closeted serial killer.

As a quiz, the movie was more difficult than I thought, actually fooling a couple of regular winners. So congratulations to the following experts for getting it right: Wayne Palmer, Eric Yarber, Tammy Riggins, Mark Gisleson, and Hank Parmer.

P.S. Go here for the story behind this picture.

Posted by Steve Monaco at June 26, 2005 4:05 PM

« The Monday Movie Quiz #63 | Main | The Monday Movie Quiz #64 »