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Rating:
I am really fond of this film because it was the first one I saw in its original language, now 12 years ago.
First scene: a guy with a part in his hair and ridiculous mustache. He seems insignificant. Second scene: the same guy in the car with his idol Jerry: “I really appreciate your advice, Jerry, but I’m 34 years old...” No reverential fear of the star. The guy with the mustache is not so insignificant after all.
In the first two scenes, the entire film is encapsulated: a funny little man who isn’t as funny as he seems. The rest will be nothing but a slow unveiling of the hidden resources of our friendly pal.
As someone noted: this is the counterpart to “Taxi Driver”.
Rupert and Travis: the same goodness deep in the heart. Two things completely separate them: contact with reality and how they react to it. Travis is an intelligent person who lives in the present, often in contact with the worst. This (excessive) contact with reality will make him desperate, and without a hope for the future to cling to, he will come to hate, denying his good nature. Hatred always arises from despair.
Rupert, on the other hand, is favored by nature for his stupidity, which makes him believe he’s a great comedian and lets him live with a dream in his head. This dream keeps his mind occupied, and makes him “live in the future” - thinking about the day he will become a star.
Rupert is such a dreamer that he never really loses hope, and he doesn’t hate Jerry even when he kidnaps him. Even after kidnapping him, he doesn’t stop being kind to him. Something deep in his soul tells him the future will be positive.
Then comes the triumph – almost a reward for his hope.
An absolutely beautiful film that is (almost) never placed in the hall of fame of Scorsese’s masterpieces, a brilliant “praise of stupidity.” We need to ask De Niro and Scorsese if this praise is sincere or ironic. But it remains brilliant.
A failure at the box office and also among the “experts.” Perhaps too paradoxical, too ironic, or maybe just too much “long live the simplicity of soul” to be appreciated by certain critics drawn only to twisted and tormented characters. Everyone finds their reason.
According to De Niro "wasn't so well received because it gave off an aura of something that people didn't want to look at or know.” I never understood what he was referring to.
Excellent acting by Jerry Lewis – chilling in the original language when, just after being kidnapped, he talks about the “pressures” that bind and suffocate him. What a pity that such dramatic talent devoted almost all his energies to comedy.
De Niro is truly magnificent in delineating the character, absolutely unique in its kind. We do not have the usual disillusioned, brilliant, and sarcastic loser. Here we have a stupid and weak loser on one hand, but at the same time, a dreamer and optimist, kind, intelligent (watch the table scene where he perfectly characterizes the woman and actress Marilyn Monroe), and self-confident (see, for example, the opening scene in the car with Jerry). A splendid “pot-pourri” of opposing character traits that suit each other perfectly in this tough and intelligent grown-up child. About De Niro’s performance, perhaps in an excess of enthusiasm akin to Rupert, Scorsese said: “In absolute terms, the best performance of Bob in my films.” (Cf. Friedman Lawrence S., The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1997).
Perhaps not Bob’s best performance; for me, the most subtly multifaceted.
Certainly, the most underrated among his greatest: not even an Oscar nomination.
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