After Hours Review: A Bold Artistic Statement from one of the Most Daring Voices of Cinema

80s was not so great for Martin Scorsese. Filming of The King of Comedy turned into a marathon, and when it finally got released, it tanked badly on the box office. Couple that with the fact that his passion project, The Last Temptation of Christ, was imploding under the weight of budget and time constraints. Scorsese fell into depression and began pondering the possible end to his career.

After Hours was in many ways the film that Martin Scorsese made to channelise his depression into something, and to basically revive the joy of filmmaking he seems to be losing. This film was Scorsese letting loose the pressure of being a serious dramatist for a moment, and fortunately it worked wonderfully in the favour of the film.

The manic energy throughout the runtime in After Hours is enough to tell you how much Martin Scorsese was reinvigorated by the idea of him making something totally different from his trademark style. It was escapist cinema not only for his audience but a form of escapism for himself as well.

I like to think that through this film Scorsese was in many ways showing his own mental state to his audience, I mean think about it, the protoganist in it is sort of trapped in a surreal nightmare where nothing is going in his favour. Sure it is fared a comedy and it wonderfully that way as well, but for me it is a strong artistic statement as well, where the filmmaker is subtly telling his audience about his personal life by wrapping it with delicious humour.

Thankfully, the film was a mild success and won Scorsese the Cannes best director award that year and low-key revived his interest in filmmaking as well.

This film is an extremely well made Hitchcockian sort of comedy thriller, but to me first and foremost it will always remain a strong artistic statement.

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