Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980): Hackney Picturehouse, 10.30pm
The Hackney Picturehouse shows great late-night weekend films and in the year when Sight & Sound will be publishing its top ten greatest films of all time list it will be fascinating to see where this movie climbs to this time. It's one of the few modern movies to break into the higher reaches of the poll - which you can link to here - and came joint-sixth in the directors' list in 2002.
Time Out review:
‘You was my brudda. You shoulda looked out for me a little bit… I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum…’ When the washed-up Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) quotes ‘On The Waterfront’ to himself, it tells us as much about his self-pity as the actual parallels with Brando’s Terry Malloy. Not just a contender but a champ, La Motta’s fall stemmed not from outside pressures but inner weaknesses, stunningly realised in De Niro’s colossal performance; both he and Scorsese have arguably never been better. Following from 1941 to 1964 the explosively jealous and narcissistic middle-weight, his brother-manager Joey – Joe Pesci, great in his breakthrough role, first of the badabing pairings with De Niro that would define his career – and Jake’s tenderised wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty), ‘Raging Bull’ is a masterclass in pain inflicted on oneself and one’s loved ones, as well as one’s opponents. The use of pop and opera and the black-and-white photography (by Michael Chapman) are exemplary, the actual boxing a compulsive dance of death.' Ben Walters
Here are the opening credits.
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