Have you had a chance to chat with him?
Robert De Niro shared that he never anticipated his 1976 film, Taxi Driver, would be recognized as a classic. “I can never think of myself as doing anything that has an impact,” the 82-year-old actor told Page Six during a recent interview. He was with his friends, and Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Festival, is set to promote the event coming up next month.
De Niro reflected on how he played Travis Bickle, an unstable taxi driver dealing with crumbling mental health in the film directed by Martin Scorsese. He starred alongside notable talents like Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, and Albert Brooks.
Back then, the film stirred controversy for its graphic violence—Jodie Foster was notably only 12 years old when she portrayed a child sex worker, and it was later linked to John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.
Despite the initial backlash, the film is now hailed as one of the greatest ever made. In 1994, the Library of Congress recognized it as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and preserved it in the National Film Registry. This year marks the film’s 50th anniversary, and a screening is planned for June, during which De Niro and Scorsese, who is 83, will discuss the movie.
This discussion is just one of the many special events planned for the upcoming 25th Tribeca Festival. Alongside De Niro and Scorsese, the festival will feature interviews with celebrities like Madonna, Sean Penn, and Josh Safdie, as well as special screenings of films like The Cable Guy and Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Rosenthal mentioned, “There’s a lot of great stuff,” including music from artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Sara Bareilles. She emphasized that the festival is designed to welcome all New Yorkers, stating, “There’s a lot to see.” Tickets for the event are available now.
Starting from June 3 to June 14, this annual festival was created back in 2002 as a means to help revitalize Lower Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
