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passengers recognised him, apart from one failed actor who could not believe that De Niro, af- ter winning an Oscar, had to drive a taxi to survive! The icing on the cake, of course, was the previously not- ed scene and the line “you talk- in’ to me?” which De Niro add- ed himself, and for which he drew inspiration from Bruce Spring- steen. More precisely, a few days prior to shooting this scene, De Niro attended a concert of his and the audience did not want to go home, so Bruce finally appeared on stage for an encore and cool- ly asked: “Are you talkin’ to me?”. The rest is film history... Taxi Driver had a lot of luck. Schrader didn’t kill himself and his career took off, De Niro be- came a legend and Scorsese ce- mented his place in world cine- ma, but everything hadn’t been so great in the beginning. Com- poser Bernard Herrmann, a Holly- wood legend and the man who had written the music for Citizen Kane, Psycho, North by Northwest and many other cult films, agreed to re- cord the soundtrack for Taxi Driv- er and then died in his sleep just a few hours after finishing the work. Scorsese was also accused of pae- dophilia, with Jodie Foster – who plays an underage prostitute in the film – being only 14 at the time of shooting. This meant that a social worker was ever-present on the set. After its release the film gained another negative connotation, again linked to Foster , when a de- ranged fan of hers, John Hinckley Jr., in an effort to impress her and apparently inspired by Taxi Driver, attempted to assassinate U.S. Presi- dent Ronald Reagan. Reagan fortunately survived, just as Taxi Driver has survived for 40 years. However, if you ev- er happen to meet Robert de Niro, do not even jokingly ask “You talk- in’ to me?”. According to him, dur- ing these four decades there hasn’t been a journalist, actor, or ordinary passer-by who has failed to ask this in passing. Naturally, he de- veloped a serious aversion to this line, which will continue to inspire young filmmakers for at least an- other 40 years...

log glumca, koji nije mogao da veruje da De Niro po- sle Oskara mora da taksira da bi preživeo! Naravno, šlag na torti bila je već pomenuta scena i rečenica „You talkin’ to me“, koju je, dakle, De Niro sam ubacio, a za šta mu je inspiraciju dao Brus Sprin- gstin. Naime, nekoliko dana pre snimanja te scene, De Niro je bio na koncertu, publika nije htela kući, a Brus je konačno izašao na bis i šmekerski upitao: „Vi se to meni obraćate?“. Ostalo je filmska istorija… Taksista je imao mnogo sreće, Šreder se nije ubio, naprotiv, karijera mu je krenula uzbrdo, De Niro je postao legenda, Skorseze je zacementirao svoje me- sto u svetskoj kinematografiji, ali nije sve bilo tako sjajno u početku. Kompozitor Bernard Herman, le- genda Holivuda, čovek koji je napisao muziku za Građanina Kejna , Psiho , Sever–severozapad i mnoge druge kultne filmove, pristao je da snimi saundtrek za Taksistu , a umro u snu samo nekoliko sati nakon što je završio delo. Potom su Skorsezea optužili za pedofiliju jer je Džodi Foster, maloletna prostitutka u filmu, imala u vreme snimanja tek 14 godina, pa je na setu bio prisutan i socijalni radnik. Film je dobio još jednu ružnu konotaciju, koja je opet imala veze sa Fo- sterovom. Njen poremećeni obožavalac Džon Hinkli Junior, u želji da je impresionira, navodno je baš in- spirisan Taksistom pokušao da ubije američkog pred- sednika Ronalda Regana. No, Regan je, srećom, preživeo, baš kao i Taksista, koji živi punih 40 godina. Ali ako ikada sretnete Ro- berta de Nira, nemojte ga ni u šali pitati: „You talkin’ to me?“. Kako kaže, za ove četiri decenije nije bilo ni novinara, ni glumca, ni običnog prolaznika koji mu to nije dobacio u prolazu. Razvio je, razumljivo, ozbilj- nu alergiju na tu rečenicu, koja će mlade filmadžije inspirisati bar još 40 godina…

„Taksista“ je film u kojem danas teško da biste uopšte mogli da prepoznate Njujork. Taj grad više nije mesto opakih ulica i davno je doživeo renesansu

Taxi Driver is a film in which you would barely be able to recognise today’s New York. That city is no longer one of mean streets and has long since experienced a renaissance

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