"One of the Few Truly Modern Horror Films"

"I had a series of things falling apart, a breakdown of my marriage, a dispute with the AFI, I lost my reviewing job. I didn't have any money and I took to drifting, more or less living in my car, drinking a lot, fantasizing. The Pussycat Theater in L.A. would be open all night long, and I'd go there to sleep. Between the drinking and the morbid thinking and the pornography, I went to the emergency room with a bleeding ulcer. I was about 27, and when I was in the hospital, I realized I hadn't spoken to anyone in almost a month. So that's when the metaphor of the taxi cab occurred to me—this metal coffin that moves through the city with this kid trapped in it who seems to be in the middle of society but is in fact all alone. I knew if I didn't write about this character I was going to start to become him—if I hadn't already. So after I got out of the hospital, I crashed at an ex-girlfriend's place, and I just wrote continuously. The first draft was maybe 60 pages, and I started the next draft immediately, and it took less than two weeks."

For the movie's fortieth anniversary, Gregg Kilday in The Hollywood Reporter presents an oral history of Taxi Driver.

As Far Back as I Can Remember, I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster

"Yes, indeed, The Godfather is masterful. The Sopranos? We never missed an episode. But you want to talk about a movie that leaves a mark? Twenty years after the release of GoodFellas, the good people behind it—Scorsese, Liotta, De Niro!—re-create the making of the truest, bloodiest, greatest gangster film of all time."

GQ asks the cast and crew to reminisce.

Eight Is Enough

Liam at sententiae et clamores has tagged The Late Adopter with the "eight meme," so here goes: 

8 Passions in my life: Mrs. Late Adopter and Late Adopter, Jr.; friends; history; music; movies; books; art; ideas. 

8 Things to do before I die: Raise Late Adopter, Jr.; finish my degree; publish a book; get stable employment; pay off debts; learn to play guitar; travel the world; and take Mrs. Late Adopter back to Paris. 

8 Things I often say: "What's the matter, Baby C?" "That's a big yawn for a little girl"; "Should I check her diaper?"; "What do you want to eat?"; ''Do you want to get coffee?"; "Wake me up in half an hour"; "OK, let's pick up where we left off last time"; and "Any questions?" 

8 Books I read (or reread) recently: Alternadad by Neal Pollack; Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979 by Tim Lawrence; Hotel California: The True-life Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and Their Many Friends by Barney Hoskins; The Who's The Who Sell Out by John Dougan; The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico, by Joe Harvard; Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott; The Ramones' Ramones by Nicholas Rombes; and 300 student bluebooks. 

8 Films that mean something to me: The Limey; The Filth and the Fury; The Royal Tenenbaums; Gangs of New York; Bad Santa; Mayor of the Sunset Strip; The Squid and the Whale; and Art School Confidential. 

8 Songs that mean something to me: "Hideaway" by The Olivia Tremor Control; "Swastika Eyes" by Primal Scream; "Digital Love" by Daft Punk; "(Drawing) Rings Around the World" by Super Furry Animals; "In da Club" by 50 Cent; "Yeah!" by Usher; "Come On/Let's Go" by Paul Weller; and "Country Girl" by Primal Scream. 

8 Living people I'd like to have as dinner guests: Tina Fey; Debbie Harry; Christopher Hitchens; Nick Hornby; Ralph Nader; Simon Reynolds; Chris Rock; and Martin Scorsese. 

8 People I'm passing this on to: The Late Adopter tags Rain seven times plus one.