THE POWER OF STILLNESS

I just went to see the new print of Taxi Driver at the Film Forum.......I've seen it many times on DVD, but not for many years up on the big screen..........it always surprises me how much difference seeing a film in a theater makes. I remember seeing Citizen Kane on the big screen for the first time.  I was floored by the power of the imagery that took on a different dimension when viewed through the wonder of the big screen. I truly understood the immense impact and magnitude of Welles accomplishment as a film maker and how it changed the way we think of telling stories.....

In seeing Taxi Driver again, I was struck by the stillness of the film and the performances.  If I would think of this film, stillness is not what I remembered.  It is often portrayed as more frenetic and a bit over the top.  But what I found to be so jarring and powerful, was the quiet intensity instilled within every image and every performance.  Combined with the poetic masterpiece of Bernard Herman's last and greatest score, the film carries you into another realm, dizzying in it's poetic brilliance.  Even DeNiro's famous  "you talkin' to me" scene, is underplayed.  After hearing it so many times and seeing so many comedians parody it, it takes on a different and almost comic  sense.  I was overwhelmed by De Niro's underplaying of the character.  Every scene, and every interaction was built on a quiet stillness and intensity.  Even the violence which was so shocking at the time, was shocking to me because of its relative underplayed intensity.  Compared to the non stop gun play and violence of so many current films, this movie stands out  by it's shocking but quick and underwhelming massacre.  That's what makes it seems so real. A small and lost taxi driver shooting several small and lost people, and life goes on. Not such a big story.  And as the film ends, several small articles in different newspapers, no glaring headline NY Post covers or glorified press fueled heroics, just a few small articles.   This makes the story much more intimate and at the same time, it elevates it to metaphoric status.............but what continues to haunt my memory, is that unique stillness................it makes me realize the power in performances and images that are free to linger and sit, and slowly work their way into your subconscious.  The new fascination with quick cutting, loud music, and overblown emotions, hammer us with a moronic emotional palette which quickly becomes false and overbearing.  When stillness is allowed to live and breath, a truth rarely seen, begins to creep into our psyche and a deeper understanding of human nature is allowed.

In life as well as art, I think the lesson of stillness, quietness, and listening instead of posturing would go a long way in helping us all understand ourselves and each other a little better.