‘After Hours’ with Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey
Episode
107 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Career Growth, Health & Wellness, Leadership
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓Scorsese's Career Reset: After Hours served as Scorsese's creative recovery following Raging Bull's disappointing reception, King of Comedy bombing, and Last Temptation of Christ's cancellation. The low-budget project let him experiment with pure style, shooting entirely at night with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, establishing techniques used five years later in Goodfellas including rapid cuts, whip pans, and rock-and-roll camera energy.
- ✓Eighties Filmmaking Shift: The mid-1980s marked Hollywood's transition from auteur-driven cinema to blockbuster franchises like Rambo, Beverly Hills Cop, and Back to Future. Scorsese recognized directors with personal voices were losing power to studios, forcing him to adapt by taking smaller projects. After Hours represented his response to this industry transformation while maintaining artistic integrity.
- ✓New York Night Culture: The film captures 1985 Soho as a dangerous, artist-populated neighborhood before gentrification transformed it into corporate retail space. The production shot exclusively from midnight to 5am, with cast and crew staying awake through entire nights. This authentic nocturnal energy, combined with the cast's reported cocaine use, created the film's paranoid, manic atmosphere.
- ✓Casting Dynamics: Scorsese instructed Griffin Dunne to abstain from sex during the eight-week shoot to maintain a look of desire on screen. When Dunne broke this rule before filming the massage scene with Linda Fiorentino, Scorsese immediately detected it and reshot the sequence, demonstrating his attention to psychological authenticity in performance.
- ✓Production Origins: Writer Joseph Minion created the screenplay as his senior thesis at age 21, earning it as a film school project before it sold professionally. Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson's production company Triple Play brought the script to Scorsese along with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who had shot their previous film Baby It's You with Rosanna Arquette.
What It Covers
Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey analyze Martin Scorsese's 1985 cult film After Hours, exploring how the $4.5 million production became a creative rejuvenation for Scorsese after cocaine addiction and failed projects, establishing the visual style that defined Goodfellas.
Key Questions Answered
- •Scorsese's Career Reset: After Hours served as Scorsese's creative recovery following Raging Bull's disappointing reception, King of Comedy bombing, and Last Temptation of Christ's cancellation. The low-budget project let him experiment with pure style, shooting entirely at night with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, establishing techniques used five years later in Goodfellas including rapid cuts, whip pans, and rock-and-roll camera energy.
- •Eighties Filmmaking Shift: The mid-1980s marked Hollywood's transition from auteur-driven cinema to blockbuster franchises like Rambo, Beverly Hills Cop, and Back to Future. Scorsese recognized directors with personal voices were losing power to studios, forcing him to adapt by taking smaller projects. After Hours represented his response to this industry transformation while maintaining artistic integrity.
- •New York Night Culture: The film captures 1985 Soho as a dangerous, artist-populated neighborhood before gentrification transformed it into corporate retail space. The production shot exclusively from midnight to 5am, with cast and crew staying awake through entire nights. This authentic nocturnal energy, combined with the cast's reported cocaine use, created the film's paranoid, manic atmosphere.
- •Casting Dynamics: Scorsese instructed Griffin Dunne to abstain from sex during the eight-week shoot to maintain a look of desire on screen. When Dunne broke this rule before filming the massage scene with Linda Fiorentino, Scorsese immediately detected it and reshot the sequence, demonstrating his attention to psychological authenticity in performance.
- •Production Origins: Writer Joseph Minion created the screenplay as his senior thesis at age 21, earning it as a film school project before it sold professionally. Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson's production company Triple Play brought the script to Scorsese along with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who had shot their previous film Baby It's You with Rosanna Arquette.
Notable Moment
The discussion reveals how Rosanna Arquette's extraordinary 1985 career peak in three major films (After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan, Silverado) mysteriously failed to translate into sustained stardom, with both hosts expressing confusion about why Hollywood didn't cast her in roles that went to Meg Ryan throughout the late eighties and early nineties.
Episode Transcript
This podcast is sponsored by PayPal. Let's talk holiday shopping. Make the most of your money with PayPal. They give you the flexibility to pay in four. No fees. No interest. So whether it's the must have toy or a tiered cheese board, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/payin for PayPal Inc n mls91045seven. The Rewatchables is brought to you by The Ringer Podcast Network. Find the big picture with Sean Fennessy. That is right. If you had been left out of New York month, I think I think people would have felt like we were feuding. Yeah. I gotta tell you. Feuding with Kendrick Perkins, apparently. So I don't know if I could have added you to the list. I would be in great company if I could join Perk in the feud, but, I'm very grateful to be invited here. It did cross my mind when you I'm usually, like, pretty chill about, like, Bill's gonna do whatever he wants to do with the Rewatchables. I love being on the show whenever. But when you announced New York month But it was we announced it two films in. It was, like, kind of belatedly became New York month. You know what it was? It wasn't even, am I gonna be on an episode? It was, is a New Yorker gonna be on an episode? That's I was like, if is John just trying to see him in here? You know? Have a New Yorker or anything? No. But it's Van? CR? I guess Kyle Brandt lives there. Kyle Kyle Brandt lived there. Chris did live there for a time. But native New Yorker, we don't have as many at The Ringer as you would think. I'm glad that's intentional because I do. I have final say in a lot of this stuff. I'm happy to be here regardless. Re rewatch what you could find on The Ringer Movie's YouTube channel, and you can find it as a video podcast on Spotify. We're videotaping this right now. The last episode of New York City month. NYC month, New York month, what do you what did we settle on for a title? Big Apple Broadcasting. Let's go. There you go. Yeah. We had to do this one. Martin Scorsese, After Hours, right after this. I told you. There's never been a comedy quite like After Hours, rapes People magazine, a racy, raucous ride through the night, bound to leave audiences reeling with laughter. Newsweek says, what a pleasure it is to watch Scorsese cook. He's masterful. His images sparkle. And the village voice calls it funny, original, and audacious. Yeah. After hours. I'm ready for kids. Rated r. Now at select theaters, coming soon to additional locations. This episode of the rewatchable is presented by Holiday Inn by IHG. It's a new day for a new stay at Holiday Inn for business travelers. Do you count as business …
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“Rosanna Arquette's extraordinary 1985 career peak in three major films (After Hours, Desperately Seeking Susan, Silverado)”
“Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson's production company Triple Play brought the script to Scorsese along with cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, who had shot their previous film Baby It's You with Rosanna Arquette”
- King of ComedyBy guest
by Martin Scorsese
“King of Comedy bombing, and Last Temptation of Christ's cancellation”
- The Last Temptation of ChristBy guest
by Martin Scorsese
“King of Comedy bombing, and Last Temptation of Christ's cancellation”
- After HoursBy guest
by Martin Scorsese
“Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey analyze Martin Scorsese's 1985 cult film After Hours, exploring how the $4.5 million production became a creative rejuvenation for Scorsese”
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