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Waiting for Something to Happen in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter

Prior to the release in 1976 of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, based on Paul Schrader’s screenplay, the popular image in movies of taxi drivers were of amiable but somewhat chatty folk — prone to waffle on about the weather, politics or state of world affairs, while passengers did their best impression of accommodating politeness. In […]

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Feature Four Frames

Four Frames: The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)

You’ve got to have friends. “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” We all need to know who our real friends are. “I trust Mr. Brown, I do not trust Mr. Grey.” Friends in high places. “Make him an offer he can’t refuse …” Crime film aficionados will recognise the lingo, and feel they […]

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Feature Music & Film

Self-Isolation Soundtrack: The Music of If Beale Street Could Talk

So much of Barry Jenkins’ James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) looks and feels like Love. All its wonder and joyous trepidation and all its pain and fear. The intensity with which the characters of Tish and Fonny stare at each other, and by design, us, is palpable. The energy pierces the screen and […]

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Feature Screengem

Screengem: The Laughing Wallpaper in Scorsese’s The King of Comedy

Taxi Driver’s portrait of ’70s downtown New York, complete with neon signs and porno theatres flashing through the night, is an image that sticks with you like no other. Never before has a film so full of sexuality, rage and loneliness been kept at boiling point for so long, and Travis’ final howl of violence […]

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Feature

Wallpaper Wednesday | Taxi Driver

Here at The Big Picture we’re all about the joy and power of the cinematic image. What better way then to enjoy this widescreen wonder (apart from actually going to the cinema) than with a selection of carefully chosen movie-oriented wallpapers to download. This week, as the first tie-in to The Big Picture issue 10 […]