The Grand Illusion

We asked our volunteers to pick films to show this month and this is one of them! 40th anniversary!

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman (Rosanna Arquette). So begins the wildest night of his life, as bizarre occurrences—involving underground-art punks, a distressed waitress, a crazed Mister Softee truck driver, and a bagel-and-cream-cheese paperweight—pile up with anxiety-inducing relentlessness and thwart his attempts to get home. With this Kafkaesque cult classic, Martin Scorsese—abetted by Michael Ballhaus’s kinetic cinematography and scene-stealing supporting turns by Linda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, and John Heard—directed a darkly comic tale of mistaken identity, turning the desolate night world of 1980s SoHo into a bohemian wonderland of surreal menace.

Part of our Farewell to 1403 series.

“Martin Scorsese’s After Hours mines urban anxiety to unsettling yet often hilarious effect.” Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine

“Scorsese’s orchestration of thematic development, narrative structure, and visual style is stunning in its detail and fullness.” Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“It’s not that they don’t make comedies like After Hours anymore. The fact is there’s never been a comedy quite like this one.” Peter Travers, People Magazine