Taxi Driver

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1976, 113 min
Section: Out of the Past

Synopsis

Travis Bickle is an ex-Marine who suffers from insomnia after returning from Vietnam, so he takes work as a late-night taxi driver. While endlessly cruising the "mean streets” of New York, he constantly comes up against violence, drugs, and sex for sale. Long traumatized and frustrated, Travis becomes more and more determined to take radical action. And his encounters with the elegant Betsy, a volunteer working on Senator Palantine’s presidential campaign, and with an underage prostitute named Iris, inadvertently strengthen his resolve. The film garnered the Palme d’Or at the Cannes IFF in 1976. At the BAFTAs, composer Bernard Herrmann’s score took an award, while Jodie Foster came away with two prizes; in addition, she and the director each won a special David di Donatello award. The festival will present one of the most influential titles of postwar American cinema in a uniquely restored version.

About the director

Martin Scorsese (b. 1942, Queens, New York City) has maintained his creative status in the style of classic Hollywood, although he wasn’t awarded an Oscar for directing until his drama The Departed (2006). The respected director, who is also a producer and documentary filmmaker (e.g. A Letter to Elia, 2010), is at ease in all the classic genres, including melodrama (The Age of Innocence, 1993), musical (New York, New York, 1977), biopic (The Aviator, 2004), comedy (The King of Comedy, 1982), and drama (Taxi Driver, 1976; Raging Bull, 1980; Shutter Island, 2010). A question pervades his work concerning the value of a moral imperative in a violent, chaotic world devoid of rules, as seen in Mean Streets (1973) and other gangster offerings: Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Departed.