on the set of their first film togeth- er: Mean Streets. You can guess that those streets were actually the streets of New York, or more pre- cisely Little Italy. If we consider that De Niro refused to budge from New York, and only went to Holly- wood because “he had to because of filming”, it is no wonder that the Big Apple plays one of the main roles in their films. Taxi Driver is a film in which you would barely be able to recog- nise today’s New York. That city is no longer one of mean streets and has long since experienced its re- naissance, and from this perspec- tive it is almost impossible to im- agine the time in which the film emerged. It is also difficult to im- agine the circumstances in which the character of Travis Bickle was born in the mind of Paul Schrader. A few years prior to the film’s pre- miere, the screenwriter was him- self just a step away from total de- spair. His wife had kicked him out; he lost his job, lived in a car, drank De Niro and Scorsese are not just two brilliant artists who have made eight films together; they are guys from the same neighbourhood, from Little Italy
„You talkin’ to me?“ replika je koju je De Niro sam ubacio u film, a inspiraciju mu je dao Brus Springstin “You talkin’ to me?” is a line that De Niro added himself, but he drew inspiration from Bruce Springsteen
to excess and ended up in hospital and on death’s door with a perforat- ed ulcer. He then decided not to kill himself, but rather to write a sto- ry that would end up, a year later, in the hands of Brian de Palma, who would send it on to Scorsese. However, a lot of good fortune was required for Taxi Driver to find itself on the big screen, because no- body in Hollywood wanted to pro- duce such a dark and problemat- ic film. It gained wind in its sails thanks to another creation which conquered the film world at that time, the Sting, which brought mar- ried producers Michael and Julia Phillips seven Oscars and an excel- lent contract with Columbia Pic- tures. So they “dared” to produce Taxi Driver. Of course, the budget was piti- ful, at just over a million dollars, so a question arose as to whether De Niro, who was offered only $35,000 for the role, would agree to shoot for that amount of money, given that he had just won his first Oscar for the role of Vito Corleone in The Godfather II. However, De Niro the genius not only agreed, but al- so spent a month working as a taxi driver on the streets of New York. During that time, despite having become world-famous, none of his
Gore: Niko na setu nije voleo Sibil Šepard. Zabavljala se sa Piterom Bogdanovičem i bila nesnosno uobražena Dole: De Niro je pristao da snima film za samo 35.000 dolara liked Cybill Shepard. She was going out with Peter Bogdanovich, and was unbearably conceited Above: De Niro was offered only $35,000 for the role Top: Nobody
A full 40 years have elapsed since Robert de Niro stood in front of a mirror, drew a gun and asked, “You talkin’ to me?” That sentence, which subse- quently stuck to him like a second name, was his own addition to the film’s script. It seemed to him that Travis Bickle needed to say some- thing, but neither Martin Scors- ese nor Paul Schrader had a better idea. De Niro improvised, and the question went down in the history of cinematography, along with the actor who uttered it and the afore- mentioned director and screenwrit- er. Taxi Driver won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1976 and changed the world of moving pictures forever. However, De Niro and Scorsese are not just two brilliant artists who have made eight films together, all of which have entered the annals of movie history; they are guys from the same neighbourhood. They grew up just a hundred metres apart in an area of New York known as Little Italy, but they only met
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