TAXI!!!

For those of you who endured the yearly early hours ritual of trying to get a cab ride home, Richard Mellor - ignoring many an obvious car-chase, and various insignificant cab-cameos - journeys through cinematic history and hails the very best scenes involving paid-for rides. Here are his tips:

1. On The Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) - I could’ve been a contender…

The daddy of all cinema scenes involving a taxi-cab, this cracker sees Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) and brother Charley (Rod Steiger) having a powerful, fluctuating conversation about Terry's life, which peaks as Terry comes to lament his lost career as a boxer. This was Brando at the height of his powers; the intensity with which he delivers his damning self-edict is fiercely affecting. Yet this was a scene the later Oscar-winner was reluctant to film; only when the emphasis on Charley’s gun was lessened did Brando consent to the cameras rolling. And thank God he did - rarely can one life have been so honestly analysed during a solitary cab ride.

2. Une Femme Mariée (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964) Marxism, and quickly please

One of Godard’s less known films, this black-and-white upsets a standard love triangle, with a woman torn between two men for once. As she ponders her choice, a taxi transports Charlotte (Macha Méril) across a suddenly cosmopolitan Paris. Massively capitalist icons compete for her attention; huge billboards, bright shop adverts and multiple commercial outlets loom out of the window. The taxi appears to carry Charlotte across ages and times, showcasing a Paris that has changed irreversibly. Perhaps in a nod to Godard’s film, a similar journey later enraptures another Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), as she is driven around in Tokyo, in Sofia Coppola’s more recent film Lost In Translation.

3. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) What a .44 Magnum will do to a woman…

There are a few to choose from, but Taxi Driver has one cab-scene that really sticks in the memory. Scorsese himself plays the worst of many New York nasties that we meet, a passenger who makes De Niro's driver look as scary as Jodie Foster. As the passenger's wife apparently commits adultery in the building above the cab, the husband calmly reveals his plan to slay his cheating spouse. With the camera focused mainly the back of Travis’ head, his passenger’s vows genuinely unnerve with their combination of anger and placidity. This violent example of everyday life resurges constantly in all Scorsese’s New York films, but rarely as menacingly as in this vision.

4. Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) Why it’s best to rent a car when abroad

The opening scenes of Argento’s horror resonate with undeniable power. Young American Suzy (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany and quietly crosses an airport floor eerily filled with both relentless bustle and sudden slow-motion. Outside in the torrential rain, Suzy fails to stop a cab until she stands in front of one; after the driver refuses to help with her luggage, the pair set off on a despairingly quiet journey. The tension is acute; Suzy is in a foreign limbo, beyond the aid of language or common culture. It’s one of those potent early moments that perfectly establish a film’s scary tone and atmosphere, and just as terrifying as the witches and deaths that follow.

5. Dressed To Kill (Brian De Palma, 1980) How to get two rides in one taxi

During one day, Kate (Angie Dickinson) loses her gloves, gets rejected by her shrink, fails to excite her husband, gets insulted, contracts a sexual disease and is slashed to death. Within this destruction though, she does manage to meet an apparently nice guy in a museum. So nice that the pair hop in a cab and indulge in a little cross-town nookie, as their driver takes care of the traffic. It’s a seriously erotic scene, lodged inside a seriously strange film. De Palma is trying to pay homage to Hitchcock through his movie; but while old Alf did use cabs often in his films, it’s hard to envisage Cary Grant being quite this antisocial. Keep your belt on, Angie!

6. Night On Earth (Jim Jarmusch, 1991) Two outsiders meet inside one taxi

Though Jarmusch’s exploration of night cabbies around the world offers five taxi scenes, one truly lingers in the memory. It’s Paris again, as a dejected Beninese driver (Isaach De Bankole) kicks out two Ivory Coast diplomats after they racially insult him and picks up a blind young French girl (Beatrice Dalle), who seems to pose no threat. But the girl is sassy and perceptive, increasingly upsetting the curious driver’s calm. She seems unwilling to talk; he can’t help but ask questions. Both are on the edge of Paris society and inwardly vulnerable as a result. As the intrusive camera explores every angle, an improbable, touching bond builds between the pair.

7. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) What’s it like to kill a man, Butch?

Fresh from ending the career, and life, of opponent Floyd Wilson, grisly boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) drops down into a garbage bin and flees his crime lord boss in a pre-arranged cab. Along the way, nosy driver Esmerelda Villalobos (Angela Jones) wishes to know how it feels to end a life; Butch barters for a cigarette, changes his sweaty garb and spills the beans. This isolated scene contains all that’s brilliant about Tarantino’s mural of LA crime life; fantastic conversation; a clash of unreal characters; and simmering tension. Esmerelda drives off into the night, while Butch chases after a watch; their journey stands as a moment of calm in a stormy story.

8. Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004) I can't drive you around while you're killing folks

And the award for longest taxi ride in one film goes to… In this most recent addition to the cab canon, honest Max (Jamie Foxx) gets the fare every driver dreads; ferrying around hitman Vincent as he slays seven LA citizens, gleefully enlisting Max’s help en route. The pair start off in a tense silence; soon enough they are blabbering like best friends, debating the value of life and love. Mann’s film contains many a snappy line, elegant discussion of the virtues of La La Land and sizzling, poetic moments of action. But it’s the tone of the car journey that is the film's highlight; the bleak city flashing by is a barren, soulless place, and far more evil than Vincent...

If you can’t catch those films, here are some other instances of memorable lifts:

North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) - As famous now for its glitches as its tension, Hitchcock’s was probably the first taxi-pursues-taxi scene in history. As the cabs sway and ululate through the traffic, so does the camera, in marvellously disconcerting fashion.

Carry On Cabby (Gerald Thomas, 1963) - In an under-rated Carry On film, Thomas’ battle of taxi empires and sexes relies more on droll wit than cheap gags. But the final ‘chase’ scene around a field is just as hilarious as any scene in the comedies’ celebrated lifetime.

Ghost Dad (Sidney Poitier, 1990) - Elliott Hopper exits his house, enters a crazed cabbie’s vehicle and is promptly involved in a fatal car crash. His released spirit then sets about healing his life’s ailing relationships. One of the shorter and more terminal taxi rides in cinema history.

The Big Lebowski (Ethan Coen, 1998) - In a film full of standout scenes, this cab ride is in fact less memorable than most. But still it’s wildly funny; fresh from a Malibu sergeant’s beating, Lebowski riskily asks his volatile cabbie to change the music - “Not the fucking Eagles, man.”

Brother (Takeshi Kitano, 2000) - Kitano himself plays a Japanese man visiting the US whose taxi driver hospitably offers to help find some babes. Kitano, speaking no English, cannot respond, incurring his host’s ire. The scene, later replayed, stresses their cultural divide.

Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002) - As we go backwards in time, one of the initial scenes sees couple Alex and Marcus being ferried to a gay club called Le Rectum on a revenge mission. But Marcus cannot contain his rage long enough; the terrified cabbie violently suffers his anger.

Richard Mellor