Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)

When I released I Stand Alone in 1998, many people compared it to Taxi Driver, probably because it’s about a lonely loser, and there is a voiceover. But if it was inspired by Taxi Driver, it was not in a conscious way, apart from when he goes to see a porn movie.

There is something in Taxi Driver that talks to me a lot, though. There are two characters in movies that I wish I could be, the astronaut in 2001 and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. For me he’s a superhero, or a super antihero, that I wish I was. I really like the performance of De Niro. I’m usually more obsessed by the directors than the actors of movies, but in the case of Taxi Driver, all is one – the story, Scorsese and De Niro. Along with Four Months, Three Weeks And Two Days, those are my two favourite Cannes Palme D’Or winners.