#1 A few months ago we were admiring the excellent Italian film “La Vita Bella”, and here we are talking about the subtle – in the form of a crime-comedy – French film “Taxi”. A great distributors’ move – to bring such a sophisticated work, a work within we can discover the vibes of some earlier French films which shaped the everyday ambient and the common people in it. Anyway, the Gall spirit is like that – delicate, subtle… so, such film is “Taxi”, also. The director of this film is Gerard Pires, but the script is signed by the great French film mag Jean Luc Besson, who is also the producer of this film.
The young French film, which (obviously) made the exit out of the creative crisis it was into for a few years, and (definitely) restored the shine of the “good old” French film. In new clothes, of course. The young film makers succeed to promote their view, through theirs contemporary screenwriting and fresh directing poetics, but not leaving behind the well known French spirit in the process. Here somewhere is Jean Luc Besson, as well (remember “Nikita”, “Le Grand Bleu”…). In this case, he promotes the young director, Pires, but it’s obvious that he didn’t let the situation out of his hands. So, we talk here about the Besson’s film by the Gerard Pires.
“Taxi” continues with the French tradition of cherishing the human morality. There is no room for the black&white picturing of the characters: the bad guy is the good guy also, and the good guy is the bad guy as well. French filmmakers often worked on the morality norms; and often, they put them into a ironic-humoresque frames, and they did come up with interesting results (characteristic only for the French mentality). So, here we have the following situation: the story about the birth of the unusual friendship between a guy, mad about the wild motoring through the streets of Marseilles, and the young and “clumsy” police inspector. They are simply driven by the situation, on each other. The “mad” taxi-driver breaks the traffic rules on regular bases. The “clumsy” inspector can’t handle in the most ordinary life situations, and he has this imperative, to make a break on the case of the German bank-robber gang who operate in Marseilles. And the France and Germany were on opposite sides in the last World War… Out of this, Besson makes extraordinary ironical situations about the attitude of the official French authorities on the German gang issue. But here, nor it ends, nor it begins – the humor-ironical play of this French filmmakers’ tandem. Starting with the style of the music sequences, then through the dynamical and mad stunt-driving of the pizza-delivery boys and their participation in the capturing the gang (the major breakers of the traffic rules cooperating with the police!), all until the last sequence when the police, decorating the “mad” driver, puts him in the racing car on its own team (so he can drive mad, so they have their favorite, and so he can’t break no traffic rules any more), Besson and Pires with a lot of humor and with the light and simple style film manner (but very subtle), give the viewer their look on the everyday routine. The audience can enjoy the high dynamics of the film, to relax with the freshness of the humor, but also to discover the enigmatic codes of this French film tandem (about the people, the newcomers, and about the friendship, love, and about the heroism and trust). A great deal of the credits must be acknowledged to the two great actors Sammy Nackery (the driver) and Frederick Dufantel (the police inspector).
In one word, here we have an extraordinary film, great script and high performed directing…
Translated by: Petar Volnarovski