Black, black, black is the colour of this comedy from Scorsese – his only entry in the list, and one from his post-King of Comedy so-called “fallow” period – about a geek and his night on the town. Griffin Dunne is the poor schnook at the centre of things but with Roseanna Arquette, Cheech Marin and the brilliant Terri Garr involved there’s plenty more to look at. Never mind the likes of Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Goodfellas or any of that bobbins – it’s a testament to Scorsese’s versatility that he still managed to gain an entry with this, even if he does have to enlist the help of Bronson ‘Balki’ Pinchot and ex-Sid Vicious bodyguard Rockets Redglare to secure it. He will be pleased!
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The People’s Songs
Wednesday, 22.00, BBC Radio 2I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor tonight, which allows us to mention that when it got to number one, Calendar showed a clip from its Whistle Test-inspired video and captioned it “amateur video”. In fact that video was the first we’d heard of them or it, when it was shown on Popworld in fact, and we never thought the record version was quite as good because it was a bit overproduced. Anyway, it’s included here because it started bands being broken via the internet and that rather than the major labels and Top of the Pops.
Infinitely better than most of Scorcese’s better-known films. Why the man doesn’t make more comedies, I will never understand. He made a couple of splendid comedy shorts when he was a film student, and ‘Life Studies,’ his segment of the otherwise-dubious NEW YORK STORIES is one of the funniest movies about being an artist ever made (mind you, Nick Nolte brought a lot to that particular party as well).